Added by Prelude on 20 Dec 2007 08:58

4789 Views 2 Comments

vote

[Series] Quest for Glory

Sort by: Showing 9 items

Rating: List Type:

Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero [Quest for Glory I]

Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero [Quest for Glory I]... - PC Games

(1989) Hero's Quest (later renamed to Quest for Glory due to trademark dispute) was a genre-inventing game designed by Lori Ann Cole and published by Sierra. No other game before had tried to mix an adventure game with role-playing game elements where character statistics would have an actual impact on being able to advance thru certain parts of the game.

The story follows an adventurer on his journey into the town of Spielburg (German for "game town", the first of many puns and in-jokes). The evil ogress Baba Yaga has cursed the land, and the baron who tried to drive her off. His children have disappeared, while the land is ravaged by monsters and brigands. The Valley of Spielburg is in need of a Hero.

The adventurer battles monsters, solves side quests and helps fairy-tale creatures he encounters. Fulfilling quests will grant him experience and money, which he may use to buy equipment and potions. The game is open ended, and the player can explore the entire game area at once and solve the quests whichever order they see fit.

Hero's Quest also advertised itself as 'three games in one', since the player can start off the game as a thief, a fighter or a magic user, each with different paths they can take to complete the side quests and goals.

Hero's Quest introduced a realism rarely found in RPGs and other adventure games even today. Day, night and the passage of time was a factor; the setting and scenery was different during day and night. The main character had to eat on a regular basis, he would become tired from running and fighting which required rest and sleep. Skills were not obtained thru leveling up in combat, but rather through the regular course of your adventuring. The more you used magic, the more your Magic ability would increase, followed by Intelligence; likewise the more you engaged in battle, training, or even cleaning the stables, the more your Strength, Vitality and Agility would increase.

Gameplay Video:

Prelude's rating:

8.8

Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire - PC Games

(1990) Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire directly follows the events of Hero's Quest, when the newly-proclaimed Hero of Spielburg travels by flying carpet with his friends Abdulla Doo, Shameen and Shema to the desert city of Shapeir. The city is threatened by magical elementals, while the Emir of Shapier's sister city Raseir is missing and his city fallen under tyranny.

Trial by Fire follows similar gameplay style as Hero's Quest, though there are distinctions. This game's plot runs on a restricted time frame; the entire story is concluded in 30 days. Many of the puzzles in the game do not appear or cannot be solved until certain days. This keeps gameplay on a tight, more linear narrative. Also, the fighting sequence has been changed to a third-person perspective which is a nice improvement to the head-on approach used in Hero's Quest.

The player can choose their adventurer to be a thief, a fighter or a mage, or can import the character they used to finish Hero's Quest with, complete with all items and character stats. Typically, an imported character would be better off than a newly-created one, giving the player more incentive to play this series in sequence.

A nice unique feature of this game is that the character is not locked out of different side quests depending on class. If you play as a fighter with some magical ability (or import a magic user from Hero's Quest and play them as a fighter) you can utilize this cross-training to complete other quests. It is possible for your character to become a Wizard, complete every theft in the game, and join the Eternal Order of Fighters. This is also first time in the series where the hero may be awarded the title of Paladin. If the hero acts honorably throughout the game, Rakeesh will present to you his Paladin sword, Soulforge, and title of Paladin at the end of the game. The sword and Paladin status remains once the character is imported into Quest for Glory III: Wages of War.

Gameplay Video:

Prelude's rating:

7.7

Quest for Glory III: Wages of War - PC Games

(1992) A direct sequel to Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, the third installment in the series begins as Rakeesh the Paladin brings the Hero and Prince of Shapeir to Tarna, a jungle and savanna environment that resembles Africa. Tarna is on the brink of war, and our Hero must do all he can to stop the rivaling tribes, and prevent a Demon from being unleashed upon the world.

Wages of War marked the first game in the series to use the VGA graphics engine. Also, instead of a text parser interface to control the hero, the player now uses a mouse to point and click icons and the scenery.

Although the three classes return (Thief, Fighter and Magic User), along with a fourth one, Paladin, if imported in from Trial by Fire as such, the Thief class is almost completely ignored in this game, due to the strong emphasis on combat and lack of theft of items side missions and Thieves Guilds.

Promotional Trailer:

Prelude's rating:

Quest for Glory I: So You Want to be a Hero [VGA]

8.3

Quest for Glory I: So You Want to be a Hero [VGA]... - PC Games

(1992) Sierra developed a complete remake of the original, Hero's Quest, which now featured 256-colour VGA graphics (most of the locations and character graphics were completely re-done), and a new, icon-based interface (instead of the text input in the original). You select dialogue choices from a dialogue menu, instead of typing conversation topics by yourself. Combat engine and some dialogues were also re-made.

VGA Remake Trailer:

This VGA remake made the original have same graphics quality and gameplay as the just-released Quest for Glory III. The second game in the series, Trial by Fire, never received a Sierra make-over, but a third-party released a freeware VGA remake of Quest for Glory II in August 2008 (see last entry in this game series).

