Drain Storm

3 Old-school fun
It’s Windows 3.1 all over again! Okay, perhaps not, but the game’s graphics, functions, et al are almost identical to games that I used to download off of my dial-up 28.8K AOL connection. It’s retro, in a very different way from the way that most of us think of retro gaming.

Now, I can criticize the technical side of the game all day, but the question at the bottom line is “does it get the job done” and for that the answer has to be “yes”. It’s a simple game, but it’s Fun with a capital “F”. Sure, it doesn’t have the depth or complexity of Crawl, or Dwarf Fortress, or most of the other roguelikes out there – I think that even DoomRL has more depth to it, come to think of it – but it’s a good challenge. It sort of reminds me of that old game where you play as Dr. Who in the TARDIS, maneuvering around a grid trying to get Daleks to crash into each other. Drain Storm has a bit more in common with that than it does most Roguelikes, and while it’s a nifty twist on the formula, it may turn off most Roguelike fans who like their insane depth.

That said, it’s an easy to pick up game with some real frenetic challenges in later levels, and it could fit onto a 3.5" disk twice over. What more do you want?