I first played Vengeance of Excalibur back in high school. It is an interesting quest type game. The storyline drags you in right away. A visitor puts a spell on King Constantine and takes a number of treasures from him, including some items that had belonged to King Arthur. This list includes the sword Excalibur. They have also taken Nineve, a sorceress. You must restore the King and recover the treasures. You may only pick four knights to go on this epic quest. There are seven knights to choose from unless you imported characters from the previous game, Spirit of Excalibur.
The best fighter is Lancelot, followed by Edward. Brandiles is useful since he has a lot of gold. You will have to hire mercenaries along the way and his money comes in handy. I also picked Ironside since he was a decent fighter as well.
There are three game play settings. The first one is sideways scrolling. Next is the overview map where you move around across the countryside looking for the treasures. The final one is the battle sequence for the large battles. Along the way you have to do side missions that have nothing to do with the main quest but are essential. Returning the bell to Alcantara and going through the cave picking up gold for later use are
a couple. Mostly the side quests are clever and entertaining ways to insure that you have enough money. There are several of these and it's best if you save often.
This game can get frustrating at times until you get the hang of it. When I first played, my whole group was killed several times by bandits until I learned how to avoid them. In the side scroll fights, it's best to not let your characters get hurt too badly. You can switch to another if one's in danger of dying. There are opportunities along the way to heal them. There are times you need to split your forces.
The graphics are pretty good for the time it was made and the quests are straightforward. It's part strategy and part action. You should talk to everyone you can because their conversation could be an essential clue. Pick up everything you can, as well. You never know when an item easily obtained early will be essential later. If you get stuck there are walkthroughs online that can be found. If you like this game you might also like Spirit of Excalibur. The game play is about the same although the graphics aren't quite as good. I rate it an 8 out of 10 .
