Robin Hood - Defender Of The Crown

[Baldovino Caya]

Itis 1199: The country is divided and reigned by Anglo-Saxon as well as Norman lords. After the murder of the king and the disappearance of the king's crown the situation escalates and both parties equip for an armed conflict about the domination on the island.

As a source of inspiration served the old Hollywood knight films of the 50s, especially "Ivanhoe" as well as numerous films of the Robin Hood theme. Yonder legendary "Robin of Locksley" also briefs the player at the start of the game about the story and assists you during the campaign.

In Defender of the Crown the player takes over the role of one of the three Anglo-Saxon lords (the other two are played by the computer) and has to enlarge his at the beginning rather modest realm to get to enough money and military strength. His opponents are three Norman lords who plan exactly the same. The victor is the side, that makes it to eliminate the other by conquering their home castles.

It was promised to be an "interactive movie" and this promise was kept. The game starts with a decent opening, in which programmers, graphics designer and other participants befitting their rank as well as the characters of the game are named, followed by text placards of the story, emphasized with changing music and all kinds of decorative padding.

The graphics in the game was staggeringly good for 1987, if you claim anything else, you weren't there when the jaws of the whole C64 community hit the ground collectively. Magnificently detailled outdoor views of castles, palaces and tournament places string together. The sword fights inside the castle are brilliant due to the design of the shadows in the background and the hearty smooch scene leaves nothing to be desired. A bit sparse, although completely functional, are the map and the slaughtering scenes.

Slightly disappointing is on the other hand the music, which is unfortunately only in two voices and tries a bit nasal-squawkingly to imitate the sounds of the Hollywood example. But the authenticity of middle-age sound was not seeked anyway. However, the third voice, which e.g. has been "wasted" on superfluous crunching sounds during the sword fight, could have made for more depth.

You can choose from four different characters, each with a combination of strengths and weaknesses. The choice of the figure leads to a main focus in the later course of the game. So if you plan to win fame and acreage in tournaments, a character with good values in "Joust" can be recommended. If you are more up to robbing hostile gold reserves and freeing fair maidens, look for "Swordplay".

The game runs in rounds, whereby every round represents one month. You start in October 1199 in one of the three possible starting provinces and with an army of 20 soldiers. First, an overview table is shown, which informs you about the gold reserves, income and the size of the own army, as well as the garrison in the home castle of the player. To survive the upcoming battle of material against the Normans, one cannot avoid to improve oneself in all those categories, as the enemy starts with by far more profitable starting provinces and distinctly better character values as the own side. Furthermore, the computer controlled Anglo-Saxons play anything but aggressive and let the first rounds pass far too passively. There is acute need for action and this of course is left to you.

By pressing the fire button the view changes to a map of England which is divided into 19 provinces. Additionally, there is the Sherwood Forest, where Robin Hood stays and which cannot get conquered. The home provinces of the lords are displayed with a castle, a hatchment or a flag show the owner. The own army is symbolized by a black horse symbol. If you lose your home castle, you will drop out of the war, even though you might have conquered other castles already. For the player this means of course "Game over".

So if the own army gets involved in fights, your will be informed: a fighting screen is shown, in which the fighters are represented by single characters. A foot soldier stands for up the 25 soldiers, a rider for up to 10 knights.

Generally you can say, that the player with the higher Leadership value has the better chances in a fight, even though he might be slightly short-handed. A leader with a low value ("weak" or "average") would need an immensely high material superiority, to stand up to an enemy which has a "good" or even a "strong" here.

The only possibility to remove a leader permanently from the game is to conquer his home castle. For this you need at least a catapult to tear down the walls behind which the garrison is entrenched and by which it has significant advantages in the fight. If you do not succeed to blow a breach, even a manifold short-handed garrison can defend an attack successfully. The catapult is controlled by pulling the joystick backwards, the further, the higher the point of impact of the shot. You have six shots to work on the wall, after that the assault starts. There are three types of ammunition:

If you click onto the Sherwood Forest before an attack on a hostile province, you will get help up to three times from Robin Hood and his men, who make an attack and the defenders before a fight or a siege and make for some losses. This help cannot be requested if you are the target of an attack.

