Playing Betrayal at Krondor for the first time

[Wyrmlord]

Krondor's general user-friendliness was way ahead of its time tbh. The controls are slim and intuitive, there are pop-up hints for everything, the general KBM layout and functions for menu navigation are all very 'modern', etc. It blows p. much all of its contemporaries out of the water, and as you said gives many recent ones a run for their money.

Yeah, there is a fine nuance between

1) complexity of challenges that the game throws towards you
2) complexity of how to use the controls and interface

RPGs the last 5-10 years always go in one extreme or the other. You have Skyrim which removes classes altogether and allows you to become pretty much anything, and then you have turn-based revivals that show you 200 controls the moment the screen opens.

 

[cvv]

Afaik BaK was the first "mature" cRPG ever, the setting, characters, plot and dialogues were way above everything that came before (usually something retarded about wizards, dragons and magic swords). The writing is still one of the best in the genre, matched only by Torment and Witcher. Plus it was the first "3D" open-world RPG, with isometric turn-based combat even. I love that model so much, too bad it's been used so rarely ever since (afaik only Albion and Realms of Arkania).

Plus my first Codex comment was about BaK.

If any game deserves a remake it's BaK (the "engine" was an eye-sore even in 1993). Absolute legend.

 

[RNGsus]

I haven't played BaK yet, but its in my gog library. 1993 was too early for me, I wouldn't be playing rpgs until I was allowed on my dad's computer around ten years later. With the exception of Might and Might, there's been a yuuge void in my rpg codex.

 

[kintake]

Didn't play BaK, always wanted to. Played Antara however, and it was fun up to the point where the female Huntress leaves the party to go save the wookies or something. The gameplay became a chore, every combat encounter was painful to the point I doubt even Sawyer could have saved it. 'Some call me tim' carried me through battles that became so stale Gordon Ramsey would have imploded from pure anger if they had been served to him.
But Krondor is tons better right? Antara is to Krondor what Fallout 3 is to Fallout right? If so I'll give BaK a try.

 

[cvv]

But Krondor is tons better right? Antara is to Krondor what Fallout 3 is to Fallout right? If so I'll give BaK a try.

Tried Antara ages ago, only remember uninstalling after a few hours, not sure why anymore. Maybe bc it was shortly after I finished BaK and it was such a drop in quality. Then again hardly anything can measure up to BaK, Antara could've been a good game in its own right I just never gave it a chance.

Return to Krondor is indisputable cancer tho.

 

[kintake]

Return to Krondor is indisputable cancer tho.

Then the chemo must've taken when I played it. Loved it, in spite of it's numerous flaws gameplay wise (That camera for instance) I like the voice acting, the music, the dark alleways of the city, the world map was mostly a pointless sprawl, but I liked the encounters. And the whole vampire thing took the mood even further up a Notch (Lol he's rich, fat and miserable). It's one of my favorite adventure games. Or adventure-rpg or whatever the hell you want to call it. Black Sabbath plays classic rock music.

 

[Mark Richard]

Funny, I must've finished Return to Krondor half a dozen times more than BaK, likely because my computer time as a teenager was less restrictive than my preteen years. I wish I could say its only mistake was coming out in the same year as Baldur's Gate and Fallout 2. The game has its moments to be sure - that Shadow of Innsmouth scenario is a highpoint and prompted nightmares, and the production values are fairly impressive (fully voiced with professional actors instead of company interns), but on the whole it's just not a particularly noteworthy RPG. I've mentioned elsewhere the pacing was scatterbrained, with half the game packed into the first three of ten chapters, and some later chapters whizz by in a single scene. The equipment bloat is utterly demoralising, and they throw in a frustrating sewer level early on which is like a trip to the playboy mansion compared to the temple in chapter nine. Return to Krondor doesn't start strong or end strong, and the lasting impression suffers as a result.

 

[madrigal]

Sounds like your party are all injured: To combat this apply healing herbs and use restoratives to combat the injured state then rest immediately at an inn, Questers View is good and theres also a good trainer so retreat to there. Check your character screens to see if your healing is overcoming your injuries frequently, wounds are not something to be shrugged off, they matter.

This is completely wrong, wounds do not matter at all you can just rest, as long as one of your characters is not poisoned you can just rest to fix poison as well. Your way is a lot more expensive than just buying some provisions and will result in your characters being weaker as the longer you rest the stronger your characters become.

