Windows

Raymond E. Feist's Return to Krondor

I may have beaten RtK, but I am still amazed by the gripping world it created. I've gone back to various parts in the game to find there were little things I missed. This is definitely a game well worth playing for anyone that likes a good fantasy story. It is a little too linear compared to BaK, and thus it's not quite as much of a classic as BaK was. Sierra has come through with Return to Krondor and made one of the best RPG's of the year. It's without a doubt the best interactive story of the year and will keep RPG fans engrossed until they've beaten it. Return to Krondor makes my list of top ten games for 1998.

Slight bugs and lack of longevity aside, this is one of the most invigorating and addictive RPGs to come out since Diablo rocked the PC gaming world way back in 1996. In the less than stellar popular field of computer RPGs, Return to Krondor has some of the best plot, gameplay, and production values seen in a while. Now, Return to Krondor is titled Book One. If Book Two lives up to this one and the aging prequel, we very well may have a phenomenon on our hands.

Return to Krondor is een waardige opvolger van bestseller Betrayal at Krondor. Het ziet er allemaal fraai uit en het plot is ijzersterk. Persoonlijk vond ik de aktie soms wat gering, maar ik vermoed dat de meeste RPG-fans er anders over zullen denken.

Die Rückkehr nach Krondor bietet all das, was ich von einem Rollenspiel erwarte: Eine fesselnde Story reizt zum Weiterspielen, und das Kampfsystem ist brilliant. Anders als bei der Konkurrenz treibt die Hintergrundgeschichte stets die Handlung voran und dient nicht nur als Vorwand für das Verprügeln ahnungsloser Monster. Die Kämpfe sind, nicht nur meiner Meinung nach, gelungener als bei Baldur's Gate und gehören zum Besten, was es je bei einem Rollenspiel in dieser Kategorie gab. Sie beweisen, daß die Runde ebenso spannend und besser spielbar sein kann als der modische Echtzeit-Kram. Auch das Magiesystem ist durchaus gelungen, aber wirklich abgerundet wird das Programm durch die zahlreichen Details: Das Entschärfung von Fallen und Öffnen von Schlössern ist ein Beispiel dafür, wieviel Mühe sich die Entwickler gegeben haben.

But if you're looking for something none too taxing to play for just a couple of weeks (about as long as it would take the casual gamer to finish), or if you're a fan of the Feist novels, this will keep you amused.

Return To Krondor is very good game with its mix of beautiful graphics and complexity. Not only is there a great story, but you feel as though you are participating in it. The graphics are really well done and add a spark to the entire genre of RPG's. The adventure itself was interesting and complex, and had enough sub plots to provide a good long playing time. The biggest fault in the game is its ability to crash often enough to really get annoying. So, if you don't mind the bugs and crashing every 10 to 20 minutes and if you like RPG's, you'll love this game.

At the end of the day, this potentially excellent game is let down by a number of niggly problems. For example: in shops there's no real bartering process (which takes the buzz out of shopping, and often results in you being ripped off by shrewd shopkeepers); you can't select multiple items, instead you have to pick things up one by one (too much in a game with this many objects); and savegame names can only be up to eight characters in length - why?! These, the screen-swapping problems mentioned earlier, and the fact that the first few hours of the game are pretty dull, make Return To Krondor a slightly frustrating experience initially. If you're the patient type and are prepared to put the hours in, though, you may just warm to it. Just like I did.

Boot up Return to Krondor and you can expect to give up sleep, food, and meaningful interactions in the real world for at least a few days (the game is so compelling that you tend to devour it in as few bites as possible, like a great thick novel). Return is a stunning return to form for the Krondor series, and bodes spectacularly well for any future installments in the on-going tale.

