Codex Review Forgotten Gems: Roxoring Betrayal at Krondor

DarkUnderlord · Aug 11, 2008

Tags: Betrayal at Krondor; Dynamix; Sierra Entertainment

As part of our Forgotten Gems series, Darth Roxor takes a look at the old classic Betrayal at Krondor:

As I said before, the game is mostly based around exploration. The world really is huge, and the goodies hidden throughout the map are worth the effort. By venturing too far from the road, you might find chests with basic supplies like food rations, torches, whetstones or herbal packs that speed up the healing rate while resting, or maybe powerful potions that drastically boost your statistics, or simply a new sword or a set of armour if you are not satisfied with your current one. Normal chests can be either harmless, or locked, or trapped, or both. Many traps are lethal, and they can be ‘sensed’ only through a spell, so if you stumble upon such, but you are not quite confident about your lockpicking skill, it’s just better to let it be. Apart from these ‘normal’ chests, there are also Moredhel chests which have a wordlock upon them. When using such a chest, you are presented a riddle, and a few slides with letters. To open the chest, you must make the slides show the password (some of the riddles are really hard, believe me).

Check the rest here.

Mareus · Aug 11, 2008

That was a really good review. Thanks Darth Roxor, you did a very good job with this. This game should really get a lot more praise and it really pains me to see it almost completely forgotten.

Anyone who hasn't played it, go get it. This is what I was hoping the games would become one day, but with better graphics.

MF · Aug 11, 2008

If you thought the MIDI music is glorious, try the CD version. The score is breathtaking.

phanboy_iv · Oct 20, 2008

The article states that it has "been given Abandonware status by Sierra."
This isn't true, at one time they offered it as a free download a la ES:Arena, but have since discontinued this. The game remains property of Sierra.

Fortunately, the CD version is easily available for cheap.

dagorkan · Nov 15, 2008

More of these please, less Chefe "reviews".

Found BtK too bland and sandboxy, preferred RtK, had pretty good combat and an awesome end dungeon.

Trojan_generic · Nov 15, 2008

Mareus said:
This is what I was hoping the games would become one day, but with better graphics.

Me, too.

youhomofo · Nov 24, 2008

I'd love it if games had followed that route. But like movies before them once they gain enough popularity it all comes down to the bottom line. Got to appeal to the dumbest and the lowest of the low. Don't want to alienate anyone just because they're illiterate and stupid. Fucking idiot demographic.

Great review. I picked BaK up about four years after it originally came out. I've never beaten it but every few years I dust the CD off and give it another go. I think on some level I don't want to complete the game. Once I've done that there won't be much reason to play it again and that would be a shame. In fact, I think this review has inspired me to take another crack at it.

Saxon1974 · Dec 24, 2008

I gotta play this game again, never got very far in and I dont remember why.

I don't like the photographic look the pc's have though however the actual illustrated art was good.

agris · Sep 29, 2019

Darth Roxor thanks for the write-up. Any significant changes in your assessment after 11 years? I just started BaK after reading the whole manual and your retrospective made me even more excited, although I did skip the section on traps to avoid spoiling them.

One funny note: I found the praise for the writing’s verbosity very of-the-times, as it once was short hand for a game with heart and soul put into it (quality for the zen mechanic types) but now has been debased by inXile’s brand of checklist-style design.

Edit:

:necro: