Well written, aesthetically appealing (including the music and sound design especially), touching story that hits hard towards the end. Gameplay loop (literally in this case--time travel mechanics are deeply imbedded in the game) is fun and no single story wears out its welcome. Definitely not a hard game, though for me that's a good thing in a puzzle game (at least one driven by the underlying mystery and aesthetics like this one).
This release has truly made my week. It’s been a long time coming—too long, really. While I love some of the LucasArts titles (particularly Grim Fandango), I’ve always been a Sierra guy. Unfortunately, most people’s only exposure to the Sierra library is the King’s Quest Series. Writing off Sierra after that is like writing off wine after a swill of Two-Buck Chuck. Quest for Glory has, like Space Quest, always been inexplicably overshadowed by Kings Quest which, apart from KQVI, is rankly inferior. Indeed, Quest for Glory is, in my opinion, the best adventure series of all time. It was absolutely groundbreaking at the time of its release and holds up just as well today. Seldom, if ever, have adventure games been combined with RPGs as effectively as they were in this series. Liked importing your character between Mass Effect games? QFG has that. Like well-written dialogue and narration in a videogame? Quest for Glory has that (John Rhys-Davies in QFG IV!). Like a little combat and stat building to break up the adventure game pointing and clicking? QFG has this too, and so much more. Each game has a unique setting and incorporates themes, foes, and creatures taken from that setting (Germanic, Arabian, African, Russian, and Classical (Greece, Rome) settings are explored). Trial by Fire, for example, features djinns, desert bandits, an evil vizier, winding city streets, etc. So, regardless of your preference for particular cultures and their mythologies, the series will have something for you. In many games, class selection is simply a matter of combat prowess and a unique sidequest or two. QFG has these sidequests, of course, but goes the extra mile by creating multiple solutions to each puzzle in the game, one for each class. The game won’t necessarily force you to solve it your class’s way, but it will usually be the easiest of the three solutions available to you given your character’s strengths. It’s odd to think of an adventure game having replay value, but QFG has it in spades. Please, please, please buy this game. You won’t regret it, and you will be finally giving a wonderful series a much overdue place in the sun. Two final notes: 1. Kudos to GOG for getting the publisher to agree to sell the entire series together and for a reasonable price. Splitting King’s Quest up into three packages was difficult to stomach. 2. Quest for Glory I and II were originally released in EGA. QFG I was remastered in VGA for the Quest for Glory Collection’s release (both versions are included in the GOG release). The fine folk at AGD Interactive released a free remastered VGA version of QFG II a few years ago, which I highly recommend playing through if you want something slightly easier on the eyes than the one in this package (make sure you buy the whole series from GOG first though, cheapskate :-)!
