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Thor's Hammer Trilogy
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Thor's Hammer Trilogy - IBM PC (1995) |
Ever played a really obscure game through to the end out of a combination of pity and curiosity? I just did with the Thor's Hammer Trilogy, a nearly unheard-of 3D game from 1995. I remembered this game from way back in the mid-90s, when I'd just gotten into PC gaming and regularly explored weird DOS game compilation CDs. You know the type: cruddy menus reminiscent of Windows 3.1; often banked on the inclusion of a popular FPS demo to make the sale; and jam-packed with crate-loads of goofy, obscure games ranging from archaic to state-of-the-art(-for-1995), half of which didn't work either way. Ah, the Silver Age of PC gaming. But I digress. Thor's Hammer Trilogy - Episode 1 was included on one of my favorite compilations. Doom 2 was all the rage and I was on an FPS kick, hunting whatever shooters I could find, no matter how weird or terrible. Naturally a watered-down-to-homeopathic-levels Ultima Underworld intrigued me, much like any game with a somehow-even-more-retro-than-Doom atmosphere. Unfortunately all the compilation CD offered was a single-episode demo, and I wanted to explore this ultra-obscure little gem thoroughly to see what it had to offer. I guess I figured that was impossible with only one of three episodes, so I never got around to really sinking my teeth into the game until twenty years later, when I finally learned how to use DOSBox (and when the full version of Thor's Hammer was finally available for free). I had a feeling that if I ever beat the thing, I'd probably be the first and only gamer who ever did (turns out that isn't so — I'm just the first who wasn't too lazy to post something about it in detail). So I got the full game and loved it just long enough to complete it at last. It was okay. What IS the Thor's Hammer Trilogy Anyway? Thor's Hammer falls somewhere between FPS and dungeon crawler. Looking at the screenshots it's easy to mistake it for an RPG of some kind, but it's very stripped down in that regard. There's no shops or currency — the available weapons and spells are simply scattered across three episodes' worth of dungeons and landscapes, often left in nondescript treasure chests. Since this is a hack-n-slash, that's not really a problem in itself. However, it does make searching for secrets a relatively unrewarding chore, given that the only loot you're likely to find are potions or keys, or maybe the rare throwing axe (I think there's a total of nine in the entire game). All the important stuff like armor, weapon upgrades, and spells are left out in the open for you. And don't expect character depth: the NPCs sometimes spout exposition, but are mostly just window dressing. The only "characters" to speak of are the wizard Tyr and the Demon, and they're not much more than plot devices. The physics are a bit awkward, mostly due to the fact that everything has a bounding box twice the size of its sprite. This especially applies to you, the player: you'll frequently curse the programmers when a fireball that looks like it's going to miss by a yard still scores a hit on you, yet to collect potions or retrieve your throwing axes you have to be right on top of them! So grabbing important items while dodging enemy fire becomes a festival of bullshit and broken keyboards...especially when you throw the control issues into the mix. ALT to strafe, ENTER to throw axe? Good luck hitting that orc without toggling fullscreen! It does have catchy music though, ranging from haunting to funky. The minstrel tune used as the overworld theme is rather nice. Why Should I Care What the Thor's Hammer Trilogy Is? You don't really need to. It wasn't an amazing game, hence why it was never noticed. Oh. Well, How Do You Play?
You are a nondescript traveler with some experience as a soldier, who lives in a very Norse land being terrorized by the forces of the abominable Demon. The wizard Tyr elects you as the lucky guy who gets to seek Thor's legendary hammer, then plant it in the Demon's face. The adventure spans three episodes: the Trial, the Journey, and the Battle.
In the Trial, Tyr sends the hero to a coastal town being terrorized by a necromancer (along with a number of other unpleasant fiends). Tyr's idea of Hero Boot Camp is to leave you with nothing but a woodsman's axe and the task of killing the necromancer. Thanks, Tyr. At least this episode has a lavish introduction: the other two episodes just throw you into the action with little more than a text blurb.
With the wizard's douchey trial completed, you're ready to take the Journey. At the deepest reaches of a snowy wasteland is the lair of the nasty giant who keeps Thor's Hammer as a mantelpiece. You get to freeze your ass off walking through the snow and fighting through various thieves' dens before prying the hammer from the giant's cold, dead fingers.
