I've lost track of how many times I've played the Quest for Glory series. I think it's a nearly perfect blend of puzzle-solving, monster-slaying, silly jokes, and "fantasized" mythology from a wide array of different cultures. It's a shame that Sierra no longer makes products like this.
"Shadows of Darkness" is, by a narrow margin, the best game of the bunch. It takes place in Mordavia, a fictional land patterned after Transylvania. As you might guess, the setting has all sorts of fun and creepy Gothic trappings - werewolves, vampires, graveyards, mysterious castles, etc. Game creators Lori and Cori Cole did a good job blending these horror elements with more traditional fantasy fare.
Unusually for a computer game, the characterization is a highlight. The people of Mordavia initially start out being suspicious of you (the hero), but their attitudes soften as you perform various good deeds. In another pretty unique twist, the villain is actually quite sympathetic and has a complex set of motivations.
The game is somewhat infamous for having lots of "bugs," a problem you'll see mentioned in pretty much every review. While I'd agree that the DOS version was problematic, once I got the CD-ROM version (also available on the "Quest for Glory Anthology"), I never really had a major problem with bugs or crashes. I've managed to play the game as every character type available - Fighter, Wizard, Thief, and Paladin - without encountering any sort of technical problems to really stop me. So I'm tempted to say that the game's bugginess is exaggerated, though it's obviously a flawed product on the programming side.
Writing-wise, however, it's awesome. I should like to point out that the best character type to play is the Paladin - he gets a number of great side-quests, some of which involve helping characters in ways that are actually somewhat moving (if you can indeed be moved by the fates of pixel-people!) It's almost funny that the Paladin is so good, because in the preceding entry in the series, his noble powers were depicted as something of a joke...
Other high points include a pretty exciting combat system and a cool music score (if you can tolerate old-style midi). The graphics are dated but attractive in their own way; I actually prefer static VGA backgrounds to the more fluid, ugly polygon-filled environments that dominate modern games. But maybe I'm just a Luddite...
Yep - I'm a fan of this one, all right! Monsters, magic, and a cool vampire chick equals a classic in my book.
"Shadows of Darkness" is, by a narrow margin, the best game of the bunch. It takes place in Mordavia, a fictional land patterned after Transylvania. As you might guess, the setting has all sorts of fun and creepy Gothic trappings - werewolves, vampires, graveyards, mysterious castles, etc. Game creators Lori and Cori Cole did a good job blending these horror elements with more traditional fantasy fare.
Unusually for a computer game, the characterization is a highlight. The people of Mordavia initially start out being suspicious of you (the hero), but their attitudes soften as you perform various good deeds. In another pretty unique twist, the villain is actually quite sympathetic and has a complex set of motivations.
The game is somewhat infamous for having lots of "bugs," a problem you'll see mentioned in pretty much every review. While I'd agree that the DOS version was problematic, once I got the CD-ROM version (also available on the "Quest for Glory Anthology"), I never really had a major problem with bugs or crashes. I've managed to play the game as every character type available - Fighter, Wizard, Thief, and Paladin - without encountering any sort of technical problems to really stop me. So I'm tempted to say that the game's bugginess is exaggerated, though it's obviously a flawed product on the programming side.
Writing-wise, however, it's awesome. I should like to point out that the best character type to play is the Paladin - he gets a number of great side-quests, some of which involve helping characters in ways that are actually somewhat moving (if you can indeed be moved by the fates of pixel-people!) It's almost funny that the Paladin is so good, because in the preceding entry in the series, his noble powers were depicted as something of a joke...
Other high points include a pretty exciting combat system and a cool music score (if you can tolerate old-style midi). The graphics are dated but attractive in their own way; I actually prefer static VGA backgrounds to the more fluid, ugly polygon-filled environments that dominate modern games. But maybe I'm just a Luddite...
Yep - I'm a fan of this one, all right! Monsters, magic, and a cool vampire chick equals a classic in my book.
