The Palace of Deceit: The Dragon's Plight

The Good
Graphically the game is decent. The puzzles require the right amount of logic and perception. There's also quite a bit of secret passage hunting. You really don't need hints or a walkthrough to pass the challenges. Meeting and talking to the different characters adds depth while you explore this castle. The few but nasty deaths you'll encounter in this game are what you would expect in a magical fantasy set adventure game not too different from Shadowgate. The fact that you play as a dragon, sets the uniqueness of this game to a whole new level for its time.

The Bad
Even being an elaborate game, it kind of lacks the lore and information about the world of Salac, which would have been interesting material to accompany the game. The window frame which looks like the pages of a book is a novel interface, but it feels so small, that it would be preferable if the window was twice the size to get a better look at your surroundings. A problem in the game mechanics is that you can only have one save, although you can't really get stuck in the game, you just have to avoid doing something that gets Nightshade killed. Pity about the lack of sound and music, which would have added to the already fantastic fantasy setting.

The Bottom Line
This game is a fine example of a good typical title in the Windows 3.1 library. Not a lot of adventure gamers talk about this one. If you are reading this, then you might want to try this adventure game out of curiosity. This certainly is Cliff Bleszinski's best early effort prior to the Dare to Dream trilogy, shame it isn't compatible with the modern operating systems.