Overall most helpful review

Posted on: September 18, 2014

zombiemane

Games: 1285 Reviews: 1

An unexpected gem

At first glance I was almost ready to skip this game: it seemed like any typical RPG of its era, with throwaway plot to justify the mindless Hack'n'Slash that follows. The intro certainly doesn't help: a mysterious evil sorcerer appears out of nowhere and kills your father, the king and now it's your duty to take revenge. Can you even get more cliché than that? Don't let this first impression fool you. The plot is actually one of the best I've seen in any RPG up to that era. Nothing is what it seems to be, and once you're forced to leave your sheltered life in the castle, you start uncovering it all. Perhaps the story wouldn't seem so special when compared to what we've seen in later RPGs, but remember, the game came out on 1992. Even better than the gradually unfolding story is the setting (which true to its title includes 5 different realms, each of them very different than its neighbours) and the NPCs and party members. This game features hundreds of fleshed out NPCs and rich dialogues and many subquests, definitely on par with Ultima VII, which came out on the same year. Many of the NPCs are recruitable, and when you recruit them they tend to comment on your actions or join dialogues (and if my memory serves me right, they'd also quit your party if they disagree with your actions). This game use the same engine as Bloodnet, which came out a year later, and they both suffer from a clunky combat interface, which gets worse as the game goes on and your party size grows. The other major disadvantage is the time limit - you've got 100 days to finish the game before the world succumbs to darkness, which kills the option of carefree exploration. But despite its flaws and clunkiness, this game is a real classic. If it came out from a comapny more established in the RPG genere and didn't have the bad luck it be released in the same year as Ultima VII, it might have got the recognition it deserves.

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Posted on: September 19, 2014

Jait56

Games: 127 Reviews: 9

A Classic CRPG

Zombiemane's review is spot on, and there's nothing I can add to his masterpiece review. I can only confirm that for the patient CRPG gamer this game is a must buy. I played it when it originally came out in 1992, and spent almost as much time playing it as I did Ultima VI and VII. It has a crowded, living world full of NPC's and a combat/stat system much like Realms of Arkania, difficult to get used to, but once you do you'll be restarting and enjoying every minute of it.

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Posted on: June 6, 2015

Blightbow

Verified owner

Games: 190 Reviews: 1

This game is everything that makes GoG great.

Challenge of the Five Realms is a product of a different era. There are no rails here. You're given the hints for finding the game's critical path, but It's extremely easy to lock yourself out of the critical path due to two early game events: leaving your home city before putting all of its affairs in order (for reasons I won't spoil), and the encroaching "plague of darkness" that slowly consumes the map starting from the southernmost tip. This is unthinkable by modern game design standards, and would normally lead to a poor experience if it weren't for a powerful storytelling trick: your realm is vast, and your father was not the man he led you to believe. You are the prince of Alonia. You grew up sheltered and pampered within the seat of your kingdom, fed lies about your father's greatness and the respect his subjects hold for him. Once your father is murdered and the kingdom is in turmoil, the truth emerges: the people who have been oppressed at every turn would sooner spit in your face than help you, and those who your father called ally are eager to take advantage of the power vacuum. Your entire kingdom bears the wounds of tyranny, and you will be spending quite a bit of time learning the truth of your provinces, righting past wrongs, and convincing others that you're a mean worthy of being a leader. On top of this, you must discover the lost portals to other worlds and strike bargains with princes whose kingdoms are presenting their own problems. Learning all of these secrets and how to deal with them takes time. Few people who played this game when it first came out succeeded on their first playthrough, but the secrets learned during the prior session allow you to make better use of your time and discover more of them. Decide early on if you want to play with a FAQ, or enjoy the original experience. Most of you will decide that your time is understandably precious, but remember one thing: you can't find games like this today.

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Posted on: January 8, 2026

ngoth

Verified owner

Games: 510 Reviews: 2

Proto-Baldur's Gate?

I remember before it was released, seeing the first print ads for BG back in the day and thinking, "Wow, this looks like C5." And indeed, a PC with a fully customizable portrait, recruiting NPCs to his party along the way, who maybe chime with their own thoughts during dialogue sequences. And your party will get HUGE by the end of the game. It's not one of those super old-school dungeon crawling type of RPGs that requires super patience and dedication. I mean, I was 9 years old at the time, and I was still able to get into it and get to the end. It's more about story and dialogue rather than min-maxing. Unfortunately, that emphasis on story also includes a certain plot device that will make certain locations inaccessible and thus prevent you from finishing the game if you tarry too long. If you are not 9 years old, and you look carefully at the map, maybe this will not as big a problem for you as it was for me back then. But regardless it does significantly limit the exploration of the open world. A sense of urgency is of course not necessarily a bad thing, but even a small chance of a long and non-Roguelike RPG being impossible to complete and forcing the player to start all over from scratch is not good game design, IMO, so it should be noted. Perhaps this is one aspect that can be described as too "old-school". A disclaimer, because reviews here are too often clouded by nostalgia and you are probably as sick of them as I am, that this was my first CRPG, probably still got the box and manual and floppy disks somewhere. I also haven't played it since the 90s, so I can't speak to technical issues (if any) of the GOG version. But I felt the need to say something because there is so little info about this game on the internet. If you are fan of 90s CRPGs, I consider it to be a safe buy. Not a must-buy, but I don't think C5 deserved to be ignored as it was back then and continues to be today.

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Posted on: September 21, 2014

Henstomp

Games: 68 Reviews: 9

An RPG Gem

This game - wow - I loved this. I still have my original 3.5" disk version. I no longer have a floppy disk drive, but GoG just remedied that. Thank you! It is mostly in the vein of Ultima VI and VII, but, I think, the story is much richer and more rewarding. I also enjoyed how the world map would begin to disappear into the darkness if you didn't do things in a timely manner. Really created a sense of urgency. The character creation - a choice of, 'would you do this or that' scenario - is worth the admission price, alone. Recommended!

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