The Death Knights of Krynn is a classic game from SSI. This adventure carries on from the acclaimed Champions of Krynn game; an adventure based in the continent of Ansalon a number of years after the gripping War of The Lance shook the entire continent. In The Death Knights of Krynn, you play as a heroic group of adventurers who in the previous chapter stopped a powerful alliance of Dragonarmy forces from starting a new offensive against Solamnia and other nations.
In the Death Knights of Krynn, Lord Soth, the infamous Death Knight who was cursed by the Gods for failing to stop the Cataclysm, has stepped out from his years of seclusion and has launched an undead crusade against his former Solamnia brethren.
Defiling the dead he has risen back a number of noble knights as Death Knights, including the fallen hero Sir Karl who twisted from his transformation into undeath acts as a powerful commander of the Death Knight legions. Our heroes must once again take up the reigns of adventure and fight to stop this evil plague and end the curse of Lord Soth once and for all!
The game play of this game is reminiscent of many gold box games. Its engine is somewhere in between the graphics of Curse of the Azure Bonds and Secret Of The Silver Blades. Krynn proves itself to be a very unique setting compared to the forgotten realms, with two distinct races of elves (Silvanesti and Qualenesti), Intelligent Tinkering Gnomes
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and humorous Kender. There are also Dwarves, Half-Elves and Humans of course, which are familiar with other gold box games. The classes are also varied with many good character types (Fighters, Thieves, Wizards, etc), including my personal favorite, The Knights of Solamnia, who make excellent Fighter/Clerics and along with an actual cleric in the party provide excellent healing support as well as a good front line fighter. The only problem with the knights is the sacrifice of money, but this is easy enough to avoid by giving treasure to other characters. Paladins are introduced into this game as well, although personally are inferior to the Knight of Solamnia and is not worth the trade off. A diverse party would include a cleric (Majere is the best as you will face a lot of Undead in this game), a wizard, a Fighter/Thief, A Knight, A Ranger, and a Fighter (Or Paladin). Still there are numerous combinations you can try each play through.
As for the game itself I find that the reviews do not do it justice. Most players are not familiar with the Margaret Weis books and setting related to it. Dragonlance is the most unique and adventure gripping setting of all of D&D. It dares to be different from other settings, but most people don't want to bend beyond the "Generic" and this ruins the experience. I was gripped into the story of the game, of the heroes fighting legions of the dammed, doing larger than life things in an effort to save the world from a great evil. The battle scenes were exciting and tactical, making me use every aspect of my party in some shape or form for victory. A number of interesting side quests give access to more experience and unique magical items. The Moon Magic system is unique, allowing mages to gain or lose spells based on the moon cycle, allowing some variation in your spell casting. Sure compared to the current times, the graphics are sub-par, but back then the graphics were good for its day and the memorable Gold Box engine still brings me back to this game again and again for one more run. As one of the few games that are based in my favorite D&D setting, I definitely give this game 4 out of 5. Sure it has flaws here in there and bugs (including misprinting of a number of Journal entries), in the end the game deliver a worthwhile adventure and that is all one really needs out of an adventure game. Thus if you got the time, download and play this exciting role-playing game today!
