Scallywag: Lair of the Medusa from Chronic Reality and Shrapnel Games is one of the most...unique titles I have seen in long time. This game makes no pretenses about being anything that it is not. It calls itself a hack N slash dungeon crawl and it is just that. But then again it can be so much more. Let's take a look.

First off I must applaud the technical support in the form of one of the game's developers Scott Wakeling. I had some issues with starting the game that he patiently worked through with me until things were as slick as snot. Really I just wanted to say 'slick as snot' because I hadn't heard it in awhile but I suppose it's a grossly accurate term if you take grossly to mean disgusting. It really boiled down to some audio drivers.

Graphics: 90%

The graphics are oddly akin to Adventurequest, an online browser-based game my friend Warklaw (no it's not his real name, but wouldn't that be cool?!) turned me on to when we were in university together and that I have not played in some time (but I did just log in). Imagine a three-dimensional universe where everything is two-dimensional and you have the general idea of what Scallywag looks like. Sort of like one of those pop-up books we used to read when we were children, or which some of us still read (myself excluded of course). The graphics may be simplistic but that is the point. They are not supposed to require an army of coders to modify or recreate.Scallywag is a game where if you don't like the graphics you can open MS-Paint and make your own and the designers expect you to just that. The designers expect you to hack into the game and make your own mods, change your own settings and make your own stuff. But I will get to that later.

One thing though, if you have multiple monitors on your system you will either need to play on the secondary or turn it off because I could not get it to function on the primary and Mr. Wakeling even said he was already looking into this.

Sound: 90%

The sound is like the graphics, simple but appropriate. Though there is some strange reggae-like music in the game which I thought would have been better served by some type of creepy classical or something more appropriate to crawling through a dungeon. Of course you generally aren't wearing an MP3 player when dungeon crawling because you want to hear the monsters. But Scallywag being what it is doesn't allow you to hear the monsters until you see them. Normally what happens is the light shines on a monster and then they make a sound. Maybe that's something we might be able to mod also in the future. Actually this is how easy it is. I looked into the directory structure and found there is a Music directory. In that directory are 3 files one being loop03.wav which I would guess from the titles of the others to be the main music. Generally I just turn off the music but with the setup of this game you could simply replace it if you wished.

Controls/Interface: 90%

Everything is a mouse click or a button. There is a quick load area so you can use inventory without having to move the mouse into the inventory area, although you can do that as well. The controls are simple and configurable and the only thing that is really missing is a camera zoom control, which is completely missing from the game. Sometimes I would like to zoom in and out on the character and room but it's just not possible at the moment. You can however zoom in and out on the mini-map which is immensely helpful if you, like me, wander the entire level before moving on to the next and lose track of where the exit is.

The heads up display takes up a lot of real estate but that doesn't matter because your lamp doesn't illuminate the edges of the screen so the HUD is not really interfering with the game in anyway.

The only other thing missing from the game is a nice handy save anywhere feature. But it gives it all a greater sense of peril when you can't just save wherever you are and the game does autosave at the end of each level. So just be sure to end a level before you quit so you don't lose much and when you die just load up the autosave.

Gameplay: 80%

The one area of the game that I feel is lacking is the actual gameplay. Don't get me wrong it can be fun and addictive, but it is monotonous. So I started speaking with Scott Wakeling via email about what could be done in a mod. Some of the ideas I had were speed runs where you tried to escape from a dungeon as fast as possible and a traps dungeon where there were few monsters but some elaborate traps that you would have to overcome. We are still talking about the ideas but according to him all of these things are potentially doable in the game. So maybe there will be a Chronic Reality/Generation: Gamerz mod in the near future, if I can find my way out of this dungeon and into the light of day again.

Summary: 87.5%

The game has only a few minor issues that knocked off some points. But the game is fast, light and fun. The real potential of this $29.95 game is in the modability of it. If you like to get your hands dirty and dig into a game and make it your own or develop levels and obstacles for your friends to overcome then this is a game you might enjoy as well. Especially if you grew up on Dungeons & Dragons like I did. On making mods for the game Scott Wakeling (doesn't his surname sound like a monster in a dungeon to you? Watch out for the WAKELING ARGH!) had this to say "If two guys sit down to make a mod together, they use a basic text editor, sound fx editor, and their choice of paint program. Regular tools."

The game doesn't appear to have an ESRB rating but if I were working for the ESRB I would probably give it an E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) due to the simulated fantasy violence.

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