Playing Hero Quest has to be one of my earliest memories of PC games (well, apart from Frogger) and it is also the best straight from board to PC conversions, in my opinion. This game was made by Gremlin who also made other classics like Zool. As I mentioned, it is based on a board game. The conversion makes a turn-based strategy game in a fantasy setting. Like the board game, you are able to choose simple attack styles as you move through the dungeons, and you will utilize fairly standard TB rules, such as movement points and so forth to determine when your turn has ended.
The graphics of this game were brilliant for the time it came out and the side on angle adds a nice touch to it; I would say that the graphics are still excellent even when compared with today’s games. There were a lot of colorful backgrounds, and a lot of close ups of items that were very cool.
This game is excellent for those that are awful at making up stories and quests as it has a complete set of maps already set up and ready to go, the controls are easy and it doesn’t take much skill to complete each map but can be a real pain if you try to completely clear it. There is also a save feature so
you do not have to start a new character each time you play There are four different playable characters, which can all be played at the same time. The strong Barbarian, the tough Dwarf, the agile Elf or the magical wizard. The only objective to each level that you must do is to enter the stairs which is in one of the rooms, though there are other objectives are you supposed to do, like mini-quests.
It might be just me but any sounds that can be accurately reproduced using something like a SNES or Sega genesis get on my nerves rather quickly and as such I always played with as little sound as possible. That is the only real drawback to this game, and I find it in everything I play.
The game has a nice replay factor that you can do each dungeon again and play each character multiple times while saving each one but once your character gets all the equipment from the shop it starts getting really repetitive and soon loses its appeal. The fact that there are four different characters to play is what makes this replayable.
A nice game, some of my best memories are sitting at a pc with my brother and dad playing this game. Very good for when it came out but would expect a whole lot more from it if it was remade.
