Nahlakh

Nahlakh is a video game in the role-playing (rpg) genre developed by Tom Proudfoot Games and published by Tom Proudfoot Games originally released in 1994. It is currently playable on DOS.

Tom Proudfoot's first published game, Nahlakh, is a traditional top-down RPG that pits your party of eight adventurers against an evil force threatening the land.

While the crude graphics and the extremely tough first fight with a tribe of kobolds may scare off more casual gamers, this game is a nugget of gold for fans of the genre. The turn-based combat engine is fairly easy to learn and is among the best I've seen in RPGs. With such nice features as targeting specific body parts (groin is my favorite), fatigue and different wound states (bleeding, poisoned, stunned, downed, etc.) makes combat a pleasure. Skills and experience are handled very well here. A character advances only in those skills he or she uses and each character is able to learn any skill (except magic and prayer). However, there are some skills that cannot be used in the game, but that is a minor flaw. The magic system is pretty much copied from the Ultima games, with each of the hundred-plus spells made up of three magic syllables. But unlike Ultima, you can experiment with the spells and deduce new variants of the ones you already know. The game is very well balanced to keep you on the edge of your seat. Every time you think you have the upper hand in combat, it's time to move on to the next dungeon, where you'll be fighting for your life again. But it's also very easy to get killed if you enter a place you're not supposed to go yet. With the staggering amount of different magic items (14,000 different weapons, for example) and the nice usability features (automatic map, healing the whole party with a single command and no random encounters), Nahlakh is highly recommended for everyone who likes a good RPG.

Note: Faster computers may need a slowdown program to run the game. It runs fine on my 233 MHz computer, but crashes on a friend's 400 MHz computer. Tom Proudfoot has recently released the game as freeware, although you can pay him a $15 registration 'fee' if you enjoy the game ;)

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.