Betrayal at Krondor

Moby ID: 285
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Based on Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga (and co-written by Feist himself), Betrayal at Krondor is a medieval fantasy-themed role-playing game set in the Riftwar universe.

The story begins as Gorath, a moredhel (dark elf) renegade, who intended to warn the people of Krondor of the upcoming moredhel invasion, is attacked by an assassin. Locklear, a nobleman who serves the crown of Krondor, and a young magician named Owyn decide to accompany Gorath to Krondor, where they'll have to think of a plan to stop the moredhel leader Delekhan.

The game's story is divided into nine chapters. Each chapter has a goal to achieve before moving on to the next one, but the player is given considerable freedom to explore the vast world of the game and undertake side quests. Gorath, Locklear, and Owyn are the first party of characters the player controls; however, characters may leave and others may join the party later, as dictated by the events of the story.

Exploration in Betrayal at Krondor takes place in a 3D world viewed from first-person perspective. Towns, however, are presented as a series of still screens representing locations (temple, tavern, inn, etc.). Combat takes place on separate grid-based screens. The player moves the characters on these screens in a turn-based fashion, attacking physically, defending, and casting spells.

Only two character classes are present in the game: fighters and magicians. Fighters use swords or crossbows (for long-ranged attacks); magicians can fight with staves, or cast spells. Characters have four attributes: health, strength, speed, and stamina. The latter is depleted when a character uses weapons or casts magic. The role-playing system of the game relies on skills. Each character has a set of skills, ranging from weapon proficiencies to abilities such as bartering or stealth. Skills improve after continuous usage. The player can "emphasize" a skill in order to make it improve faster.

Spellings

  • קרונדור - Hebrew spelling
  • 叛變克朗多 - Chinese spelling (traditional)

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Credits (DOS version)

153 People (109 developers, 44 thanks) · View all

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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 102 ratings with 12 reviews)

For players who are not graphics-oriented. Try this out.

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)

DOS · by Kevlarkid (2) · 2001

A true role-playing classic that any RPG fan should check out

The Good
The open ended nature of the gameplay. The fantastic story.

The Bad
Some of the puzzle aspects that the interface really doesn't handle well. None of the solutions are counterintuitive, but the design of the game doesn't really mesh with some of the object based puzzles encountered in some chapters.

The Bottom Line
After the first battle, when you open your map and are basically told to get from your current location to the capital city of Krondor, you start to realize how ahead of its time this game was. Do I take the shortest path down the road directly to the city, or try to avoid the ambushes that are waiting for me and take the long way around? Should I detour off the road and search the forest, or keep going straight on? Some of the later missions were a little more linear, but in all you really have a sense of being in the game, struggling to save the kingdom. The storyline, penned by Raymond Feist, was also fantastic.

DOS · by Steve Sztuk (12) · 2003

One of my all-time favorites

The Good
Understand that I loved all of the Sierra adventure games and I impatiently waited for each new release. I also dabbled with "true" RPGs - classics like the Forgotten Realms and AD&D, and while I liked them, I wasn't very good at them. I especially enjoyed Sierra's Quest for Glory Series games which attempted to introduce role playing elements to adventure gamers ... but not like their revolutionary game Betrayal at Krondor. If I remember correctly, this game was controversial within Sierra's own ranks and considered to be a risky endeavor for them at the time.

I wasn't prepared for the engrossing story presented in Betrayal. It contained the depth I was used to in adventures - an imaginary tale that evolved and deepened as you got further into it - characters with distinct personalities, unique backgrounds and histories - great interaction between the primary characters as well as with people they met. At the same time it was a role-player - stats that improved over time - more than one character to control - arms, weapons and spells to manage. It was also interesting when one of the "party" left temporarily to do something else before reuniting with the group again.

The graphics literally blew me away, especially during spellcasting. To watch a fireball fly out a character's hand and hit its target was visually awesome. The landscape and people were handsomely drawn and a pleasure to view.

You almost took for granted that Sierra's musical scores would be original and always excellent, bringing about emotion and suspense in their games. The music in Betrayal was no exception and was beautifully orchestrated.

The combat, for me at least, was easy to learn and use. I didn't find it to be awkward or quirky.

The Bad
I wanted more! What I didn't like was the long wait for the sequel - 5 whole years.

The Bottom Line
I thoroughly enjoyed playing Betrayal at Krondor. It accomplished what so many other games have tried to do and failed - combine adventure and role-playing in one game. I played this game when it was new, and that was 9 years ago. I would gladly play it again if it would play in Windows.

DOS · by Jeanne (75956) · 2009

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
A flood of nostalgia St. Martyne (3648) Mar 1, 2010
CD and Floppy Unicorn Lynx (181788) Aug 10, 2009
GameTap SharkD (425) Sep 10, 2008
Translating BaK? Ajan (262) Jul 6, 2007

Trivia

Actors

The actors for the pseudo-video and motion capture don't look remotely like they're described by Raymond E. Feist, and some (such as Pug) are downright contradictory.

CD-ROM version

The CD-ROM enhanced version of the game includes additional goodies: * 5-minute interview with Feist * Windows-based hint system * Redbook audio soundtrack

Freeware release

Sierra has released the game for free as promotion for its two sequels. This offer only lasted for a limited time, though. The version which was obtainable through on the Sierra website was buggy and needed a patch to get it working correctly.

Novel

Raymond E. Feist, the author whose Riftwar books Betrayal at Krondor is based on, has actually written a book based on the game entitled Krondor: The Betrayal, the first part of a new series called The Riftwar Legacy. The book has the same basic plot as the game, but of course has been altered somewhat to fit the format as well as to be more consistent with Feist's Midkemia series as a whole.

Feist does display an interesting knowledge of the game, however. For example, the method by which the villain is ultimately defeated in the book is actually a valid tactic for winning the final battle.

Sales

When the Betrayal at Krondor first came out it did so miserably at sales that Sierra canceled all plans for a sequel. Later, Sierra rereleased the game on CD-Rom and the game suddenly became a huge hit. By that time, however, Raymond E. Feist already had a contract with a different publisher.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • June 1994 (Issue #119) – Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • February 1996 (Issue #139) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
    • November 1996 (155h anniversary issue) - #43 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #76 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • PC Gamer
    • November 1999 - #44 Best Game of All Time

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Adam Baratz Kalirion, PCGamer77, William Shawn McDonie and WizardX

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

Windows added by Picard.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, Tony Austin, formercontrib, Crawly, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger.

Game added September 21, 1999. Last modified January 20, 2024.