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Jewel of ArabiaReviewed By: Erica Marceau Review Date: July 7, 2002
You take the role of a prince or princess imprisoned in a tower and forced by a jealous uncle to study ancient Phoenician tablets. As you drift to sleep, you enter a dream that is very real; so real that your first goal is to wake up from it. As you explore, you find you are called by fate for an even bigger role in changing the future of the region. You learn about the civil war in the Valley of the Horses within the Equine race, help defend the beleaguered Satyr race from the aggressive Mino, explore the desert where your parents perished, arrange a wedding, protect sheep from hungry wolves, and more. The tasks are varied and aren't just the "go there to kill enemy" type that are too often the only kind found in games. It would have been nice for some sort of place to record what tasks you have to do in the game, but since you only have one or two to do at any one time, it's not so difficult to keep track of them yourself using a note pad.
Too many companies think that all they need to do is add character development through the allocation of points and they can market their game as role-playing. I've played quite a few of those in my time, and I thought that the art of making a good computer RPG was lost entirely until I played Quarter Note Software's Jewel of Arabia from a few years ago. Despite its colorful but somewhat simplistic graphics, Jewel of Arabia does more to create an engaging atmosphere, unique characters, and an interesting storyline than many others which call themselves role-playing games.
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I realized as I started playing Jewel of Arabia that there are very few games that use myths or religions that were actually used by people here on Earth. Instead, games use the same races and professions that have been used countless times before in worlds with the same sort of gods. Jewel of Arabia, on the other hand, is set in the Persian Empire and draws from the legends and histories from the Persian, Arabian, Indian, and Greek civilizations. It's such a breath of fresh air to see a game with character classes other than the typical Elven Druid or Halfling Rogue that other fantasy games use.
Jewel of Arabia puts many twists on what is found in the typical role-playing game. For example, to interact with people, you type in a word and ask them about it instead of selecting from a pre-determined list. Of all the ways to interact with NPCs, I like this way the best because it is the most realistic and you have to pay more attention to what everyone says. Other realistic components include having to pay attention to how much food and water you have in addition to how much weight each person is carrying (called encumbrance). The higher encumbrance a party has, the slower they move. Hence, they use more water and food and encounter more monsters than a fast moving party. Fortunately, you can trade items between characters to reduce the encumbrance or get a pack animal which can carry much more than anyone else. That's right, you start out with a pet monkey and get many opportunities to trade the animal you have for one that's higher in rank or which has better abilities. For example, later you can get a donkey which holds a great deal but is bad in combat or you can get a cheetah which is very good in combat but can hold little in comparison.
Another twist is the character classes from which you have to pick. Each party has to have a prince or princess, their Djinn (sort-of like a genie), and an animal. The remaining three slots can be filled by either a Bedouin (nomads of the desert and good all-around fighters), Ghazi (members of this sect are committed fighters), Hash-shashin (mysterious fighting sect that fights with staves only), Magi (specializes in controlling the powerful elements, particularly fire), or a Sufi (fights with no weapons but with the power of their fists and mind). Part of the fun is to find out which combination of characters will work the best together in battle. You might have noticed that I have not described any healer class. That's because, in yet another twist, Jewel of Arabia uses meditations that every character can learn and use for such benefits as healing themselves or purging poison or going without food. You learn these meditations and others by donating to the Order of Zarathustra at their temples. It's not necessary to learn these meditations or donate if you don't want to since there are potions if you'd rather use them.
The only down-side are the graphics, which--while being colorful--are rather simple and somewhat repetitive. Also, the text is sometimes a bit more difficult to read than it should be. I debated whether to reduce the score by one or two due to the graphics, but decided on one because they do give a very nice Arabian feel, are very clean in style, and each different race looks different enough while still having a common architectural style. The background music is excellent and adds to the Arabian mood while not being intrusive or repetitive enough to drive you crazy.