Games developed by EMPrograms
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Dark Passages
Dark Passages is a shareware arcade game similar to Gauntlet. The player controls a single character from a top-down perspective, fighting waves of monsters in real-time in maze-like dungeons.
The brief story shown at the beginning of the game introduces the player character as the sole champion of the King who must venture into a world called Underdark to defeat the Dark Lords who are planning an attack on humanity. The player can choose one of three classes: warrior, rogue or mage, each with their own weaknesses and strengths. All characters use ranged attacks: the warrior throws axes similar to those of his Gauntlet counterpart, the mage uses fireballs and the rogue throws knives. Some enemies can only be damaged by magical attacks and should be avoided if none are available.
The game is divided into three chapters, of which only the first is available in the shareware version. In turn, the first chapter contains three levels: the Catacombs, the Dark Mines and the Animal Trainer. The levels are divided into sublevels in a similar way to Rogue or Nethack. Each sublevel consists of a set of rooms, some of which are locked at the beginning, and you have to get keys to continue advancing. Aside from the monsters, there are various useful and harmful items that the player can collect and use, from healing herbs and poison to bombs that instantly kill all enemies on the screen or a magic hourglass that freezes all monsters.
