Way back in late 1999, Legend Entertainment and GT Interactive released The Wheel of Time, a FPS title built on the Unreal Tournament Engine. Earlier this month, the remaster pros at Nightdive Studios worked with iwot productions’ affiliate Red Eagle Games and GOG to make The Wheel of Time available via a remastered version. Priced at just $9.99, this is a great add to any FPS or fantasy fan’s digital library.
Believe it or not, The Wheel of Time was one of those games that I remember when it released, as I was exclusively into PC gaming at the time. I picked the game up, but never got around to playing it, and it literally remained in the “someday” pile of my backlog. This was a game that felt like a blend of other games from that era — Arx Fatalis, Thief: The Dark Project, Jedi Knight, HeXen — yet The Wheel of Time was unique enough that it certainly was/is not just another clone. To that end, it does have a little bit of a learning curve, but between the manual (included digitally with purchase) and the in-game tutorial, you will be fine.
Legend Entertainment, who also created the Return To Na Pali expansion pack for the original Unreal, did a impressive job incorporating the large amount of lore of The Wheel of Time universe. The game is set 150 years before Robert Jordan’s book series (and similarly, of the Amazon TV series of the same name that released just a few months ago). Though I haven’t read the books or watched the TV series (nor plan to), the intro video to the game as well as the tutorial and the digital manual give players a strong background to fully enjoy the experience.
The opening cutscene (which you can replay anytime from the pause menu) as well as the PDF manual, tell us that once upon a time there were powerful beings known as the Aes Sedai, that, despite all of their immense power, essentially become “sloppy” and inadvertently released The Dark One from the depths. The Dark One changed the hearts and minds of many of the Aes Sedai, and raised an army of evil. Eventually, a man named The Dragon was able to repel the forces of The Dark One and seal it away. The “keys” to this seal were split into multiple parts, and all ended up under the watchful guard of the “witches” at the The White Tower. When the game begins, players take the role of Elayna Sedai, who is part of one of the eight sects that live within the White Tower. She is tasked with retrieving a stolen seal that another corrupt sect within the Tower gave up (as they are eager to see the return of The Dark One). Across eighteen levels tied together with cutscenes and quality voice-acting, The Wheel of Time offers players a unique fantasy FPS experience that isn’t quite like anything I have played before.
The Wheel of Time is both similar in some basic ways but also rather unique to anything I have played before. I quickly realized the game was different enough I would be best served reading the manual. Remember, this game originally game out in 1999, when quality, detailed, printed manuals were still a thing, and thankfully GOG provides us a copy of the manual (though it appears to have come from replacmentdocs.com). The manual provides not only a nice intro to the story, but also covers most every other aspect of the game in good detail. The HUD, for example, warrants some explanation, seeing as how this game does not use any traditional weapons at all, not even a sword. Every offensive or defensive ability in the game is performed with a “ter’angreal,” or a magical artifact. These often have effects that last a certain amount of time, and can do things like level-up (or down) your other abilities or track you (or enemies) like a heatseeker. To that end, the HUD has special markers to indicate such things. There are also some levels that have a timer on them, and that appears in the HUD.
There are forty different ter’angreals, each of which is covered in the manual. These various abilities include the almost-useless default one, which is a very short range attack that is very weak yet never runs out, to a variety of really neat ones like Disguise. With Disguise, players are made to look like the nearest creature or person. A similar tactic that reminds me of the old Duke Nukem HoloDuke power-up is Personal Illusion, which creates an image of Elayna that fools some enemies into targeting it rather than you. Other ter’angreal include shields, fireballs, the ability to teleport a short range or even trade locations with a foe by using Swap. For each ter’angreal that the player finds, they can instantly research it to learn more (and also read a relevant quote from one of the books of the series) by pressing F2.
Speaking of finding ter’angreal, one design aspect about The Wheel of Time that was both nostalgic and great was the way that level geometry is used to conceal secrets and create short-term alternate paths. Examining a level in detail and trying to find hidden areas has always been one of the appealing aspects of a FPS for me, and The Wheel of Time wastes, well, no time, in giving players the opportunity to take paths less traveled to discover something cool. While there aren’t any collectibles to find, the extra ammo and atmosphere-building designs you can find are worth the extra bit of travel. On that note, I thought The Wheel of Time was actually a bit harder than most games of the 90s, largely due to two things: enemies that can take a lot of damage and ammo that can be pretty scarce. Running and jumping backwards, while looking and attacking forwards, is a gameplay style that I learned to do early and often (same idea with saving, which you can do in multiple slots and a quick save anytime). Enemy AI is also good, especially for twenty-two years ago. Even for the most basic enemies, the Trollics, dodge and move with often impressive dexterity, while the ranged accuracy of other foes is something to be weary of. Remember the first time you faced a Skar’j in Unreal? It’s not quite as wild as that, but the enemies are able to dodge and move proficiently. At times, you’re tasked with setting up defenses for enemy waves, and I can’t really think of another time in a FPS game where I was setting up traps and holes in the ground and things like that to hold off a wave of bad guys.
Overall, the single player experience of The Wheel of Time is pretty darn unique. It’s far from perfect, but it’s got a lot of nostalgic charm, was ahead of its time in several ways, and doesn’t overstay its welcome, even if some of the lore and cutscenes can weigh a bit heavy at times. On the other hand, the multiplayer component is good for local four player LAN. There are two multiplayer modes, but any reference to online play does not function out of the box, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there are fan hacks or methods for getting it to work. As is, the online functions fail due to not being able to contact master.gamespy.com, understandably. Should you desire to play local multiplayer, you can choose between four different factions (Elayna, The Leader of the Children of Light, The Hound, or The Forsaken). Arena mode is your classic free-for-all deathmatch. Then there’s the much more robust Citadel mode, which is akin to Capture the Flag. The goal is to capture all four seals and put them on the altar in your citadel. Traps, like walls and pits, can be placed at the outset of the game to make things extra interesting. Ranks per faction and other details are part of the experience, but I didn’t get to test this out before coming to post this review.
Anytime a good old game gets new life, it’s a great thing. I’m thankful for companies like Nightdive Studios and GOG that refuse to let the games of days gone be gone forever. The Wheel of Time on GOG is very reasonably priced at $10 and offers a compelling and rather unique FPS experience from some of the greatest days of the genre (the 90s/early 2000s). Being able to pickup this often overlooked gem on GOG, with its manual, and fire it up and it immediately work and run so smoothly is well worth the modest price of admission. For anyone that missed it twenty-two years ago or just wants to visit The Wheel of Time universe, this is a great way to do it.
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