Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness

aka: Ha-ratson le-otsma 4: Tslalei ha-khashekha, Hero's Quest 4: Shadows Of Darkness, QFG4, Quest for Glory III: Shadows of Darkness, Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
Moby ID: 119
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Shadows of Darkness is the fourth Quest for Glory game. It is a journey into the land of Mordavia - a setting influenced by Eastern Europe, particularly its Slavic areal. The hero had just begun to enjoy his victory in Tarna, when a spell zapped him into parts unknown, without a weapon, items, or even a source of light. Shortly after finding his way out of the dark cave, the hero meets a mysterious woman named Katrina. He traverses the swamps in the dark forest and finally reaches the town. However, the town is also engulfed by a foreboding atmosphere, and the hero cannot allow himself to relax. He must find out what is going on, why the town inhabitants are so hesitant and reluctant to help him, and what horrors are lurking outside of its walls. Life has never been quite so dangerous for our hero. He'll discover his quest soon enough - that is, if he lives.

Like the previous Quest For Glory titles, the game is a combination of puzzle-solving adventure and role-playing. The player character can be a fighter, a thief, a magician, or a paladin. Importing a character from a preceding installment of the series is also possible. Once again the hero improves his skills by repeatedly using them (like throwing stones at a tree to improve the throwing ability, which might be needed to solve a puzzle).

Combat system in this installment has undergone a major change. Battles are viewed from a side-scrolling perspective and are action-oriented. The protagonist is able to move freely, jump, and execute attacks and defensive moves, similarly to fighting games. The CD version of the game adds voice-overs to conversations as well as narrator's voice to text descriptions.

Spellings

  • הרצון לעוצמה 4: צללי החשכה - Hebrew spelling
  • 英雄傳奇4:魔障 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 영웅의 길 IV: 어둠의 그림자 - Korean spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

71 People (64 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 76% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 155 ratings with 10 reviews)

It could have been the best of the series.

The Good
Besides being a funny game with a great story it had one thing that no other QFG game had... John Rhys-Davies. Thats right, direct from Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's Indy's friend Sallah as the narrator. Along with that theirs a great atmosphere and a sweet arcade style combat system.

The Bad
BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS

Count the number of times I types bugs. Multiply that by a million. Thats how many bugs are in the game. I may be exaggerating, but not that much. The game would have been great without them. I CURSE YOU ERROR 42!!!!

The Bottom Line
If your a big quest for glory fan get the game. If your not swimming through the sea of bugs may not be worth it.

Windows 3.x · by Ryan Prendiville (689) · 2000

Not as great as the second one, but way better than the first and the third.

The Good
The paladin version of the game was by far the most rewarding, as you got to see everything in the game, especially if you were a thief/mage paladin like I was. The characters were more memorable than the third and first one, and actually had personality. The vampire girl I remember was sweet, but her appearance gave me nightmares. The story got more complex, and the puzzles got more fun. I enjoyed this game thoroughly as a paladin....

The Bad
....but I hated the game as the other classes. The thief had no impact on the game whatsoever, unlike the first and second game. There was no profit at all. Instead the focus came unto the paladin, who had more things to do. The battle system just fell flat on its face, and battles became a breeze to those with magic abilities and the real-life ability to hold down the magic button and let go at the the right time and an exercise in frustration to those who had to trudge through hand to hand fighting. The storyline, while the best in the series, took itself way too seriously and almost wiped out my impression of the light-heartedness of the earlier games and had no place in this series.

The Bottom Line
Buy this game so you can hate the third but appreciate the second game.

DOS · by SebastianLi (52) · 2000

Best of the QfG series

The Good
Many people see the battle system in this game as a disadvantage. I saw it as an definite plus to the game. It made battles quicker, but still allowed you to control the hero (that is, if you want to). Some battles, such as with the wraiths, are still a challenge.

I also found that the setting of this game was by far the best of any of the QfG series. I would go so far as to say it was the best, and most highly original plots, in any game I can remember. The transsylvanian setting coupled with the slavic folklore, like the leshy or rusalka, make a haunting and memorable game. The setting was so colorful and deep, that the feeling of loneliness and sorrow actually rubs off on you. You can feel the sadness in the lonely Mordavia, and get attached to the characters. As such the sacrifice Toby makes for the girl Tanya was quite touching.

Speaking of characters, I must say that they are all, everyone of them, memorable. From Yuri the innkeeper, to helpless old Nikolai, or even the ghost of the paladin Piotyr, they all standout in my memory perfectly. The characters had an almost eerie depth to them.

One of the best improvements from the previous games was the addition of speaking characters. the most memorable? I would say John-Rhys Davies as the narrator, or the screach of the "hungry, hunting hawk". The addition of voices was one of the best choices they could have made to improve the game.

Now the music...I think that the music from Shadows of Darkness was memorable ( as you might have noticed, this game was highly memorable to me) and, I think, was responsible for most of the depth in the game. I would pay good money to buy a Shadows of Darkness music cd. Just listen to the adventurere's guild music, and then you will fully understand how lonely the game is. Who ever wrote and performed that music, God bless ye.

"Here lies the spirit of Barney Blue, To his lover was untrue, So his lover knew just what to do, She fixed herself some Barney stew"

The Bad
In my opinion, there were but two problems with this game. Unfortunately, both are very bad. The first is that the game ends. I know it sounds weird, but I wish that the game would just continue, as I love the setting and characters so much.

