When gamers are seeking out a fun play in adventure gaming that is not the fabled Monkey Island, most go to one place for starters, and that is Sierra On Line. Sierra has launched some of the most successful series in the adventure gaming genre, including the adult themed Leisure Suit Larry Series, and the medieval King’s Quest Series. Quest for Glory is another highly popular series with fantastic or medieval themes. Quest for Glory III: Wages of War follows closely on the heels of the second installment: Quest for Glory II: Trial By Fire.
Wages of War was released in the early nineties and is a role playing game and adventure gaming hybrid that plays entirely from the third person perspective in two-dimensional graphics.
At the beginning of Wages of War, the user has to wonder what his real quest is going to be. Having defeated Ad Avis at the close of Trial By Fire, the user is confident of a new quest in Wages of War. However, the game strongly hints that Ad Avis is not finished yet, and it appears as though the user will have to defeat him a second time. In truth, the allusions are merely setting up Quest for Glory IV, and the user does, in fact have a different quest in
Wages of War. He is in a war-torn savannah and jungle environment that is similar to modern day Africa, and there are two tribes: the Leopardmen and the Uhura about to decimate one another. Each tribe has stolen a priceless artefact from the other, and neither tribe will relinquish their respective prizes. The impending war between the two stubborn factions is bound to destroy the fragile ecosystem in which they both reside. The user’s quest is to prevent war between the two peoples, propose a truce, unite the tribes, and lead them against a greater enemy as allies.
Like the other Quest games, the user has a choice at the beginning of the game of either importing characters from previous Quest games, or creating a fresh character. The character choice (having to pick an occupation from thief, wizard, or fighter) will directly impact the way the game plays out, since puzzles will have to be solved differently based on the user’s skills. If a puzzle obviously requires magic for a solution, maybe the fighter will have to find an extra inventory item. If a lock needs to be picked by a thief, perhaps the wizard will have to learn a new spell or locate a key to open the lock…and so forth. The character’s statistics will raise as he completes quests and fights battles, similar to a role playing game, and improved statistics affect how the user may be able to solve puzzles.
In total, this is a nice hybrid game from makers that know what they are doing in this genre. It is a satisfying play and does a nice job of both continuing the tale of Trial By Fire and setting up the ensuing installments. Give it a try.