 

[Neanderthal]

Sounds like your party are all injured: To combat this apply healing herbs and use restoratives to combat the injured state then rest immediately at an inn, Questers View is good and theres also a good trainer so retreat to there. Check your character screens to see if your healing is overcoming your injuries frequently, wounds are not something to be shrugged off, they matter.

This is completely wrong, wounds do not matter at all you can just rest, as long as one of your characters is not poisoned you can just rest to fix poison as well. Your way is a lot more expensive than just buying some provisions and will result in your characters being weaker as the longer you rest the stronger your characters become.

That takes bloody ages, is expensive as hell (especially at the beginning) and boring to boot. Use the healing aids for their intrerended purposes. If you want the hp boost just run Cutters Gap a few times or better play and explore the Isles.

 

[madrigal]

That takes bloody ages, is expensive as hell (especially at the beginning) and boring to boot. Use the healing aids for their intrerended purposes. If you want the hp boost just run Cutters Gap a few times or better play and explore the Isles.

It takes less than 30 seconds to heal the entire party takes less fiddling around than using healing packs so is less boring and provisions are cheap in comparison to restoratives, healing packs and Inns which you were suggesting.

 

[RK47]

Also stores have different sale prices.
Sometimes you can earn a lot of coin by making that extra trip to sell your loot.
Take note of the best stores. Enemies do not respawn unless chapters advanced. So take advantage of that.

 

[Neanderthal]

That takes bloody ages, is expensive as hell (especially at the beginning) and boring to boot. Use the healing aids for their intrerended purposes. If you want the hp boost just run Cutters Gap a few times or better play and explore the Isles.

It takes less than 30 seconds to heal the entire party takes less fiddling around than using healing packs so is less boring and provisions are cheap in comparison to restoratives, healing packs and Inns which you were suggesting.

From an injured state it takes days if not weeks of resting, worse in wilderness. As I said boring, far better to play game optimally and use your resources wisely. Can never understand appeal of rest spamming.

 

[madrigal]

From an injured state it takes days if not weeks of resting, worse in wilderness. As I said boring, far better to play game optimally and use your resources wisely. Can never understand appeal of rest spamming.

How is clicking Camp until Healed button spamming? How is clicking one button more boring than all the fiddling around using herbs, checking healing level, resting and repeating?

How does wilderness affect resting at all?

 

[Neanderthal]

From an injured state it takes days if not weeks of resting, worse in wilderness. As I said boring, far better to play game optimally and use your resources wisely. Can never understand appeal of rest spamming.

How is clicking Camp until Healed button spamming? How is clicking one button more boring than all the fiddling around using herbs, checking healing level, resting and repeating?

How does wilderness affect resting at all?

As I said you have to wait ages when you're rest spamming, rather than minimal time basic preparation allows you to spend recuperating, doing one thing over and over again) and then waiting interminably is boring while being involved in common sense preparation is interesting.

You heal vastly quicker in inns rather than wilderness, and heal fully rather than lower threshhold regained by sleeping rough.

 

[abnaxus]

Second half of Betrayal in Antara when the party gets split is p. terrible; in fact if you happened not to research a certain spell (actually the equivalent of Skin of the Dragon) you'd just get instaraped by endless archer enemies.

 

[Trash]

BAA is simply unfinished. Shame. I was really looking forward to it being released back in the day and bought it the moment it showed up in my local gaming shop. Graphic wise it was neat but the story, gameplay and design lacked. Add to that the fact that they rushed it out unfinished and I quickly ditched it. BAK however remains a great game to this day. Do play the cd-rom version though. I do expect the GOG version to be that one, but I'm not sure.

 

[Jasede]

The writing in this game is incredible. I actually thought it was corny and overrated ten years ago but as I grew older I liked it more and it even influenced my prose writing style heavily.

Compare this to PoE writing...

 

[Barbalos]

BAA is simply unfinished. Shame. I was really looking forward to it being released back in the day and bought it the moment it showed up in my local gaming shop. Graphic wise it was neat but the story, gameplay and design lacked. Add to that the fact that they rushed it out unfinished and I quickly ditched it. BAK however remains a great game to this day. Do play the cd-rom version though. I do expect the GOG version to be that one, but I'm not sure.

The GOG version gives you the option for MIDI or CD Audio, and also comes with the soundtrack in the music folder, in .ogg format (which VLC can play).