Secret of the Silver Blades

The Good
I found the linear thread of game play easier to follow... fight, next place, fight, next place, upgrade equipment, repeat. The classic dungeon crawl view with the top-down combat view of all Gold Box games is still used and still looks good. I love the ability to move your characters and plan your attacks/defense in the turn-based combat. I can honestly say that I never got bored due to the game being to easy while also not being discouraged with it being too hard.

The Bad
I found some of the battles to be rather lengthy. There were a few bugs but as the main bug actually benefited me I can't complain - one of my characters was granted the effects of a vorpal sword no matter what weapon was used (a vorpal sword has a chance of one-hit decapitation of an enemy).

The Bottom Line
A fun hack and slash romp through 2nd Edition AD&D Forgotten Realms. There are critics that say that by the time this, the third in the series, was released the interface was showing its age but I disagree and feel that the graphics are rather secondary to a well written and diverse game such as this. I also like that no knowledge of the prior games is necessary but it adds a depth if you've played them.