Finally, with hammer in hand, you are ready for the Battle. This episode is set in the volcanic lair of the Demon. It's a pain in the ass. The gameplay mostly consists of navigating labyrinths (or large outdoor areas) and slaying monsters. You travel between maps by using rickety wooden ladders leading through the floor or ceiling; upon returning to a previous map, you may find all the monsters have respawned, but this isn't always the case. Each episode features a few puzzles to mix things up a bit: they're usually near the episode's end, and usually require more dexterity than brainwork to solve. A few of them are pretty tricky and add some much-needed variety to the monster slog. I have to say, I did not expect much from the finale of this game. The first boss is the Necromancer: he moves away from you and shoots highly damaging beams at random intervals, just like the regular wizard enemies (unlike the wizards, he has a wickedly gruesome death animation compared to the rest of the bestiary). The second boss is the Giant who wields Thor's Hammer: he merely lumbers after you, just like the scores of melee thugs you've waded through to get to him (kills you in about two hits, though, and takes a boatload of punishment). As I was struggling through the maddening lava-maze of the third and final episode, I actually considered giving up. There's a reason nobody's ever heard of this game, I said to myself, and the last boss will only disappoint, so what the hell am I still playing for? But no, dammit, I came this far, and I was quite sure that nobody else was bored and pathetic enough to fight all the way to the tedious end of the Thor's Hammer Trilogy. The idea made me sad, because it's not a terrible game like Depth Dwellers is — merely unremarkable. And since I had tried my own hand at game design, I reminded myself that somebody had worked hard to put this game together: to design these maps and balance them, to draw all the tiles and sprites, to compose the admittedly catchy music that I'd been jamming to throughout. So I was determined to see the climax in all its over-simplistic, probably crappy glory. In the end, the battle with the Demon turned out to be the hardest and cleverest puzzle in the game. So that was nice. Do You Get Any Cool Stuff? Thor's Hammer is pretty minimalist when it comes to heroic gear: primary weapon (usually an axe), throwing axes, five spells, and damage-reducing armor. And pretty much all of them bring their own design flaws to the table. I refer to the primary weapon as "the mauler". Throughout the adventure your mauler upgrades from a measly woodsman's axe to a two-bladed axe, then enchanted two-bladed axe, then finally Thor's Hammer. You gotta get up close and personal to use your mauler, and it uses the annoying RPG mechanic of calculating hits and misses for you. Makes me wish you could loot dead monsters' weapons, because theirs are a helluva lot more accurate. "Almost" only counts for horseshoes and hand grenades...and apparently, throwing axes. Unlike your somewhat pacifist mauler, your axes are wonderfully eager to kill things for you: once airborne, they'll dive into the flesh of any target that comes within arm's reach (back to the bounding box issue, which explains why they're impossible to use in corridors), dealing a third of your current mauler's damage. You can't use them at point blank, though, and making ENTER the "throw axe" key was an unfortunate design decision, because the key combo for strafing and throwing is the same combo for toggling fullscreen. They're glitchy, too: I've had axes land in solid objects, and even vanish permanently. There are a total of five spells in the game: Fireball, Tornado, Heal, Kablooie (I'm not kidding), and Time Stop. Invoking each drains your magic meter by a large amount. That's okay, though, because there are bottles scattered all over the game that restore health (white bottles) and magic (purple bottles). That is, it would be okay...if the bottles restored more than 5 units. Not so bad early in the game when your health and magic meters are about 25 units each; by Episode 2 they're virtually useless, even in large abundance. One boss battle provides you with no less than 20 or even 30 magic bottles: all of them together, for a maxed-out magic meter, amount to a single full restore. In summary: spells are reserved for emergencies only. Also, don't get hit by anything. There is a "full heal" object in the form of a glowing square you sometimes find on the floor -- step onto it and receive full health and magic! Some are one use only, others are infinite use, and all are few and far between. Do You Recommend Thor's Hammer? I suppose I could recommend the Thor's Hammer Trilogy, if only as a curiosity from the DOS era. Or maybe for gamers who don't have a head for inventory management or sidequests, yet still want a retro fantasy adventure of epic proportions. It's a charming little piece of neglected gaming history, and I'm glad I took the time to give the poor thing my attention for a few hours. Hexen did it better, though. |
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