魔多：丹杰诺儿之幽 Mordor: Depths of Dejenol p.212

在我所有已完成的工作中，我认为《魔多》绝对是我的最爱。遗憾的是，我在《魔多》之后创作的所有游戏都变得更加复杂，也带来了更多问题，而不再是像《魔多》那样打造简单且易于理解的欢乐时光。

Out of all the work I've done, I think Mordor was my absolute favourite. Sadly, all of the games I created after Mordor just got more complex and brought more problems rather than established a simple cut-and-dry fun time like Mordor did.

David Allen
《魔多》作者

David Allen,
Mordor’s creator

你的角色通过在各自的公会中获得等级和找到更好的战利品而得到提升。你所能找到的物品没有什么多样性，特别是在刚开始的时候，但每件物品都有其用途，没有充数的东西或随机生成的物品。当然，有些物品是被诅咒的，但这是另一回事了。

在管理你的队伍时，先见之明（或者说“超游”^[6] ）是至关重要的。一个角色有可能加入他们的阵营和种族所允许的所有公会，但由于后续大量的经验点数（XP）要求，这会变得很困难。公会等级可以提升到几百，甚至几千，并且忽视一个公会而专注于另一个公会，玩家会在后面的游戏中受到严重的惩罚。一个平衡的团队可以缓解这种情况，但个别成员的弱点会使你的探索工作变得缓慢。无论你采用哪种方式，都要为大量的钻研做好准备。

在《魔多》发行后，David Allen 开始着手制作续作——《魔多 2：黑暗觉醒（Mordor 2: Darkness Awakening）》，将 3D 环境与 2D 怪物结合在一起。

Your characters improve by gaining levels in their respective guilds and by finding better loot. There isn't much diversity to the items you'll find, especially when starting out, but each serves a purpose and there are no fillers or randomly generated ones. Some are cursed of course, but that's a different matter.

Foresight (or metagaming) is vital when managing your party. A single character can potentially join all the guilds their alignment and race allow, but that becomes prohibitive due to the huge XP requirements later on. Guild levels go up into the hundreds, even thousands, and neglecting one guild while focusing on another results in severe penalties later on. A balanced party mitigates this, but the weakness of individual members makes for slow delving in return. Whichever way you pursue, be prepared for A LOT of grinding.

After the release of Mordor, David Allen began working on a sequel – Mordor 2: Darkness Awakening, blending 3D environments with 2D monsters.

2004 年，一群粉丝创建了《崩溃 - 启示录（Demise - The Revelation）》，一个《崩溃》的扩展版本。现在仍在更新，它是官方游戏的不同分支，可以免费下载。

In 2004 a group of fans created Demise - The Revelation, an expanded version of Demise. Still updated, it's now a different branch of the official Demise and freely available for for download.

然后他与 Interplay^[7] 公司达成协议，将其更名为《无限世界（Infinite Worlds）》，但不幸的是，这一合作并没有成功。直到 1999 年，游戏才终于发售，也就是现在的《崩溃边缘（Demise: Rise of the Ku'tan）》。

《崩溃边缘》以全 3D 图形、多人游戏为特色，并将地牢扩大到 30 个巨大的关卡，每个关卡大小为 45x45 格，有特定的地块组合和独特的地点，如海滩、沼泽和墓地。

虽然评论家们一致抨击该游戏，但它却培养了一批拥趸者。David Allen 继续从事 MMO 游戏的工作，但将游戏的授权卖给了一个粉丝，由他继续对游戏进行修补和扩展——最新的版本是《崩溃：飞升（Demise: Ascension）》。

《魔多》和《崩溃》是需要玩得久了才能喜欢上的游戏。提前规划、大量磨练以及每当你深入探索时可能要面对的重大挫折当然不适合每个人。然而，它们有一种独特的、令人上瘾的感觉，不断驱使坚定的冒险者越陷越深。

He then made a deal with Interplay to publish it, renaming it Infinite Worlds, but unfortunately the partnership didn't work out. In 1999 the game finally came out, now as Demise: Rise of the Ku'tan.

Demise featured fully 3D graphics, multiplayer and expanded the dungeon to 30 massive levels, each 45x45 squares wide, with specific tilesets and unique locations like beaches, swamps and graveyards.

While critics unanimously bashed the game, it developed a cult following. David Allen went on to work on MMOs, but sold the game's license to a fan, who continues to patch and expand the game – the latest version being Demise: Ascension.

Mordor and Demise are an acquired taste. The planning, vast amount of grind and possibility of a major setback whenever you descend are certainly not for everyone. Nevertheless, they have a unique, addictive feel that constantly drives the determined adventurer ever deeper.

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⁶ 译者注：原文所使用的词汇是 metagaming，指的是利用玩家了解而角色本身不了解的信息来做出“超出角色的行为”，最初因为破坏了角色扮演游戏本身的代入感而不被提倡，但近年来对 meta 元素的利用却也渐渐演化成一种独特的形式。
⁷ 译者注：Interplay 是一家位于美国洛杉矶的游戏开发商和发行商，以《辐射》系列和《博德之门》系列而闻名。