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[Old School Gamer]

Soild story line, if you can get past the polygon pixel backround. I just can't get past the poor graphics to play it for too long.

I liked Planscape Torment, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Gothic, Elder Scrolls, etc, but none of them were able to provid the amazing adventure and depth which made BaK the No. 1.

Oh my God. I just finished Betrayal at Krondor this afternoon, after playing it pretty intensely for a month, and I'm seriously jonesing for more. I know nothing's going to come close, but what other RPGs would you guys recommend to a total noob who just spent the last four weeks of his life obsessively wandering around Midkemia? Ideally something similarly old school, as free is a very good price and my laptop's a piece of crap.

Try Realms of Arkannia games that you can both download here, and if you can, get your hands at the third game, Shadows over Riva, you can import your party from the first game along to the second up to the third game so it doubles the fun. What about me, I'm going to play the Realms of Arkannia Trilogy now through again

[Borodin]

Originally posted by nigel vibations@Jan 25 2006, 07:49 AM
I know nothing's going to come close, but what other RPGs would you guys recommend to a total noob who just spent the last four weeks of his life obsessively wandering around Midkemia? Ideally something similarly old school, as free is a very good price and my laptop's a piece of crap.

Nothing was ever done again that was quite like BoK. There were two attempts at followups, whose histories I know well, thanks to knowing some of the primary and secondary figures involved. But Return to Krondor was a rather unoriginal, dumbed down and linear game, while Betrayal at Antara was a braindead attempt to redo BoK using programmers utterly unfamiliar with writing or with previouis game design experience.

If the epic quality of the game gets you, consider Ultima VII: The Black Gate. It's a very different game, but also doesn't dumb down things for the average player. (Back then, publishers weren't telling developers that they had to make a game for everybody from 8 to 80.) This usually can be purchased for a few dollars/Euros. There's an excellent engine here that you can download which lets you run Ultima VII on WinXP, and offers a few more features (extra key commands, higher resolutions) than the original. Very long, epic story, with some inter-party dialog as you go.

Also Planescape: Torment is worth getting. Another intelligent RPG, it probably boasts the best writing of any RPG to date. Fascinating characters, interesting setting, solid AD&D system.

Much the same can be said of Baldur's Gate II, though the party interactions here are very extensive. (There are even a couple of instancces where if you have certain NPCs in your party, they will take over command of decision-making for you because of their personalities.) Very long game, again, lots of quests, good add-on, and a lot of interesting mods created by users that add available party NPCs, shops, and new quests.

Finally, check out King of Dragon Pass as www.a-sharp.com. This is a unique game, an RPG/strategy/sim hybrid that mixes roughly 500 plots and mini-plots, many in a different order (leaving some odd) in any given game. It's all menu driven, so combat is rather boring, but you have to make so many decisions as head of a clan, and interact with quite a few clan chiefs; and the result is a game that never ceases to amaze.

I'd recommend some earlier RPGs to you, but none of them have the same visual flavor or chapter outlook as BoK, and none of them include those wonderful riddle chests or 3D maze traps. However, you should check through the RPGs on Abbandonia (the *best* site for abandonware, bar none) and take a look at some of the reviews that have been offered.

Wow, thanks for the advice. I'll definitely check them all out. I'm still reeling from how great this game was.

[lcy459]

Just started replaying this old classic. First played it back in 1994 but never finished it ... I alwyas had this lingering "discomfort" of not seeing this to the end.. but I think I got really stuck somewhere looking for a hidden portal in the forest .. or something like that and walkthroughs were not so easy to come by thosesdays. I am really thankful for excellent sites such as Abandonia and the ingenious DOSBOX that allow us to relive these excellent games.
Been playing solidly for past week and only got to Chapter 5. Almost forgotten how substantial this games was.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by lcy459@Mar 14 2006, 01:21 PM
Just started replaying this old classic. First played it back in 1994 but never finished it ... I alwyas had this lingering "discomfort" of not seeing this to the end.. but I think I got really stuck somewhere looking for a hidden portal in the forest .. or something like that and walkthroughs were not so easy to come by thosesdays. I am really thankful for excellent sites such as Abandonia and the ingenious DOSBOX that allow us to relive these excellent games.
Been playing solidly for past week and only got to Chapter 5. Almost forgotten how substantial this games was.

I suspect you mean the forest portal leading to the Elven queen. If you miss that, you can end up falling under some magic that causes time to accelerate, and ends up with your party starving to death. Should we assume you got past it? Because if not, I can provide help.

In any case, you're right: this is a very substantial game. It created several RPG standards that are now accepted, and set a bar for intelligent puzzles that has never been met by any other title. The plot is decent, the writing is strong, combat is intriguing, and game balance is excellent.

Definitly the VERY BEST RPG that was ever made!!!!
Really.
It really makes games like Gothic2 or Morrowind concurrence.

I just started playing this game (and it is fun ), but I am having a little trouble with the missing ruby quest. I am apparently supposed to find Isaac now, but either he isn't where I think he is our I am just remembering wrong, but the guy who told me where he was won't talk anymore, and the walkthrough only mentions Isaac by name, no by location, so I was wondering if anyone could help me with locating him.

[retro]

Haven't played this game for ages now. But I've just bought the english CD version. Should play it some time again.

Anyway. My walkthrough says Isaac should be at the street north of Hawk's Hollow.