Preamble: This isn't a review. It doesn't contain critical analysis, just the subjective opinions of one person. The intent is to remember the games I've come across in my life and share the nostalgia, nothing more. And some of those games I didn't play in great depth.

Betrayal at Krondor

Developer: Dynamix
Platform: PC (DOS)
Release Year: 1993
Stephen's Rating: ?

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Betrayal at Krondor was a first and third person RPG set in Raymond E. Feist's fantasy world of Midkemia.

The game experience is designed to be like reading a book. The story is broken up into chapters. It is narrated from the third person and the quick save feature uses the concept of a bookmark.

Originally the events that take place in the game were not part of Raymond E. Feist's book collection but were included after the fact in the book Krondor: The Betrayal.

Basic Plot

I don't remember much about the plot as I only started playing it and never progressed very far. I found the game too complex and too difficult to get into.

Straight from Wikipedia: "A moredhel known as Gorath has brought news of deadly forces stirring on the horizon. The Nighthawks have begun murdering again, and a group of six magicians known as The Six are at the root of it all. Tsurani gem smugglers led by The Crawler and traitors to the crown are all plotting the fall of the Kingdom of the Isles. Squires James and Locklear must fend off the reunited moredhel while Gorath and his newly gained friend Owen seek to aid the magician Pug and the kingdom".

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Exploring.

Gameplay

The exploration part of the game happened from a first person perspective, and combat was third person.

The big thing that drew my attention to the game was the sheer scale of the world you could explore. It was massive, perhaps rivaling the infamous Morrowind in terms of size.

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Combat.

Positives

Huge scale, lots of exploration and side-quests available. From a logical perspective this game sounded right up my alley, but it just didn't come off as expected.

Negatives

For whatever reason I found it hard to get in to. Maybe like many books I should have read the first 100 pages before giving up.

Memorable Moments

I didn't really "get" this game. Perhaps someone who played it and enjoyed it could comment further.

hypercube

Hungary2735 Posts

June 24 2012 21:29 GMT

I played this game so much. I loved the combat and I loved the large world.

Unfortunately I spoke almost no English at the time and I got stuck trying to get into one of the cities. I think I was supposed to sneak through the sewers somehow but it's all a blur now.

DRTnOOber

New Zealand476 Posts

June 24 2012 21:34 GMT

That's the problem I have too, a lot of the games I blog about I played for maybe a day or two 15 years or more ago... and it's hard to write really descriptive reports on them. Well done for attemping a game in a foreign language though! I once played Pokemon Yellow in Japanese but only because I'd played Red and Blue in English and knew pretty much what everyone was saying.

hypercube

Hungary2735 Posts

June 24 2012 21:54 GMT

In retrospect some of these RPGs are more fun if you have no idea what's going on. I loved Dark Sun II as a kid but when I looked at it a couple of years ago it felt like a terrible grind. It was more fun when every conversation was a puzzle. The stories I made up based on the few words I understood were more interesting than ones the writers came up with

sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

June 24 2012 22:09 GMT

There's an infinite loop when you get the thing that lets you make poison arrows, you can buy regular arrows sell poison arrows and profit

Aylear

Norway3988 Posts

June 24 2012 23:05 GMT

Oh man, Betrayal at Krondor. I should do a Through The Rose-Tinted Spectacles on this game. It's one of my favorite RPGs of all time. The characters are good, the world is fleshed out, it has a fairly fun turn-based combat system, and the story was written by Raymond E. Feist and takes place in Midkemia, the Riftwar universe (a series of fantasy novels I heartily recommend, by the way). All in all, great fun, if a bit tough to get into.

Abracadaver

United States21 Posts

June 25 2012 00:33 GMT

I remember (trying to play) this game when I was little. I had no idea what was going on and got frustrated.

I had a similar experience with SimTower, too young to understand it. Today, almost 20 years (!) later, I beat SimTower. Someday, I will find a copy of this game and beat it as well

SimTower was actually still pretty challenging/engaging, I wonder how well BaK has stood the test of time?

Hopefully some further blog posts can remind me of some other things I can take nostalgic revenge on. Maabus? Ultimate Domain? Terminator: Rampage? Ultima 7? Dagger's Rage? I remember being REALLY frustrated by Dagger's Rage.

DRTnOOber

New Zealand476 Posts

June 25 2012 00:39 GMT

On June 25 2012 09:33 Abracadaver wrote:
I remember (trying to play) this game when I was little. I had no idea what was going on and got frustrated.

I had a similar experience with SimTower, too young to understand it. Today, almost 20 years (!) later, I beat SimTower. Someday, I will find a copy of this game and beat it as well

I've already blogged about Ultima 7 parts one and two:

http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=340999

http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=343983

(Ultima 7: Black Gate is my favourite game of all time...)

I've not played Maabus, Ultima Domain, Terminator: Rampage or Dagger's Rage before... If I do get around to it I'll try them out and blog about the experience.

Zocat

Germany2229 Posts

June 25 2012 01:46 GMT

One of the best RPGs I played back then.

Memorable Moments:
Moredhel chests! You needed to solve a riddle before you could open the chest.

i.e.:
He gets short when he gets old.
He goes out then it gets cold.
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