When I saw Kingdom of Kroz for the first time I didn't like it. That was in father's local newspaper editorial office where he worked. He typed articles on PC 386 and sometimes played shareware games brought by his younger colleague. Rough graphics, actually only letters and blocks, it seemed to me that this game wasn't worth playing. But, in the early 90's, I didn't have a many opportunities to play any kind of video game on PC. So, I took a good occasion and gave this game a chance. After some time of playing, I realized that I made a mistake, because Kingdom of Kroz is actually a great video game. Also, I figured out that a video game doesn't have to be full of quality graphics to keep the player's attention. It is much more important that it has great twists and puzzles which are not easily resolved. I didn't know then who Scott Miller was, but after those day I became honest fan of his fantastic game series like Caverns of Kroz, Dungeons of Kroz, Return to Kroz etc.
Like author says in instruction, "Kingdom of Kroz is a game of exploration and survival". Your gain is to survive all of 25 level of game and to collect gems which is need to stay alive. Also, you must collects keys, power rings, teleports, whips, chests with secret content, clue tablets etc. All of those subjects will help you to be able to finish the game in one piece. The other side of the story is that you must avoid the enemy of course. Well, these wonderfull creatures are red, green and blue monsters. Any contact with them will take you one or more gems. You can kill them by whips but these weapon is not always so successful.
You can move in all 8 directions: Up - I, Down - M, Left - J and Right - K, or you can use arrow keys for those directions. Also you can move and U - Up Left, O - Up Right, N - Down Left and , - Down Right. You need to think about how you are going to complete a certain level, but you also need to be fast to kept your gems. Sometimes, whips are better to use to smashed breakable blocks. Also, enemies who follows you , can be killed if they touch that breakable blocks. Some of walls are under the electric powers so every time you touch them loose some points. Lot of levels contain of dozens of treasures, spells, traps and other unknowns.
P. Penski
Video file by: Retro Games Blog