Quest for Glory III: Wages of War (DOS)

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Description

Wages of War is the third game in the Quest for Glory series. It is set in the Africa-like world of Tarna, where the hero travels with paladin Rakeesh, his new Liontaur friend he has met in the previous game. Shortly after his arrival, the hero learns about the conflict between the human Simbani tribe and the seemingly malevolent neighboring Leopardmen. It is now time for our hero to become a skillful diplomat and prevent an upcoming war between the two nations.

The basic gameplay system is similar to that of the two preceding games. The game has an adventure-like structure and gameplay elements, including puzzles to solve, inventory items to use, and characters to talk to, as well as a role-playing system with combat and character development. As in the predecessors, the player character can be either a fighter, a thief, or a mage; in this installment, the paladin class is selectable from the beginning of the game (unlike the previous game, where the hero could only earn the title of a paladin during the course of the story). Saved characters from the previous game can be imported.

Like in the earlier Quest for Glory games, the main character's parameters increase directly after battles or by repeatedly performing various actions. New to the series is an overworld map on which the hero travels between locations. Hostile encounters may occur randomly while traversing the map. Combat system is similar to the predecessors, with real-time battles where the player selects various offensive and defensive options.

Graphics engine and interface in this installment are the same as in the remake of the first game: it has 256-color graphics and an icon-based interface which was used by Sierra for their contemporary adventure games.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "英雄傳奇3：戰爭的報酬" -- Traditional Chinese spelling
• "Quest for Glory III: הדרך למלחמה" -- Hebrew spelling
• "Quest for Glory III: Seekers of the Lost City" -- Planned re-release title
• "Quest for Glory III: Der Lohn des Krieges" -- German title
• "QFG3" -- Abbreviated series title
• "영웅의 길 III: 전쟁의 응보" -- Korean spelling
• "Hero's Quest 3: Wages Of War" -- Informal title

Part of the Following Groups

• Game Engine: Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI)
• Gameplay feature: Character development - Repetition
• Gameplay feature: Hunger / Thirst
• Gameplay feature: Importable characters
• Quest for Glory series
• Setting: African

User Reviews

Has the word "impressive" written all over it	Katakis | カタキス (42140)
Atmosphere counts too, not just the gameplay	Nowhere Girl (8103)
Most benevolent, non-violent, ultraviolet!	Unicorn Lynx (181465)
The worst of the series.	SebastianLi (55)	unrated
Sierra in its better days	Vohaul (21)

Critic Reviews

PC Games (Germany)	Nov, 1992	90 out of 100	90
PC Joker	Nov, 1992	82 out of 100	82
Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft	1993	82 out of 100	82
Play Time	1993	78 out of 100	78
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Nov, 1992	9 out of 12	75
Power Play	Dec, 1992	72 out of 100	72
Quandary	Feb, 2005		60
Adventure Gamers	Nov 23, 2007		60
Adventure Classic Gaming	Feb 02, 2006	3 out of 5	60
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Jan, 1993	Unscored	Unscored

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Bypassing bugs with ScummVM, part 2	1	Nowhere Girl (8103) Apr 11, 2020
Trying to bypass the bugs with Scumm VM	1	Nowhere Girl (8103) Mar 09, 2018
The honorless man - is some in-game trigger missing?	5	Nowhere Girl (8103) Oct 04, 2015

Trivia

Awan

The game that you can play in the Simbani village called Awari is an actual game in real-life. Oware (as it is commonly known) is the national game of Ghana and is played by people in West Africa and the Carribean.

Fricana

The game takes place on the continent of Fricana. Fricana is an anagram of the word 'African'.

Gags

Start a fire in the savannah, and don't put it out. You will be paid a visit by Smokey the Elephant.

If you venture too far into the savannah without food, you may be given a gift by the Awful Waffle Walker.

In Salim's Apothecary try lighting the bong with a tinderbox and smoking it three times in a row (save your game first!). You'll get an important lesson on the ramification of taking drugs.

Kalb

The dog-like merchant Kalb is not named this way without reason: "kalb" is Arabic for "dog".

Kalb also boasts a good knowledge of English language; if you agree to buy something from him, he will describe you as "magnanimous, magnificent, beneficent, munificent, benevolent, malevolent, non-violent, ultra-violet friend of dogs".

Music

The background music in the apothecary is White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane.

References

• Quest for Glory III has cameo appearances by Sanford & Son, and Laurel & Hardy.
• Corey Cole makes a cameo appearance as the apothecary Salim.
• The Sanford and Son weapon seller in Tarna sells things, mentioning the "Lara bow" and the "Amon Re" tribe. This is a reference to the Sierra adventure game Laura Bow in The Dagger of Amon Ra.

Series

This game was added midway through the cycle. The original plan was to have four games, with a number of intentional metaphoric parallels built in. (four compass directions, four elements, etc) However, after finishing Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, the Coles decided that the character of Hero wasn't developed enough to make Shadows of Darkness work, and invented this adventure to build his personality up a bit. (previously, the Hero was primarily a warrior. This game taught him to be a diplomat and peace-maker, virtues necessary in Shadows' This is the primary reason the game seems a bit short and less involved than the others.

Title

After the initial release of Quest for Glory III: Wages of War Sierra discovered that another developer had trademarked the name Wages of War. Thus Sierra decided to change the game's title to Quest for Glory III: Seekers of the Lost City for planned further releases. However since the other game was never actually released the name change never took place. However, the title Quest for Glory III: Seekers of the Lost City is mentioned in (at least) the disk version of the fourth installment of the series.

Awards

• Power Play
  • Issue 02/1993 – #3 Best Presentation in 1992

Information also contributed by Boris Stovich, OceansDaughter, Rambutaan, Roedie, Tim Takalo, Unicorn Lynx and WizardX