The Final Crusade of Kroz

The Good
In the Eighties, Scott Miller entered a national gaming contest where one of the games he made was an action/adventure game. Entitled Kingdom of Kroz, the object of the game is to go around a series of dungeons in search for a valuable item. The sprites were made entirely with the IBM PC character set, and the PC Speaker was put to good use. The game’s popularity warranted a series of these games over the years, with each game introducing new features.

What sets the Kroz games apart from Miller’s previous creations is they were also one of the first games to use ‘The Apogee Model’, a scheme where the first episode would be free to distribute, while other volumes, such as Caverns of Kroz and Dungeons of Kroz required payment. This scheme was embraced by Apogee’s rivals, namely Epic MegaGames.

Final Crusade of Kroz is the sixth game in the series, and also the third game in the ‘Super Kroz Trilogy’. For those not unfamiliar with the series, you control a protagonist whipping his way through a series of chambers, searching for valuable items ranging from magic amulets to holy grails. You can collect several items that will help you accomplish your task, and are faced with hazards and traps, of which one of the popular invisible enemy generators.

The game not only features moving terrain, more monsters, and new traps, but also introduces boulders and electrified barriers. These two things don’t mix; if you push a boulder onto a barrier, it will destroy it. But in some levels, these boulders play an important role in solving puzzles, since you have to push them a certain way and in the correct order to get to the exit. Other puzzles require you to find your way around in the dark.

Usually, the valuable item in all the Kroz games can be found in the last chamber. In this case, it is the ‘Fountain of Youth’. One thing that I found humorous is that the game tricks the player into thinking that they are collecting this important item in chamber twenty, when the game actually continues for another five levels.

Final Crusade is designed to run on any computer, no matter what CPU and speed. However, I found that when running the game on anything higher than a 296, the monsters move at a much faster rate than they do on a original, unexpanded IBM PC. Also, it does not matter whether you have a color graphics card or not, although the graphics are not as detailed in monochrome mode.

The Bad
When you teleport in a room where you are literally surrounded by monsters, it is hard to see yourself where you end up.

The Bottom Line
The Final Crusade of Kroz plays very much like its predecessors, but with a few features added here and there. The game utilizes the IBM PC character set, meaning that anybody can play the game, no matter what type of hardware they are playing it on. The game was supposed to be the final Kroz game, but fans of the series wanted more, and so Miller caved in and released this gem, which is much bigger than any Kroz game to date.