5 seconds
5 seconds was the life span of my first character that I generated for this game.
5 seconds
5 seconds is the amount of time you have to decide what it is that you would like to do. The game advertises itself as a turn-based game however if you do nothing in 5 seconds the game decides for you. Most of the time this results in a random encounter with a level 4 giant or a level 3 vampire. Seriously. On my turn I may do 5 damage if I am lucky while they kill me in one blow.
Telengard was developed by Microcomputer Games and published by Avalon Hill. It was released in 1982 for the Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80. It was ported to the Atari and Commodore 64 in 1983 and for DOS in 1985.
I was very excited to play this game. I remember seeing the game on store shelves and hearing that the game was hard and it’s “world” vast.
The game advertises itself as a “rogue-like” but trying to compare this game to Rogue is like comparing an apple to an orange.
You begin the game by randomly rolling up character stats and then choosing a name. Once the game begins you find yourself at the bottom of the stairs. There is usually an encounter before you’ve even taken a step. I believe my first character encountered a Level 3 Vampire at the foot of the stairs. It drained my blood, drained my experience (instantly killing me) and drained my enthusiasm to continue.
This went on for some time. I believe I went through 15 characters in roughly 25 minutes.
Telengard is the 109th game I’ve played and reviewed while on my retro-game journey and it is also the most disappointing game that I’ve played to date. I know this will cause some ire with many but it’s true. There are multiple things about this game that bothered me greatly.
- I didn’t like the randomness of the wandering monsters. I could just stay at the foot of the stairs and every 5 seconds I may experience an encounter with a wandering monster. It could range from a skeleton to dragons, giants, and vampires; some at extremely high levels of experience. I found a Ring of Regeneration +1 at the foot of the stairs and an Elven Cloak +2 at the foot of the stairs. I felt like I was in a Monty Haul campaign or that the Dungeon Master was drunk.
- If this is indeed a “rogue-like” game then let me choose my character class and race. Let me manage and experiment with my inventory. Instead what Telengard does is replace your current inventory item with a new item that you find. So if you found a Ring of Regeneration +1 and then later found a Ring of Protection +1; the Ring of Protection would replace the Ring of Regeneration; which simply disappears from your inventory. Any choice is taken away from you.
- The completionist in me desperately wanted to map out the dungeon level. There was no time to map the game out! You have to make a decision within 5 seconds or the computer makes one for you. Why even bother to explore when you can just stand there at the foot of the stairs and randomly encounter foes every 5 seconds? So I gave up the notion of trying to complete some sort of map. There is no pause feature in the game and you CAN save the game but when you open the SAVE file it erases the file; so permadeath is very real with this game.
- I did not care for the way experience was handled in the game as well. You receive very little experience for the monsters you slay but if you find gold and you climb the stairs to the surface the game converts your gold to experience points. I never lived long enough to get very high enough in levels.
- This leads to my biggest complaint about the game. There is absolutely zero reason to play. There is no plot. There is no quest. There is no challenge to reach a particular level. There are no special beasts to slay. It is just a completely random Monty Haul campaign running at a speed of 5 seconds per turn. I don’t understand why Avalon Hill didn’t push for the developer to add some sort of quest or storyline. Zero. Zilch. Nada
I have gone out of my way to find the value and to appreciate the art form with every single game that I have played during this entire experience. I was able to take something positive away from every single game experience. I sadly cannot say the same for Telengard. A game like this is simply not for me in any way, shape or form. I completely understand that playing and reviewing these games is a subjective experience. I am also sure that Telengard likely has a fan base as well. I, however, am not one of them.
No story, no quest, no goal and no minimal level advancement had me putting in the minimal amount of time required with what was a “non-rogue-like” and NON-turn-based game despite being advertised to the contrary. If I were to succumb to negativity and create a Worst Game of the Year Award; I would have to give it to this game.