I first played Betrayal at Krondor when I was in high school. A friend of mine handed me his copy of it and said see if I liked it as he didn’t, because it was too “fiddly” as he had put it. I remember later that afternoon going home and booting up the old 486 PC and installing the game. From that day this game had me hooked. It is my all time favorite RPG game that has been released on PC- no exceptions.
I first played Betrayal at Krondor when I was in high school. A friend of mine handed me his copy of it and said see if I liked it as he didn’t, because it was too “fiddly” as he had put it. I remember later that afternoon going home and booting up the old 486 PC and installing the game. From that day this game had me hooked. It is my all time favorite RPG game that has been released on PC- no exceptions. The game was so unique from anything that had come before it, with a great story full of twists and turns and great characters you could really get behind, coupled with exciting battles I was obsessed!
After years of the regular
first person view, dungeon exploration type RPGs, here was a game that broke the mould and set new standards in the genre.
Now 13 years on the game is still awesome. (I have only just last week found it and downloaded the game along with the DOS-box utility).While the graphics may look a little dated, that is a very minor inconvenience. The games main features have always been its great story (based on Raymond E Feist’s Riftwar saga) and it’s enthralling combat. The story unfolds just like reading a real book, with the game broken up into chapters. The story is full of twists and turns and spans the entire fantasy world of Midkemia. Your party will have to travel to every far flung corner of this fantasy world before the games end. You begin the game with a group of three; Owen a young magic user helps a Krondor noble Locklear with some wounds. Locklear is escorting a moredhel (elf) prisoner; Gorath to Krondor. As the mission is secret as well as urgent, Owen is made to join the pair, and so the story begins. As the main story unfolds, there are many different side quests for your group to partake in at your discretion as well, so the game does not grow stale.
The combat in the game is great and intense and no fight is easy. The way the music changes when a battle is about to occur or is in progress adds a great touch to the battle sequences. As the battles are turn based, you need strategy and not all full on attack as this method will see your group dead very quickly! Every member of the group can attack, block or regain some energy per round. Using Gorath and Locklear to help protect any hostiles from reaching Owen so he can cast spells from afar is the basic strategy you will need. Also deciding on whether to attack with a thrust of the sword or an almighty strike with the weapon gives the combat more depth. Thrusts have a greater chance of hitting an opponent, while a swinging attack does a larger amount of damage to any hostiles. The only drawback to the combat in the game is, there seems to be a lot of luck is involved when attacking. It is so very annoying when you try to hit a guy who is standing right next to one of your characters only to “miss” four or five attacks in a row only to have the enemy meat out two savage hits and you’re your character goes down mortally wounded.
That being said it is a very minor drawback and in no way detracts from this awesome game. If you’re a fan of RPGs and this game is not already in your collection, then what you are waiting for, get this game now!
