Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager
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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Masterpiece Collection
(1996) -
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun Series
(2015)
Description official description
After defeating the Drajian army, four former gladiator slaves journey to the recently liberated city of Tyr, whose evil sorcerer-king Kalak was recently slain. Although freed from Kalak's tyranny, Tyr is now defenseless against the ambition of the Dragon, a creature that came into existence as a transformation of a malevolent mage. The Dragon sends his powerful undead general the Lord Warrior to Tyr to conquer it and prepare for his coming. The heroes hook up with a rebel underground known as the Veiled Alliance and must oppose the Draxans and the Lord Warrior, while they are being secretly observed by the Dragon through his crystal ball. The party soon learns that the Dragon may be the least of their worries, however, as it becomes apparent that the Lord Warrior has his own hidden agenda and intends to unleash a long dormant monster of immense destructive power upon the world.
Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager is a direct sequel to Shattered Lands. It has the same engine and basic gameplay as the original game, with slight graphical improvements (such as larger character sprites). Like its predecessor, this game is a departure from the earlier Gold Box Dungeons & Dragons games: instead of a first-person "maze game" focusing on dungeon crawling, the game has a third-person top-down view with more of a focus on interacting with the characters and environment. Battles are turn-based and take place in the same environment as exploration, with player-controlled and enemy parties being navigated in a tactical fashion. Character creation and party management are identical to those of the first game.
Since the sequel continues the story of the first game directly, player-controlled characters start at higher levels or can be imported from the previous game. As a result, the level cap is higher and characters are able to learn more powerful spells as mages, clerics, and masters of psionic disciplines. Compared to the predecessor, the second game has a more focused and linear plot: certain areas become open for exploration only after specific events have been triggered. However, there are still several optional areas with various sub-quests in them. Also, the game has a more distinct urban environment, with the city of Tyr serving as its central hub where most of the major quests originate.
Groups +
- Dungeons & Dragons (D&D / AD&D) licensees
- Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting: Dark Sun
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Elves
- Fantasy creatures: Halflings / Hobbits
- Gameplay feature: Importable characters
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Sound Engine: AIL / Miles Sound System
- Theme: Psychic powers / Psionics
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
60 People (58 developers, 2 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 72% (based on 12 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 19 ratings with 2 reviews)
Pretty sweet, but plagued with problems.
The Good
The graphics were nice for the time, the gameplay itself was pretty good, it had a quasi-okay plot, and it was pretty addicting.
The Bad
Randomly, Wake of the Ravager would have game-stopping bugs, a re-install would take care of the first bug, but another would pop up, I must've played and reinstalled the game 30 or more times, but never beat it. Came close though I think...
The Bottom Line
Okay, if game-stopping bugs won't piss you off.
DOS · by Joe Jackson (2) · 2003
The solid sequel to Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
The Good
There's actually a lot to like about this game. It uses the same interface as Shattered Lands, but has better graphics, sounds, and music. There are also more weapons and spells that you can acquire. The game's interface, then, is its best feature. You can play with a pregenerated party, or you can create your own party of 4. You choose from several races, each with advantages and disadvantages. The races are: elf, human, half-elf, dwarf, halfling, half-giant, mul, and thri-kreen. The mul is similar to a cross between a human and a dwarf, while the thri-kreen is a large mantid-like creature. There are 6 stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. These stats do not increase with levels, so its best to set them as high as possible. The inventory system is very simple: the screen shows a character portrait, with corresponding slots for armor and weapons. You can also use containers. Combat is very simple, and Wake of the Ravager has included some cool combat music and sounds. Enemies croak and scream with each hit, making it all the more funner to fight.
The Bad
The version I have is the AD&D Masterpiece Collection CD version. The music plays off of the CD. This is nice, but annoying because the game does not always load with music. And without music, it's not all that great wandering about. Also, I had problems trying to enter the 2nd level of the Tyr Mines. The game would constantly lock up after taking the elevator. (I still have no idea how to fix that). Finally, the most annoying thing is the stupid dragon that shows up everytime you enter a new screen. It's basically a loading screen, but the dragon always has some lame quote, like: "Arr...they've returned too soon..." or "...friendship, I must study this." It gets pretty annoying. Also, the ending really stinks...
The Bottom Line
If you liked Shattered Lands, you'll probably like Wake of the Ravager. Heck, if you liked Baldur's Gate, you'll probably like this game. There are many similarities between the two: the ability to pregenerate a party, the map-by-map travel, the turn-based fighting.
DOS · by willyum (1019) · 2001
Trivia
Character transfer
Because you can transfer characters from the previous game into this game, it can create a balance problem at the beginning of the game where your characters are somewhat stronger than they should be. (Although they're not all that stronger, the maximum level you could reach in Shattered Lands was lvl 9, and starting characters in this game begin at lvl 6-7).
The designers addressed this by giving monsters twice as many hit points if you use transferred characters. This is fine at the start of the game, but gets unfair by the time you reach the final boss.
Cover art
The striking cover (and title screen) artwork is a piece by Brom originally used as the cover to the 1992 Slave Tribes Dark Sun supplement book, TSR product #2404.
Plot stopper
There's a particularly nasty game-killing bug that prevents you from finishing the game about halfway through. It seems to crop up most frequently on the masterpiece jewel case edition.
In the mines, when you try to use the elevator, the game will freeze on the level loading screen. This occurs even if you load from an earlier save game and try it again. Since you need to use the elevator to get further into the game, this essentially halts your progress.
You can actually get around this by kicking out all of your party members except one, using the elevator with that one character, then re-hiring all your party members once you reach the bottom of the mine shaft.
Information also contributed by Pseudo_Intellectual
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Related Sites +
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Dark sun online: The age of heroes
The first two games in the series are free to download along with the manual, game music and a strategy guide for each game. (archived)
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Alan Chan.
Additional contributors: Alexander Schaefer, Wizo, Thomas Helsing, Patrick Bregger.
Game added February 7, 2001. Last modified November 2, 2024.