Prelude's rating:

9.2

Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness - PC Games

(1993) Sierra's fourth Quest For Glory game is a journey into the land of Mordavia, a Transylvania-like setting. Our Hero had just begun to enjoy his victory in Tarna, when a spell zapped him into parts unknown, without a weapon, items, or even a source of light. Life has never been quite so dangerous for our Hero.

Like the previous Quest For Glory titles, Shadows of Darkness is a combination of puzzle-solving adventure and RPG. You can play as a fighter, a thief, a magician, or a paladin. Once again you improve your skills by repeatedly using them (like throwing stones at a tree to improve your throwing ability, which you might need to solve a puzzle). The combat system in this fourth installment is different: viewed from a platform perspective, it allows you to move freely, attack, defend, and even jump in real time, like in fighting games.

Shadows of Darkness features far darker themes while maintaining the humor of previous games through such methods as incorporating Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre parodies. Centered around a dark cult summoning an unfathomably large evil, the game was a far cry from earlier villains such as Baba Yaga.

Promotional Trailer:

8.8

Quest for Glory Anthology - PC Games

(1996) This compilation release from Sierra includes Quest for Glory 1 thru to 4, as well as the VGA remake of Hero's Quest, all on one CD (all previous games were released on floppy discs).

Prelude's rating:

Quest For Glory: Collection Series - PC Games

(1997) This compilation is almost identical as the Quest for Glory Anthology release, but also includes a Quest for Glory Soundtrack CD along with a sneak preview of the up-coming Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire game.

7.6

Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire - PC Games

(1998) Dragon Fire is final game in the Quest for Glory series, as well as the final game from the 'original' Sierra On-Line studio. The Hero journeys to a Greece-like land of Silmaria to investigate an assassination and prevent a Dragon from destroying the land. He may also wind up as the new King of Silmaria. Many old friends make appearances. The game features panoramic hand-drawn backgrounds, three-dimensional characters, and a fully orchestrated musical score.

Gameplay Video:

Quest for Glory V is a slightly different genre from the rest; while the first four were adventure games with RPG elements, Dragon Fire takes on a lot more Role-Playing elements, as it features a wide variety of weapons, armor and magical items, and nearly every major mission consists of going to places and defeating a monster in physical or magical combat. Additionally, the controls and battle system are substantially different from the rest of the series.

Because of deadline and financial pressures, several features were dropped from the final release, such as the ability to use a bow, the ability to play as Elsa von Spielburg or Magnum Opus, and multiplayer capability.

Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire [VGA] - PC Games

(2008) This is a fan-made VGA remake of the original Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire using the Adventure Game Studio engine. With the upgraded graphics it also features a point & click interface. This very impressive unofficial remake has hand-drawn backgrounds, digitized character portraits and animations, bringing Trial by Fire to equivalent graphics and gameplay of Quest for Glory III as well as the Quest for Glory I Sierra-made VGA remake.

Gameplay Video:

Click on this link for free version of this fan-made game!

Voters of this game list - View all

Quest for Glory series
(aka Hero's Quest)

Quest for Glory is a series of hybrid role-playing/adventure computer games designed by Corey and Lori Ann Cole. The series combined humor, puzzle elements, themes and characters borrowed from various legends, puns, and memorable characters, creating one of the better-remembered series in the Sierra stable.

Although the series was originally titled Hero's Quest, Sierra failed to trademark the name. Consequently, the electronic adaptation of the HeroQuest board game forced Sierra to change the series' title to Quest for Glory, including all re-issues of the original Hero's Quest game, which was renamed as Quest for Glory I.

The series consisted of five games, each of which followed directly upon the events of the last. New games frequently referred to previous entries in the series, often in the form of cameos from recurring characters. The objective of the series is to transform the player character from an average Joe to a Hero by completing non-linear quests.

Originally, the series was supposed to be a tetralogy, consisting of 4 games, each one representing a different element (Earth, Fire, Water, Air) and different mythological references (Germanic, Middle Eastern, Slavic and Greek). However, when they got to write Shadows of Darkness they thought it would be too difficult for the hero to go from Shapeir straight to Mordavia and defeat the Dark One. So they decided to insert a new game, Wages of War, which was not in their original canon, and caused a renumbering of the series. Evidence for this can be found in the end of Trial by Fire where it says the next game would be Shadows of Darkness and featured a fanged vampyric moon - hinting at the next game's theme.

There was some criticism concerning the games as time-consuming. For example, while adding to realism, in order to build a certain skill or reach a certain point of time, the player has to repeat for countless times some certain action (such as 'climb tree', 'get rock'-'throw rock'), or walk aimlessly until the time passes. However, the game has nonetheless acquired cult status among computer game veterans, and was revolutionary and thus far unrivalled in its character import system, which allowed you to import your individual character, including the skills and wealth he had acquired, from one game to the next.

Hero's Quest (and all subsequent Quest for Glory games, including the final one, Dragon Fire) were developed and designed by Lori Ann Cole and her husband Corey, and published by Sierra On-Line.

Disclaimer: Most images, including box art and screenshots, were obtained from MobyGames and Gamespot. Most description and text are from MobyGames and Wikipedia sources.