PORTRALIS Review

[Big Al]

I had heard of Portrailis a bit before, but never really looked into it. After a quick try, I must say that it's quite awesome. Takes all the hack&slash fun from Angband and put it in a full RPG setting - everything down to the traditional 'kill the rats in the tavern' quest. I skimmed over the story for now, but it looks seriously well developed. I'm very impressed; I wonder how I never looked into it before?

With TJA's compilation instructions for unix, it ran just fine.

Yet another case of the 'too many variants, too little time' syndrome, I think. I'm definitely going to have to take a closer look at this once I get back from vacation.

[Daven_26d1]

"Kill the rats in the tavern"?

Are we talking a gritty, Baldurs Gate / D&D feel then, or something a bit more light-hearted? How "unfinished" is the world / plot?

[Lipa]

The quests are very nicely done, and they fit well in the general story. As to the "unfinished" status, well, so far the story (plot & quests) is completed up to a certaint point. So in a sense, you can play, say, the first 2 chapters out of 10 for now... But even this part of the story feels like a rounded-up section - the game doesn't just end in the middle of something. There's a powerful boss waiting at the end, which presents a nice conclusion.

However, the game also allows you to simply take a break from the story and just go on dungeon-diving (Vanilla style) whenever you feel like it. There are lots of randomly generated dungeons lying around the wilderness which could (and would) occupy you forever. From this straightforward dungeon-diving point of view, the variant *is* quite finished, and you can test various character builds and different strategies (and have lots of fun in doing so!) without actually completing a single quest!

Bandobras, thanks for all the comments, though I hope they won't scare away possible newcomers. Remember, a much better place to offer advice and bug reports is the Portralis forum. You're most welcome there! As to most of the errors you mentioned - it's true that the variant is not that polished at the moment (in terms of cosmetics), but this is somewhat understandable. In the current stage of the project, Variaz is paying much more attention to the game mechanics and gameplay, and I agree with him that these are the first priority.

You're all welcome to stop by the Portralis forums! Much help / advice can be found there, and your comments and bug reports will also be most appreciated!

Cheers!

[Bandobras]

Unfortunately, I don't have time for another forum. But I will mail the new bug reports to Variaz himself. I only fear most of what I report is already fixed in the secret development versions, so my work will be in vain. Oh, well...

Edit: I've sent you a p.m. Thank you, noble maintainer, again.

[Variaz]

Efforts are always appreciated, and you're welcome to send me emails. Thanks for trying out my variant!