Corresponding to the ability of your own character in the field Swordplay you now have a certain amount of energy, shown in a small brown energy bar at the lower left of the screen, the second guard's energy bar depends on the victim's swordplay skill.

Depending on whether you are successful in defeating the two guards standing between you and the treasure chamber, you can look forward to a warm windfall (IF the treasure chamber was actually filled) or brace yourself for a disgraceful starvation diet in the dungeon. The latter costs next to a ransom also a rank in the field of Leadership, same as also the premature leaving of the fighting area over the left border of the screen.

To host a tournament ends the own move. It costs at least five gold pieces and is only possible if there was no other tournament in the previous round. All the lords are now called upon to do three rounds with the lance against different enemies.

In every round the player has the choice whether he wants to fight about fame or acreage. In a duel with acreage as stake, every opponent first chooses the desired province of the enemy, which the victor will then get as a reward. The advantage of a fight about fame is the raising of the Leadership value, if you get champion of the tournament.

To successfully lift an opponent from the saddle, you steer your own lance to the center of the opponent's shield and press the fire button at the last moment, whereby the required exactness in this manoeuvre depends on the abilities of the participant in the field of Jousting. Tournament specialists as Cedric of Rotherwood can easily gain up to three acreages or a raising of the "Leadership" value in a tournament. Weaker lords however, risk a reducing of their Leadership, if they do not defeat at least one opponent.

The Nostalgia-Crack offers trainers for endless gold reserves, invincibility at tournaments and raids, unlimited time and ammunition during sieges, help from Robin Hood as often as you like, unsabotagable catapults as well as the possibility to start with best values for all abilities.

Also in the original version the player can cheat himself endless gold reserves by attacking an abandoned castle. However, the player must produce the latter himself by first taking possession of the home castle of a competitor by marriage or siege, and then losing it again by stabbing an opponent's horse in the tournament.

ASM 10/1987: "Defender of the Crown is now available as cassette for the C64! The fantastic strategy game has lost non of its fascination on the C64. It is of course clear that the graphics cannot be up there with the Amiga version of this game, but for the conditions of the C64 they are very good. A bit annoying are also the long loading times and the slow processing, but the C64 is only a small 8-bit machine. Defender of the Crown is an absolute must for people who like such games."

Robotron2084: "An impressive debut by Cinemaware. Graphically really an absolute fantastic hit. Game technically you have more details than the original, which of course is very welcome. However, a kind of monotonuous feeling appears after some time, not least through the fact, that the enemies are very predictable, if not to say: utterly daft. One can slightly compensate that by e.g. letting the first move pass unused, but this is no solution on the long run, as unorthodox strategy elements fail regularly. But fortunately, there is the random element, which rains on your parade every now and then. But it is a capital sin, that they did not simply build in a multiplayer mode into this promising basics. This would have been the absolute Lord's own top thing... what a pity! That way it stays a nice wannabe-strategy game with rather boring action intermezzos, which you eventually master just like that. But at least presented really nice, there is nothing to nag about. For a fast game every few months I can always recommend DOC, although you only need one half of the brain. But as everything fits together so neatly, I still give 8 out of 10 points."

mombasajoe: "What a thing at that time! Especially the background graphics were absolutely great. Good topic, nice atmosphere. However, the game got dusty in my disk box until this critics. Behind this great presentation (apart from the not so well-made design of the fights and the rather mediocre animation of the sword fights) hides in my opinion an entertaining but average army pushing game, based on the board game "Risk", with small but nice extras. I would not call the game a "graphic dazzler" - for this the game is "not bad enough". But they concealed quite a bit. 7/10. Because of the nice pictures."

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