Anvil of Dawn

Anvil of Dawn is a first person's view RPG, published in 1996 by DreamForge/ New World Computing.

The game takes place in the lands of Tempest.
The evil Warlord has attacked Tempest and his armies are rapidly overtaking the land.
It is as if the Warlord and his armies are invincible.
During the game you will find out that the Warlord has received a gift from an evil God: a dark magic power.
Your quest is to find and destroy this evil magical power, called the Darkslag.

When you start the game, you can pick your character from a list of 5.
The first four characters each are strongest in one of the four stats: Strength, Agility, Power and Stamina.
The fifth character has his stats divided over these four stats, equally.
You can either select the character and accept it's stats without changing them, or modify the stats of your character.
If you chose the last, you get 10 points to divide over: strength, stamina, agility and power.

After you have selected your character the game starts and you will find yourself in a palace.
Here you and 4 other "hero's" are selected to try and reach a wizard behind the enemy lines, who might have information on how to defeat the Darklord.
You have overslept and you will go alone, later then the others.
You don't get a party of characters in Anvil of Dawn, but instead you control a solo character.
After receiving your first two spells from the court's magician and a basic weapon and armor, you leave the castle through a teleporter that brings you to your first dungeon.
For those spells you get a heal spell and you can chose your second spell from a list of the basic spell classes.
The best spells to start the game with are either a simple attack spell, from the "fire" group, or a root spell from the "water" group.

Magic spells in Anvil of Dawn, are divided over 7 disciplines: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Lighting, Flesh and Void.
You will find most of your spells in chests during the game and some will be given to you by NPCs.

There are 4 weapons skills in Anvil of Dawn: Hacking, Slashing, Ranged and Thrusting.
Each comes with it's own weapons, which you will also find throughout the game, often in chests.

Stats and Skills advancement

The basic statistics you start your character with, will not be changed during the game.
Only by using specific potions or jewelry you can later (temporarily) advance a stat.
You can build your character in Anvil of Dawn in two ways: through the game you will find potions that will permanently advance your Hitpoints, or Magic Points (mana).
These potions will give you an advancement ranging from 1 to 10 (for hps) or 1 to 100 (for mana/ spellpoints).
The best thing to do is to save the game before you "use" such a potion and then try a potion and restore the game over and over again, until you're satisfied with the outcome, and then save your game again.
Often you will first get 3 or 6 etc HPs, until you get the desired 10.

Your skills are advanced by using them.
They are divided over weapons skills and magic skills.
By using a weapon or using magic, you earn levels.
If you use a weapon enough, you will gain a point to divide over the weapon discipline of your choice.
You can either chose Hacking, Slashing, Thrusting or Throwing. That way you can build a skill until you master it.
The same happens with magic: if you use magic enough, you will gain a level point, which you can add to one of the 7 spell disciplines of your choice.

Gameplay

Anvil of Dawn is a "first person's view" RPG.
Your main screen isn't filled with menus etc, but instead pictures the actual gamescreen.
You can simply enter most options/ menus by left clicking on your character's portrait.
On your main screen you will see some info/ functions like hps, mana, your right and left hand, your spell icons and a map option.
If you left click on your character portrait, you can access your inventory, a journal, your spellbook and all other menus like: character stats/ skills, skill advancement, your weight and a menu to save the game or exit to dos.
Most movement in Anvil of Dawn is controlled by your keyboard. Fighting and spellcasting by right clicking your mouse, or your keyboard.
Your inventory is made up of a main screen and later you will find 3 chests and two bags that you can use to put items in.
If you pick up an item and then right click your mouse, the item will go into your inventory main screen.
There are no NPCs to trade (buy/ sell) goods with, in Anvil of Dawn (except one where you can only once buy some goods).
That means that when you don't need an item anymore, you can just drop it wherever you are.
Money only functions as quest item, to use in certain places to gain entrance.

Armory and weapons are found all over the game in chests, although it will take until the end of the game until you get your best swords and other weapons.
You can of course chose any of the weapon skills to use but the best weapons to be found in the game are swords.

There are tons of items in the game.
Potions to advance some statistic, spells, lots of necklaces, a lot of weapons, armory and then of course the healthpotions and mana herbs you will find throughout each dungeon.

You cannot regain mana or health in the game by for example resting or meditation, but instead regain it by simply moving or the passage of time.
There are two quicker ways to gain mana or health: by using one of the many healthpotions or mana herbs you'll find, or by using an item on a mana or health altar that most dungeons have. These items can also be found throughout the game.
And of course there is your most useful spell: the heal spell.

Anvil of Dawn is a large game with many different dungeons/ underground cities etc.
You cannot move around the lands, between the dungeons freely, but instead you will move through screens of graphically displayed "landscapes".
Kind of like: one to your right and two to your left and you will enter the next dungeon.

Fighting monsters is real time based, but you can "stop" the fight when you enter your inventory or when you cast a spell. This gives you time to drink a potion or think of your best tactic to conquer your enemy.

There are 10 slots to save your game and since there are many puzzles and sometimes hard monsters, saving often, is needed.

The game has a journal that will enter most NPC conversations, so you don't have to write most of it down.

Your map function displays where you have been in each dungeon and there are certain items you can find that will display all monsters that are still alive on your map.
Monsters don't respawn, which means that after you killed all monsters in an arrea, you can take your time to solve a puzzle.

Puzzles

Anvil of Dawn is a RPG filled with puzzles.
If you enjoy running around with a bag filled with rocks to put on pressure plates, pulling the correct levers, and solving riddles, Anvil of Dawn is "your kind of game".
This doesn't mean there are no monsters to fight, on the contrary: each dungeon has different monsters which often look great graphically.
However: this is not a simple monster hack and slash game.
This game seems to have the right balance between monster fighting and puzzles, in it.
Each of the dungeons you enter will have some puzzles in it.
Sometimes this just means you have to put some rocks on the right pressure plates, sometimes this means looking for hidden passages, solving a riddle or finding your way through a labyrinth.

"A riddle"

Most of the riddles and puzzles can be solved by logical thinking, they aren't the kind of puzzles that drive you crazy for days.
In many ways Anvil of Dawn reminds me of games like "Dungeon Master II" or "Lands of Lore I".
Not just because of the "look of the game", but also because of the many puzzles you have to solve.
I think in the end it's all a matter of which type of game you like, but personally I prefer games like this over today's graphically advanced 3D RPGs, where monster bashing is all there is to do.

Getting the game to work

The game comes with a file that says it will probably run fine under Windows '95.
I couldn't run Anvil of Dawn under Windows '98, since it kept crashing.
The best way to run the game is to make a shortcut to Dos.

This is how you make such a shortcut: right click on the Anvil. Exe file in your gamefolder.
Then click on properties, then on: program, then on: Advanced.
Then mark the MS-DOS mode option and see if the game works for you this way.
If the game doesn't work for you this way, try to disable sound and/ or speech.
If it still doesn't work, the game comes with a readme file that explains how to get the game to work under Dos.

There is a patch that fixes some problems the game had.
This patch can be found at: GamesDomain's Anvil Patch

The FAQ/ Hintfile

Anvil of Dawn is no longer supported by 3DO/ New World Computing on it's website.
However: I received permission from 3DO to use their old FAQ and "hint and tips" and put it on my website.
The following FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) answers questions and provides hints and tricks on what to do in order to solve the game: Official Anvil of Dawn FAQ

Links:

Games Over Here you can find a good walkthrough of Anvil of Dawn.

Spoiler Centre The Spoiler Centre has a walkthrough and a cheat for Anvil of Dawn. Look at: genres: rpgs: new world computing.

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