Description
Based on
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga (and co-written by Feist himself),
Betrayal at Krondor is a medieval fantasy-themed role-playing game set in the Riftwar universe.
The story begins as Gorath, a moredhel (dark elf) renegade, who intended to warn the people of Krondor of the upcoming moredhel invasion, is attacked by an assassin. Locklear, a nobleman who serves the crown of Krondor, and a young magician named Owyn decide to accompany Gorath to Krondor, where they'll have to think of a plan to stop the moredhel leader Delekhan.
The game's story is divided into nine chapters. Each chapter has a goal to achieve before moving on to the next one, but the player is given considerable freedom to explore the vast world of the game and undertake side quests. Gorath, Locklear, and Owyn are the first party of characters the player controls; however, characters may leave and others may join the party later, as dictated by the events of the story.
Exploration in
Betrayal at Krondor takes place in a 3D world viewed from first-person perspective. Towns, however, are presented as a series of still screens representing locations (temple, tavern, in, etc.). Combat takes place on separate grid-based screens. The player moves the characters on these screens in a turn-based fashion, attacking physically, defending, and casting spells.
Only two character classes are present in the game: fighters and magicians. Fighters use swords or crossbows (for long-ranged attacks); magicians can fight with staves, or cast spells. Characters have four attributes: health, strength, speed, and stamina. The latter is depleted when a character uses weapons or casts magic. The role-playing system of the game relies on skills. Each character has a set of skills, ranging from weapon proficiencies to abilities such as bartering or stealth. Skills improve after continuous usage. The player can "emphasize" a skill in order to make it improve faster.
Alternate Titles
- "叛變克朗多" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
- "קרונדור" -- Hebrew spelling
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Trivia
Actors
The actors for the pseudo-video and motion capture don't look remotely like they're described by
Raymond E. Feist, and some (such as Pug) are downright contradictory.
CD-ROM version
The CD-ROM enhanced version of the game includes additional goodies:
- 5-minute interview with Feist
- Windows-based hint system
- Redbook audio soundtrack
Freeware release
Sierra has released the game for free as promotion for its two sequels. This offer only lasted for a limited time, though. The version which was obtainable through on the Sierra website was buggy and needed a patch to get it working correctly.
Novel
Raymond E. Feist, the author whose
Riftwar books
Betrayal at Krondor is based on, has actually written a book based on the game entitled
Krondor: The Betrayal, the first part of a new series called
The Riftwar Legacy. The book has the same basic plot as the game, but of course has been altered somewhat to fit the format as well as to be more consistent with Feist's
Midkemia series as a whole.
Feist does display an interesting knowledge of the game, however. For example, the method by which the villain is ultimately defeated in the book is actually a valid tactic for winning the final battle.
Sales
When the
Betrayal at Krondor first came out it did so miserably at sales that Sierra canceled all plans for a sequel. Later, Sierra rereleased the game on CD-Rom and the game suddenly became a huge hit. By that time, however, Raymond E. Feist already had a contract with a different publisher.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- June 1994 (Issue #119) – Role-Playing Game of the Year
- February 1996 (Issue #139) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
- November 1996 (155h anniversary issue) - #43 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 12/1999 - #76 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
- PC Gamer
- November 1999 - #44 Best Game of All Time
Information also contributed by
Alan Chan,
Adam Baratz
Kalirion,
PCGamer77,
William Shawn McDonie and
WizardX
