Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax - Gameplay

Gameplay

Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax is an action video game released in 1988 for various personal computer platforms, such as Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. It is the sequel to Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior (released in 1987), which offers swordfighting action to one or two players. Unlike its predecessor, Barbarian II features only a single-player mode, in which the player assumes the role of either sword-wielding Princess Mariana or the titular savage, who is armed with a battleaxe. Their common quest is to pursue the evil wizard Drax, who has fled to his dungeon hideout after his defeat in the first game. The player characters battle their way through an inhospitable wasteland, a system of caves, and a dungeon before facing Drax in his inner sanctum for a showdown.

Using a joystick or keyboard, the player moves his or her character through Barbarian II's world. Each of the four stages—wasteland, caves, dungeon, and inner sanctum—is a series of interconnected rooms, populated by monsters, traps, and items. The game displays one room at a time in a flick-screen manner: as the protagonist leaves a room, the screen is updated to display the next. The connections among rooms are disjointed: the exit on the left of one room might be connected to the entrance on the same side of another. A compass at the bottom of the interface serves as a directional guide, always pointing to the north. The player directs his or her player through the rooms, seeking the exit to the next stage while avoiding traps and collecting items.

The protagonist is also challenged in his or her quest by 20 types of creatures. By moving the joystick while pressing its button or by performing the equivalent keyboard commands, the player defends the protagonist with four styles of attacks: a low slash, a high chop, a kick, and a spinning neck chop. The life of the combatants are represented by gauges at the top corners of the screen. Successful attacks on a character reduce its gauge and the character is killed when its life is reduced to zero. A well-timed neck chop (or the bites of certain monsters) decapitates the opponent, killing it instantly. Monsters disappear in a puff of smoke when killed, reappearing with a full life gauge in the same room some time later. Although the player character likewise reappears fully rejuvenated in the room after being killed, he or she can only do so for a limited number of times. This limit (number of lives) is represented in the form of globes at the top centre of the screen. The protagonist increases his or her number of lives by collecting skulls that are scattered throughout the game world.