Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail

The Good
There are quite a few games that focus on the Holy Grail, and Sierra's Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Holy Grail is one of them.

The game starts off telling the player of the decline of Camelot as a result of the love triangle between King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot. The other inhabitants of Camelot, Gawain, Lancelot and Galahad, had a vision of the Holy Grail and searched for it, never to return. King Arthur goes on a quest to find the three men and return with the Grail.

Arthur is assisted by Merlin to give him help and advice. You can ask about anything related to Greek or Roman mythology, and he will give you a lot of information regarding the subject. Furthermore, asking about objects in a particular location causes him to tell you about things that are related to Roman or Green mythology.

The adventure takes place around real locations in England, such as Glastonbury Tor and Southampton, as well as a few in the Middle East. Each of the game's locations look good, even in 16-color EGA, and this was at the time when VGA cards were not commonplace yet. If you have ScummVM and happen to have this game, you can load it up and select the undithered option. That way, the graphics don't have that checkerboard feel to them.

There are alternate solutions to puzzles, with some of these solutions leading to consequences. For example, much earlier in the game the player can decide whether to defeat the Black Knight in a joust match. If the player refuses to do so, then the Black Knight kills one of the knights you are meant to find. So, Conquests of Camelot is good on a replayability scale. Speaking of the jousting match, it is difficult to defeat your opponent, but it can be done. The animation of the Black Knight falling off his horse look excellent.

Since the game has a medieval setting, the music blends in well with both the setting and what you are doing. It sounds more realistic coming from a Roland MT-32 than an AdLib. The sound effects are well designed. I like the sound effects coming from the aforementioned sound device, especially when Arthur rides around on his horse.

The Bad
I don't like are those death messages that allow you to Restore, Restart, or Quit. Whereas death messages in other Sierra games are often informative and humorous, this one just says the same thing. To make up for it, there is an image of worms crawling out of your skull which looks nice.

I also didn't like the amount of copy protection in the game, which requires you to get out your Liber Ex Doctrina that came with the game to solve all of the game's puzzles.

The Bottom Line
So, for anyone who enjoys researching Greek or Roman mythology, or the evolution of Arthur and the Holy Grail, I would recommend this game. If you just like playing adventure games, especially from Sierra, then also give this game a try. Conquests was popular enough to warrant a sequel – from the same developer who brought you this game.