"Betrayal at Krondor" is a hearty quest through a great story!
User Rating: 8.2 | Betrayal at Krondor (CD Version) PC
Betrayal at Krondor is a fantasy adventure / role-playing game, that takes place in the part of the Midkemia-world based on the books from Raymond E. Feist. He was even the leading director in the creation of the game. As such, it came out with an amazing story, which will pull you deeper and deeper into the game as you progress. When you start, you will see that an assassin has attacked Gorath, the elf-like Moredhel, and one of the leading persons in the game-story. Accompanied by Owyn (young scholar magician) and Locklear (noble warrior escorting Gorath), you will have to arrive at the royal city of Krondor. Underway you have to fight with the assassins who are constantly trying to kill you and meet different kinds of people, either on the roads or in the houses within the villages or towns. Also you can explore the large world of the game. In the first chapter, there's no real need to go too far off the main goal - but you do have the freedom to go almost anywhere you want to. There are many side-quests available underway, many of which continue from chapter to chapter. Often they can be solved only in the following chapters. The abilities of the characters are not very impressive at the beginning, but as the game progresses, they become better with every action you perform. For example, successful hits or defending in the battle will increase the melee accuracy, crossbow accuracy, defense ability, and strength and health points. Successfully picking locks will increase the lockpick ability, but even an unsuccessful attempt will increase it, although not that fast. As the game continues the story becomes larger and deeper with every chapter. It involves many aspects of the original books such as the dreaded Valheru, the evil dragon riders that can be compared to the Atlanteans, the thieves’ guild and the Upright Man who is the leader of the guild. You'll even have the famous Jimmy the Hand, called James joining you in some chapters. Which brings me to the next point of the game - you won't have always the same party members along the way. They come and go as the story directs them to other tasks. However, you can meet them in next chapters again with all the equipment they have been carrying around the last time. The combat system is fairly easy to understand, but involves strategy at times. You can, for example, cast a spell that blinds the dangerous opponent's mage and attack the warriors in the meantime, while summoning creatures that will aid you in the next battle round. The music in the game is really good, fitting all the situations where it's played perfectly. Even the sounds are well done, although there aren't that many of them. The weakest point of the game is the outdoors graphics, which look a little polygon-like and not very well detailed. But that doesn't disturb much, as the rest of the game is very fun promoting so you'll quickly adapt to them and even find them quite good with time. All in all said, this game really deserves it's evaluation as the "Best Fantasy Role-Playing & Adventure Game of 1993"! 
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