Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic

Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic is a science fiction RPG published by Electronic Arts in 1988 for MS-DOS and Commodore 64. The game, designed by Karl Buiter, represents one of the most ambitious and innovative RPGs of the late 1980s, seamlessly blending multiple gameplay styles into a cohesive space opera adventure.

What made Sentinel Worlds genuinely groundbreaking was its ability to combine different action planes. Space travel, combat, and planet exploration use 2D graphics, with you piloting a gunboat against raiders plundering ships throughout the sector. You can land anywhere on the three planets in the star system and explore using an armored ground vehicle. The real innovation comes when entering structures—the game switches to 3D vector graphics for indoor exploration, though characters, NPCs, and enemies appear superimposed on a radar display. Both space and ground combat proceed in real-time, while indoor locations let you control the party leader directly as AI manages your companions.

The story begins simply: raiders are attacking convoys, their base unknown. You're dropped into immediate action defending a convoy with basic equipment, making strategic upgrades essential. The game offers remarkable freedom—you can travel to any planet via hyperdrive and land anywhere on the surface. Hidden shops and enhancement facilities reward thorough exploration, creating interesting decisions between upgrading ship weapons or boosting character stats at expensive facilities.

Character development follows traditional RPG progression with experience levels, while combat varies dramatically by context. Space battles show colored dots and lines representing ships and weapons. Successfully boarding raider ships yields valuable salvage before self-destruct mechanisms activate, funding crucial upgrades. Ground combat features hand-to-hand fighting and various ranged weapons, from projectile to energy-based.

The game features "paragraph books" in which characters mention numbers to read from the included booklet rather than displaying text in-game. This functioned as copy protection but also added atmospheric storytelling. However, it inadvertently spoiled some plot twists, though determining which paragraphs were legitimate and which were red herrings became part of the experience.

Where Sentinel Worlds stumbles is in player guidance. The game provides minimal direction, making the initial scenarios challenging and lacking clear objectives. The difficulty curve is steep early on, potentially frustrating before you've accumulated resources to compete effectively.

One of the best aspects of Sentinel Worlds is the graphics quality. Despite the limitations of the EGA graphics (a palette of 16 colors only), the pixel art is absolutely beautiful, especially the planetary landscapes. The characters' portraits are well-designed, too, and they resemble famous actors from the 80s (Terminator, Ellen Ripley, and Apollo Creed among them). Unfortunately, the music is limited by the PC speaker; no audio card was supported. From this point of view, the Commodore 64 port is better, but at the same time, it suffers from less detailed graphics due to the lower resolution.

Compared to contemporaries like Starflight, Sentinel Worlds attempted to combine everything—space exploration, vehicle combat, tactical ground battles—into one package. Space RPG lovers will have to wait 2 more years to have a more complete sci-fi RPG like Centauri Alliance. But for players who persist through the challenging opening, Sentinel Worlds delivers a rewarding space adventure with surprising depth and freedom.