Betrayal at Krondor

The Good
The spell system was out of its time, most other games of that time did not have these kind of features.

The game has a great number of spells, from the passive Despair Thy Eyes to the monstrous Mad God's Rage.

The Bad
A rather buggy game,I know of a number of bugs, but some of these bugs actually made the game more fun! =)

Graphical issue again...

The Bottom Line
It has some chills in this game (6 years ago i was playing this game and i got a little scared of the ghostly parts, now l'm still rather afraid of walking at night...)

This game has a free, full download, it is released by the kind folks from Sierra, go download it and have fun! (by search engine)

The Good
I never read the books about Krondor, but the game itself is quite immersive with background music to set the atmosphere. It isn't a game that will suck you in, but you'll find yourself really trying hard to finish the game.

There are some nice differences with this game that set it apart from most RPGs. It had some really good ideas that were very well implemented, like improvements in skills. After a fight, you might need to hammer out your armor or sharpen your sword. Your ability to do so depends on your ability level, which occasionally goes up when working on it. Sharpening your weapon takes materials (which run out), as does hammering out your armor. It's a twist that adds some reality to the game. You also consume food (which can go bad or get poisoned).

I really liked the limited magic addition. It was very well balanced, and you didn't always have to cringe about fighting a mage (like you do in the Baldur's Gate series).

Personally, I liked the simpler combat-engine, but many people complained about it. I also like the multi-character use in the game. While you can't pick your partners, you can customize them a little bit, and they add some changes to the game (rather than just decking-out one character).

The Bad
The graphics were sub-par for the era. Backgrounds were trianglulated and straight lines were extremely jagged. Quake pixel-pushing freaks will laugh.

Many people didn't like the combat-engine, either. It was limited, and some may prefer that, but it really won't appeal to power-gamers. Power-gamers also won't like running all over creation trying to better their characters and take advantage of everything. You can spend days trying to do everything beneficial for your character before really carrying-on with the game.

The Bottom Line
A great RPG with some very well implemented things that just don't show up in any other games. Magic isn't so powerful it will cause you to save and re-load every five steps, but can be a real asset to your group. Beware trying to take advantage of everything in the game or of trying to find every nook and cranny. While the game isn't huge, it is big enough and sparse enough to make you really spend time.

The Good
Betrayal at Krondor was released in the summer of 1993, as VGA graphics were being pushed to their 2D, hand-drawn, sprite-intensive limit. This was also six months before id unleashed DOOM upon the world, beginning the push towards nearly every major game being produced in a 3D engine. As such, there is much in the way of imagination, storytelling, and overall artistry that I find most of today's big-budget, industrially-manufactured games to be lacking.

Perhaps the finest aspect of Krondor is that you can travel across the vast continent of Midkemia at almost all points in the storyline, doing as you please. Mostly, this entails traversing up and down mountainous valleys, searching out treasure caches (and attempting to open them, a joy onto itself thanks to half of them being protected by Moredhel wordlocks), battling dark elves, trolls, Brak-nur (rock-men), drakes, undead, and plenty of other sinister creatures. Then you can walk into one of the smaller towns and rest up at the local inn, play a tune for the local patrons (and get paid if you do a good enough job), sell any surplus equipment you've accumulated, have your armor repaired, and possibly take part in some other shenanigan (gambling, questing, solving mysteries, improving your combat or tradeskill abilities, and so on).

When you enter one of the major cities you are greeted with a wonderful hand-painted vista of the city and its environs, as a unique musical compositions sets the mood. This really helps create a sense of otherworldliness that allows you to sink easily into a magical fantasy mire. Great, great stuff -- just be sure you keep a window open so the odd breeze can remind you there's another world outside your house -- if you're interested in such trifling affairs.

The Bad
The graphics look dated in 2008 and were somewhat pixelated even when it was released in 1993.

When you've learned everything about the game that will give you an advantage over the armies of darkness, there isn't a whole lot of challenge inherent in the game. Combat is turn based, you can cheat in various ways (I will resist explaining here), and the storytelling is of high quality but not quite Lord of the Rings calibre.

The Bottom Line
A wonderfully deep and detailed adventure tale set in the charming medieval world of Midkemia. I'd count it among the four finest RPGs released so far, along with Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Baldur's Gate, and Final Fantasy IV.