"Bandit Kings of Ancient China" is a very intriguing game, but after approximately 40 hours of play, I'm loosing interest. Unlike many DOS RPG's, your character doesn't grow stronger with time and experience. Worse yet, game play seems to be on a timer...
Eventually, the game employs an annoyingly contrived device (like an old Greek play) that abruptly ends the game.
Because you are given a choice of which 1 of 4 specific years play will begin ( 1101 -1105 A.D. ), and because, when you are asked to decide which character you will play, you must choose 1 of 7 named characters (each with unique strengths and weaknesses), the game seems to be based on historical fact.
I confess that I didn't bother to do the research to find out, for sure, if Lin Chong, Wu Song, Yang Zhi, and Chao Gai were real people who lived in China during the early 12th century.
The expressed object of the game is to impress the emperor by defeating the bandit King Gao Qiu. To do so, you are expected to become an even bigger bandit than Gao Qiu. Whether you choose to play the weakest character (in exile with no followers) or the strongest character (a bandit-king with 20+ followers who command up to 100 fighting men each), Gao Qiu is much stronger than them all, and he is continually extorting bribes and protection money from all players. This exacerbates the already difficult
process of acquiring and saving up the money and food needed to wage war.
The game's map consists of 48 Chinese provinces. Each of the 7 players (played by a person or by CPU) compete with each other and with Gao Qio to dominate. The game's creator is to be commended for cleverness. Play seems to be bedeviled with programming contrivances designed, not only to hamper one's efforts, but also to taunt, annoy, and demoralize the player. One of the most annoying of these contrivances is: as play progresses, each turn can be delayed for what seems like a minute or more. With a "dead stick" in hand, and nothing to do but wait, players can only read the particulars of Gao Qiu's many, many robberies.
It may surprise you to hear that, for the true gamers among you, I highly recommend this game.
