Genre: RPG
Developer: Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Year: 1990
Version: 1.2
Documentation: Manual available in the package
Related websites:
Related titles: Dark Sun: shattered lands, Ultima IV: quest of the avatar
Notes: Game was cracked: simply hit Enter any time the game asks for copy-protection codes. Refer to MANUAL.TXT to read the journal entries and tavern tales mentioned throughout the game.

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In the late 80s/early 90s, SSI developed an RPG engine that would be the base to no less than nine AD&D classics, four of them set in Toril (Forgotten Realms campaign setting), three set in Ansalon (Dragonlance campaign setting and novels) and two set in the land known as the Savage Frontier. All the games are very similar to each other in system and interface, but each one has a fairly unique plotline. Champions of Krynn is the first in the Dragonlance trilogy.

Graphics are fine, better than most other RPGs of its days, and improves slightly after each new game. The interface was very good for its time, and that's probably the main reason why the three series were so highly successful. In combat zones the game is pretty much a dungeon crawler, but when a combat starts, you see it from an isometric perspective, which allows you to work with strategy and some realism.

This first game of the Dragonlance trilogy is set right after the War of the Lance, an epic (and terrible) conflict that decimated Ansalon. Your group is sent out to patrol a given perimeter and finds out some disturbances. Upon notifying your superior, you're given the mission of finding out what's wrong. And there are hundreds and hundreds of enemies in your way.

This game ultimately follows the style expected from an AD&D game -- no more, no less. It could have some more interaction and less linearity, but it's still fun. Anyone that enjoyed other AD&D CRPGs will like this one as well.