The next problem was the BUGS. The god forsaken bugs. May the swamp bug die a horrible death. Just hearing someone say "error 52" still unnerves me.

The Bottom Line
Buy this game! even if you can't beat it because of bugs, just enjoy the characters and music until the glitches catch up with you.

DOS · by Boris Stovich (26) · 2006

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Some more non-bug problems Nowhere Girl (8680) Aug 2, 2016
My bug collection Nowhere Girl (8680) May 12, 2013
Bugs? Like dialog progressing too quickly Nowhere Girl (8680) Aug 15, 2012

Trivia

CD-ROM version

Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness was also released on CD-ROM, which was a part of the Quest for Glory collector´s edition. This CD version of the game featured full speech, although it was similar to the earlier disk release. The earlier parts of this series (unfortunately) only had disk versions.

Domovoi

There is a Domovoi (in fact two of them, one with a large role who has blue fur, and the other with a small role who has discolored brown fur) in Quest for Glory IV. In medieval Russian folk tales, when the good housewife heard the house making creaking noises, these were supposed to be the sounds made by the mommy Domovoi's little tiny children. It was said to be a good idea for the housewife to throw down a heavy cloth on top of the place where the housewife heard the noises. The mommy Domovoi would then not be able to hear where her little children were, because the cries would be muffled. In exchange for telling the mommy Domovoi where her children were, it was said that the medieval Russian housewife could ask the mommy Domovoi any question at all, and would be able to count on getting a magically correct and complete answer.

Fun things to try

Here are some interesting things to do while you play the game. Be warned, the first ones will get you killed, so save before you try them:

  • Break into the Burgomeister's office and stay until morning
  • Break into Nikolai's house and stab him with the knife
  • Die from exhaustion (no health or stamina)
  • Read the necrophilicon
  • As a thief, touch the statue in the monastery basement

Now for a few less-fatal ones...

  • Cast calm while fighting the pit horror and touch it
  • Try giving money and candy to various townsfolk
  • Burn down the monastery while Igor is outside, and talk to him afterwards
  • Try to fence items with Lorre Petrovich (Chief Thief)
  • Walk up the slippery path just outside the Dark One's cave
  • Talk to the townsfolk (Hans, Ivan and Franz) in the Inn during the evening

Installation program

During the installation of the disk version (which takes a while because it came on 9 disks) the player gets to read all kinds of amusing anecdotes from the customer department. The installation program also compliments you for the quality of the poetry found in your word processor directory, and at the end of the installation process it apologizes for not mentioning earlier that you've got some parsley stuck between your teeth.

Music

The name of the song played in the Hotel Mordavia is called "Anitra's Dance", and it was composed by Edvard Grieg.

Narrator's voice

John Rhys-Davies, who played Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Arc and Gimli in Lord of the Rings, provides the voice of the narrator on the CD version of the game.

Recurring elements

  • The enigmatic Moose Head and 'Maltese Falcon' appear in this game, as they do in every game in the Quest For Glory series. (Courtesy of the prop department, of course.) The rare Mordavian Moose in the adventurer's guild has fangs (funny little thing that amused me when I first noticed it).
  • Baba Yaga (a major villain in the first QFG1) makes a re-appearance in this Quest for Glory game.

References

  • The book in the monastery basement is named 'Necrophilicon', which was probably inspired by a book called 'Necronomicon', which appears in several of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. This "Necrophilicon" has references to a mad monk named Amon Tillado (which in turn is a pun on the mad Arab named Abdul Al-Hazred, also mentioned by Lovecraft). And the name "P.H. Craftlove" is featured in the game's manual too ;)
  • Just to further elaborate, the name "Amon Tillado", besides being a play on Lovcraft's Mad Arab, is also taken from E.A. Poe's story 'The Cast of Amontillado.' And yes, students of old greek, the name "Necrophilicon" does roughly work out to "The book of sex with the dead." (a rather raunchy joke by the standards of the series; probably assumed anyone who "got it" wouldn't be offended.)
  • In the Adventurer's Guild, a pamphlet contains Dr. Cranium talking about "The castle of Dr. Brain", which is a reference to the educational Sierra game Castle of Dr. Brain.
  • The vorpal bunny is based on the rabbit from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • The Chief Thief, Lorre Petrovich, is Peter Lorre backwards and with "Peter" in Russian. The Chief Thief does look quite a bit like Peter Lorre, too! Peter Lorre is an actor who has been in a number of horror movies, but is probably best known for his role as Ugarte in the classic film Casablanca. Of course, Quest for Glory 2 fans will remember Ugarte from Raseir.

Townsfolk dialogue

The voice actors of Hans, Franz, and Ivan at the Inn had some particularly humorous ad-libs that were not in the townsfolk's scripted lines. They say a number of funny things, so if you are one of the people who read what the script says and doesn't listen to the full speech, I advise you to stop and listen to the townsfolk.

Information also contributed by 88 49, Boris Stovich, Jiguryo, OceansDaughter, Rambutaan, Roedie, Roger Wilco, Timo Takalo and WizardX

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Eurythmic.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Jeanne, Shoddyan, Havoc Crow, Paulus18950, lee jun ho, Duduzets, Kayburt.

Game added May 16, 1999. Last modified January 20, 2024.