Quest for Glory, the brainchild series of a couple who I assume were wiccan or something, was published by Sierra as part of their Sierra Adventures line. They’re essentially adventure games with RPG elements.  Or maybe RPGs with adventure game elements, it’s hard to say.

The story begins with the main character, the avatar, the Ego as it were, referred to as Devon Aidendale in the official strategy guide, having just graduated from the famous Adventurer’s Correspondence School for (Fighters/Wizards/Thieves).  He sees a bulletin posted that the town of Spielburg needs a hero ASAP, no experience required.  Looking to become a hero, he sets off on a quest which will eventually send him on a journey all over the world, righting wrongs, slaying beasts, and possibly robbing the houses of some innocent folk.

Each character class has unique paths through the many puzzles of the game:  Fighters bash some heads in and are pretty intimidating, Wizards often hang back and cast spells to solve their problems, usually without combat.  Thieves are my favourite however.  Thieves improvise.  Climbing over impassable walls, sneaking past armed guards, throwing a knife at an unsuspecting lackey.  Plus they get additional robbery segments, in which you sneak through houses and businesses, snatching up all the valuables, which you later fence to the local thieves guild, or another such person.

The humour is the shining star of the series, with bizarre cameos from the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, The Dinosaurs, The Lock Ness Monster, and others, as well as many, many puns so bad that you’ll probably throw up in your mouth a little.

When I was a kid, I got to play through the first three chapters, ‘So You Want to Be a Hero?,’ ‘Trial By Fire,’ and ‘Wages of War.’  I’ve just reached chapter 4 as of last night, called ‘Shadows of Darkness,’ and it is indeed as magical as I remember.

Chapter one, as described, deals with a young man who wants nothing more than to become a hero.  He rescues some royalty, learns some legends, and whacks a witch, meeting a plethora of interesting characters, from anthropomorphic cats to bouncing blobs (Don’t feed the antwerp!) to the Three Stooges.  After saving the land of Spielburg, he takes off to a new land, Shapier, where he fights some elementals, defeats an evil wizard, and meets some silly clowns.  The story is incredibly engaging, especially for such a silly sort of series, and with each trial you finish, you’ll find yourself wanting nothing more than to tackle the next one.  Before you know it, the sun is coming up and it’s time for work.  The best part is, you can import your save file from one game to the next, and have a continuing game through all five chapters!

Anyone who’s a fan of comedy, WRPGs, high fantasy or Adventure games will enjoy this one.  It caters well to many audiences, so it’s a shame it has been reduced to ‘cult following’ status.  However, that limited fanbase has done some amazing things, including a full VGA remake of Trial by Fire.

The only major problems are the in-game bugs.  Many of these have been fixed by fans of the series through downloadable patches, but the infamous Error 47 (No such object) still plagues Shadows of Darkness on occasion.  DOSbox fixes many errors and VDMSound fixes the audio compatibility issues with modern PCs, but the errors are still quite prevalent at times.  Don’t Alt+Tab out of QFG1vga, for instance, as it will permanently destroy your status screen on that save file, and make certain actions not work without restarting your game from the beginning.

Aside from the bugs, if you have a PC and some time in your hands, and you love to laugh, there’s no reason not to play this series through.  A personal thank you goes out to Lori Ann and Corey for bringing another wonderful Sierra adventure to the table.