The nineties was truly the golden age of point and click adventure games. King’s Quest, Space Quest, Indiana Jones, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Blade Runner, Phantasmagoria, Under a Killing Moon, the list goes on and on. However, one of the best has to be the Quest for Glory Series.
The original was released in 1989, but I would recommend the VGA remake for the first one and the fan VGA remake for the second. After that, it is all original goodness. The game follows your adventure through different lands trying to stop evil, gather treasure and beat bad guys and had a number of different features that made it so much more than it’s “regular” point and click counterparts.
You are playing YOUR character rather than the one the game gives you. You have stats, skills, and abilities that you choose and develop. Want to be a mage? Magic away! How about a rogue? Sneak in and steal stuff while people sleep! The game had skills that you could work to gain ranks in, levels to gain, places to sneak, monsters to fight! Unlike other point and click games, you actually had a combat screen where you used your cunning, strength and magic to fight enemies. Didn’t feel like fighting? Train that sneak skill up. Want to make some coin with that sneak skill? Take the more evil route and break into people’s houses at night and steal their stuff! The choice is yours and it helps with replayability trying puzzles different ways, as well as playing as both a more virtuous or more evil character.
As the games progress, this becomes more pronounced and changes how other characters treat you more and more. The final leg of the character advancement option was something many games with direct sequels get wrong or ignore. You could import your character from each game to the next! You can play the same character you have been developing through all five games!
The interface is, for the most part, the standard one from Sierra point and click games from the `90s. You have a walk, talk, look, and inventory buttons. This game adds sneaking and magic to the mix bit still fairly standard. As the name suggests, you point and click to perform the desired action. Unique to Quest for Glory is a stat screen to track your stat and skill gains.
Graphically, the game holds up well in the VGA remakes and later games. It has a cartoonish feel to it that has a charm, and the objects and things are, for the most part identifiable. (A few of the inventory item icons are suspect to me).Each game is based on a different geographic area and theme, with the mythology and lore to go with it from Germanic style villages to an African Savana, all are presented in a pleasing and interesting design.
The sound design works, and the music does a great job of setting the mood in combat, just around town, or when sneaking into a house. Properly subdued when it needs to be and suitably epic when that is required.
At the end of the day, this game will appeal to a number of types of players including point and click fans, exploration and adventure fans, as well as roleplay gamers. It is a solid group of games full of action, exploration, story and pretty zany humor at times and I would recommend anyone who has an interest in any games outside of the direct action genre to try. I have played through them all at least 4 times and writing this has me dusting off the first one for install again.
Also, submited for observation… a lizard mauls me
Facebook Comments