Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero

The Good
It has a great battle sequence which isn't that hard once you get used to it. The gameplay is fun and it is full of humor and the various ways to finish the game with different character classes increases the replay by a lot.

The Bad
I bought the game used and it didn't come with an instruction manual, it took me forever to figure out what to do.

The Bottom Line
It's a great game, far better than the next games. The first release is better than the re-release by far.

The Good
Hero's Quest tells about the first adventure of hero name your choosing. You set towards Spielburg, a town in a valley overrun by brigands, an ogress Baba Yaga and monsters. There's also a reward offered to anyone who can shed light in the case of two lost children of the local baron. So there's plenty to do and even a bit more depending on the character you choose to play with.

As in any RPG you can choose a character from three different classes: a thief, a fighter and a mage. You can also create a hybrid class, so if you know the game there's more ground to cover in a single game play this way.

Playing with fighter is the most straight forwarded thing to do. You choose brawn over brains the most of times, while mage and thief solve many puzzles a bit differently. Thief also has some side quest burglarizing houses and selling his loot at the thieves guild, while the mage (or any magic possessing character) has the possibility to play mage Erasmus's wizard duel.

On a side note, the score system gives points only if you solve puzzles in the way your character core class would even if you play a hybrid, so if you play as a thief/mage you should solve puzzles like a thief, not like a mage, despite that is possible to do.

Adventure/RPG is well balanced. You can spend time grinding your abilities, if you feel like it, but you can also just play the game through with out unnecessary buildup if you so choose. But the grinding is advised, as it does pay off in the sequels if you choose to export your character over to the later games.

The Bad
There's surprisingly little I don't like about the game. All the things I don't like are more like nitpicking, as the game is all around pretty solid.

There's very little music in the game and the sound effects are virtually non existing. The graphics are nice, but not necessarily as nice as in the other Sierra titles of the era. Also the plot is pretty basic, so it doesn't offer that many "whoa" elements.

The different classes also provide a different amount of missions and quest. The fighter is a class, that gets less quests, as if he doesn't know magic he can't duel with Erasmus and giving fighter a thieves properties is futile, as he doesn't get a lock pick or know how to identify as thief, so no guild entry for him.

But, as I said, the things I don't like are merely nitpicking.

The Bottom Line
Hero's Quest, or Quest for Glory as the series was later known, isn't among the most well known Sierra properties but it is among Sierras best properties.

As an adventure game it does much right, giving multiple ways to solve puzzles depending on your character class and the RPG elements give it more flavor, as you can do fighting in the middle of regular "look thing a from place b in order to achieve c" adventuring.

And as a bonus you can start a hero in the first game and export it in all other Quest for Glory games as well, so the feeling on continuity is always present.

The Good
Before the big push to make VGA the standard Sierra managed to really squeeze some great looking games out of the old 16 colour EGA card. King's Quest IV and this one being the best of their EGA efforts but beyond nice EGA graphics this game took the already fun Sierra adventure a step further by introducing some RPG elements: combat, character classes and players statistics.

You have the choice of playing three different classes: fighter, magic-user and thief. Each class gave the game enough puzzle differences to make it worth playing over again. The fighter was the most basic of the three, essentially it was like a regular Sierra game with combat added. The magic-user added of course magic, and had the challenge of competing in a tough magic contest later in the game. The thief was my favorite of the three, allowing you to join a thieve's guild ("thou shalt not steal... here") and you could break into homes at night to make some cash. After picking your class you'd assign some points to your attributes and skills, if you wanted to as a thief you had enough points to add the skills of the fighter and m-u and be able to access their parts of the game.

The plot revolved around your character being in an unhappy valley, ruled by the troubled Baron Stefen von Spielberg who not only has his children kidnapped but his court jester is missing too (alas poor Yorick!) all the while the valley is being raided by brigands.

While the game is not very hard it is a ton of fun. There are a lot of quests to do and places to explore with multiple solutions in some cases. The type-in interface is the best it ever was and the Sierra humour is good.

The Bad
The combat is a little sticky. As its a hybrid, the rpg aspects may not appeal to hardcore adventure gamers and those rpg aspects are too light for dedicated rpg players. I happen to like both genres so its perfect for me.

The Bottom Line
Hero's Quest is definatly the jewel in the crown of the early Sierra adventure before their fateful switch to the mouse and VGA graphics. If there is one Sierra game you should play its this one.