But in some respects, Return is surprisingly more traditional than Betrayal. The latter supplied over a dozen elaborate but optional mini-quests with tangible rewards and perils. Return has very few in the entire game. Betrayal infused its casual battles, unrelated to the main plot, into a series of underlying major events, each with its own internal logic (a high-level magic user sent by a specific enemy to ambush your party at a farmhouse, for instance). The casual battles in Return's first several chapters return to the primitive days of Bard's Tale I: you knock on residences, enter, and fight. In short, Betrayal felt like a universe. Return feels like a beautifully visualized pencil-and-paper RPG.

casual gaming. Return to Krondor is certainly not a massive and open-ended role-playing game set in an expansive gaming world. With its distinctive, preset characters, scripted events, and limited geographical scope, Return to Krondor is a more linear, story-driven, and somewhat more intimate game. While Return to Krondor may not be an epic sequel to Betrayal at Krondor, its excellent graphics and immersive plot and gaming world make it an enjoyable story-driven game while it lasts.

An average RPG. Has superior graphics, and is written by one of the best authors. Whether you are a fan of Raymond E. Feist or not, you will probably enjoy this game overall.

Allen Widrigkeiten zum Trotz habe ich mich erstaunlich motiviert durch Midkemia gekämpft. Das taktische Kampfsystem ist leicht zu bedienen, und die vielen Gespräche sorgen für etwas Adventure-Flair. Raffgierige Inventarpfleger werden durch die Flut an Ausrüstungsgegenständen glücklich. Anspruch und Tiefgang sind allerdings nicht ganz so episch wie die Story: Intensivspieler haben Krondor locker in einer Woche durch.

While I don't think I'm going to rush right out and give Betrayal at Krondor another chance, Return to Krondor really delivers. I can forgive its shortcomings-the lack of any practical variety in the magic system or the characters-for the sake of its strengths-a satisfying, intelligent story and a really superb fighting system. Gameplay is frustrating at times but you'll get the hang of the interfaces soon enough. Although the story might not be any fun to read, it's a heck of a lot of fun if you're actually playing it. For those of you who might be turned off because of the poor magic system, I should say that the game offers three playing options that affect the balance between the game's emphasis on combat and magic. I was playing on the balanced level, which supposedly offers an even taste of each. You can always weight the game more or less heavily to the use of magic as you preference dictates.

Nu blijft het een spel dat ik enkel maar zou aanraden aan de fans van de novellen en de hardcore gamers! Jammer, want het had zoveel meer kunnen zijn ...

När allt kommer omkring är det fortfarande ett RPG i klassisk 2D som sitter på tronen. Baldur's Gate har allt och lite till, och Return to Krondor liknar, om ni ursäktar jämförelsen, mest något illaluktande som fastnat under AD&D-jättens stålbeskodda stövel. Men, i brist på annat kan det ge den äventyrstörstande en och annan timmes underhållning.

Return to Krondor comes highly recommended for roleplaying fans who aren't averse to strong stories with not a lot of extraneous quests going on. Titles like this that are based on very popular novels should have the power to draw in a lot more game players from the reading fraternity. Will this one, I wonder? Interestingly, the box cover here in Australia doesn't say much about swords and sorcery and fantastic lands. It just features the mean-looking 'Bear' who is a cross between Conan the Barbarian and The Incredible Hulk ...Yuk! Mr Feist's books don't trade on such aggressive imagery and I suspect there must be a very good reason. So why do games publicists aim at a very different audience?

Bref Return To Krondor ne tient pas, à mon avis, toutes ses promesses... Son ancètre, Betrayal At Krondor était en son temps un must, mais Return To Krondor est "seulement" un bon RPG, mais qui ne passionera que les inconditionnels du genre.

Return to Krondor is a good interactive novel brought to its knees by lousy camera angles and brevity. The expansive fully-explorable map of Betrayal at Krondor is sorely missed, and even the story is lacking by comparison. The graphics, combat system and puzzles are a step in the right direction, but Return to Krondor certainly fell short of my high expectations for a Raymond E. Feist RPG. Nonetheless, I still recommend it to Feist fans and adventure gamers who want a taste of role-playing.