Sil released

getter77 brian13137 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 4 10:17:29 PST 2012


http://www.amirrorclear.net/flowers/game/sil/

Win/Mac/Source

"Sil is a computer role-playing game with a strong emphasis on
discovery and tactical combat. It has a simple but rich combat system
which allows for a great variety of choice: should you wear heavy
armour that makes you easier to hit but reduces the damage you take?
should you wield heavier weapons to overcome your opponents’ armour,
or wield lighter weapons for more accuracy and a greater chance of
critical hits? It depends on the situation and the type of character
you become. You will also have the chance to retreat back into shadowy
corridors to take the enemy one by one, or to stealthily creep up to
your opponent and take him unawares.

It is also one of very few games that stays true to the writings of
Tolkien. Carefully researched, it dispenses with many generic fantasy
tropes and reveals a different world. There are no wizards or priests,
no platemail or magical scrolls. Instead, it is the Norse Saga
inspired world that Tolkien imagined, with warriors clad in shining
mail, singing songs of rage or sorrow as they slay. The magic of the
world is subtle yet powerful: there are songs of fear and of binding,
rather than spells of fireball and teleportation.

Sil comes from a tradition of role-playing games known as roguelikes.
They stem from a game called Rogue that was written before computers
had graphics and instead used symbols on the screen to represent a
dungeon filled with monsters and treasure, that was randomly generated
each time you played. Rogue also had ‘permanent death’: you have only
one life and must choose wisely lest you have to start again. Finally,
it had a system of unidentified items whose powers you must discover
for yourself. Sil inherits all of these features, though it is much
more advanced in many ways.

Who will like Sil?

You will like Sil if you want to play a detailed and well balanced
role-playing game with a rich and intuitive system of tactical combat.
You will also like it if you are interested in the works of Tolkien,
or even just want a less generic role-playing game. The greatest
obstacle to enjoying Sil will be its lack of graphics, but if you can
overcome an initial reaction and begin to explore the world, your
imagination should fill in the details more effectively than a small
clump of pixels would.


In honour of what would be Tolkien's 120th birthday*, I'd like to
announce Sil: a new roguelike set in the First Age of Middle-earth.

Sil is a descendent of Angband, but makes many changes. Indeed almost
every mechanic has been significantly altered. These changes have had
several directions: to make the game much more true to the world
Tolkien imagined, to increase the tactical depth in combat, to reduce
the length of the game."


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