Betrayal at Krondor - overrated?

[rpgcodexusername]

I've heard mostly good things about BaK,
I started off trying to get to the castle, the travelling isnt fun as its so slow and cumbersome, its mainly a death march to the south with a bit of looking after your characters.
After reaching the castle im going through the sewers, mainly a blank dungeon with tons of red herring ladders that lead to locked grates.
After finding the right one there is some story (pretty decent story) then im supposed to go to a village to find some spies.

Im quite underwhelmed so far, does it get better or stay the same?

 

[hoverdog]

Betrayal at Krondor - overrated?

No.

 

[garren]

Well the basic gameplay doesn't change much, you'll see new places and unlock new characters to play with in different chapters. However you're in no rush to do the main quest no matter what the game says, feel free to explore any place you want and do some sidequests. The plot is pretty interesting and complex, and a lot of places have quests/dialogue that only happen at a certain point in the game, so if you visit a place later (different chapter) it has different things going on. Combat overall isn't too hard so that's not a problem, especially if you tag the right skills.

Traveling can be made faster with teleporting from the temples, though I think it was kinda expensive so you need to consider it before doing so. However if you dislike the slow traveling and gameplay in general then you need to decide if the game in general outweighs the flaws for you.

 

[SinVraal]

Couldn't get far in the game back when it came out. My friend and I kept getting killed. Then we found one of the riddle chests and that became addicting. So we restarted and spent the first chapter leveling up and searching for riddle chests. Getting some great armor and weapons made all the difference. Plus some of the road traps were really fun to figure out. The game does not hold your hand what so ever though. The good ol' days.

 

[Renegen]

Betrayal at Krondor - overrated?

No.

 

[rpgcodexusername]

I didnt even find one of those chests on the way to the palace 0.o
OK Ill keep playing

 

[Whisper]

One of best games.

I envy you that you still dont finish it and many surprises lie ahead. If you stop playing, you just rob yourself.


Also one of best storyline.

 

[Falkner]

I didnt even find one of those chests on the way to the palace 0.o
OK Ill keep playing

You probably rushed to Krondor immediately. Explore the area, you can spend a lot of time around there before going to Krondor.

That said, I still haven't even gotten there because I had trouble with the sound and my monitor and stopped playing for a while. I should get back to it sometime soon, what I played of the game was rather fun.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I've heard mostly good things about BaK,
I started off trying to get to the castle

Big mistake. You already missed 90% of the content across the map. Ignore Krondor for the first chapter. I encourage you to get into the forest in the middle of the map - it really rewards the explorer.

the travelling isnt fun as its so slow and cumbersome

You increase the movement speed in the options. I play it at minimum turning speed and maximum movement speed.

its mainly a death march to the south with a bit of looking after your characters.

You are not supposed to head south. The characters discuss that it will be dangerous since moredhel ambushes line all the way across the road. You're supposed to throw off your assassins by finding a longer route and maybe explore for better weapons and equipment.

After reaching the castle im going through the sewers, mainly a blank dungeon with tons of red herring ladders that lead to locked grates.

It's not a blank dungeon, as it has a stairs that leads down to another dungeon. And the main sewers has lots of chests with amazing rewards hidden, provided you get past the encounters in the sewers. The Krondor sewers were pretty fun, actually.

I did a Let's Play of this game very long ago, and I think you can use it as an early walkthrough for finding early game content that you missed. As you'll notice, I did not even finish the first Chapter before several updates were done.

 

[abnaxus]

Exploring in the first chapter or not, you should still make your way to Sarth and Brother Marc one way or the other and kill that Moredhel warlock or you miss out on an important part of the story.

 

[Kahlis]

Not to impugn your opinion (or is that appreciated on the Codex), but I think you aren't quite playing the game properly-

You're encouraged to explore the game world instead of immediately advancing the main quest. The beauty of the game world in BaK (especially considering this was 1993) is that most of it is completely explorable from the very beginning (though some shortcuts may not open until later on) - and encounters, quests and the like change between acts of the main quest. Whilst I'm sure in some ways this can be intimidating or even irritating if you're a neurotic completionist, you don't feel too guilty having to leave behind certain battles or riddle chests either. There's something behind virtually every other hill in this game, so exploration (even in only the slightest degree) is extremely rewarding. Owyn has a "detect vessels" spell which you can use to locate chests on the minimap - along with houses and other interactive things granted, so it's most useful when out in the wilderness.

Maybe people just have different thought processes when it comes to RPGs, but when I first played the game and Locklear said we had to head south to Krondor, I immediately did a 180 and headed up north. In games from this era you know that developers make accommodations for those who explore off the beaten path. Although enemies get progressively harder as you travel east, there's a few dungeons and lots of loot you ought to stock up on before getting to Krondor. Don't feel discouraged by the changing party members between chapters either, as you'll still have access to their inventory items in storage.

I will admit that I don't possess any nostalgia for Krondor because I only just played it for the first time back in May, and the 3D view is admittedly rather clunky for a game of its time. Dungeon graphics are also quite limited - but the flowing, literary nature of the dialog and abundance of party banter and incredibly meticulous descriptions for everything you interact with makes the game still feel quite engrossing. My only real grievance about the game from a technical standpoint is how the field of view is really narrow by 115-degree-Quake-pro standards. But you get used to it after a while.

 

[SCO]

Some parts of it are overrated.


book of macros

 

[Wyrmlord]

BTW, I powergamed the crap out of Betrayal at Krondor.

These were my party statistics, spells, and inventory during Chapter 1, when I played the game a second time. Right outside Krondor.

You see the red marks on the weapons and armour? That's the blessing of Kahooli, the highest blessing in the game. Cost me ~4000 gold a piece.

 

[SinVraal]

BTW, I powergamed the crap out of Betrayal at Krondor.

These were my party statistics, spells, and inventory during Chapter 1, when I played the game a second time. Right outside Krondor.

You see the red marks on the weapons and armour? That's the blessing of Kahooli, the highest blessing in the game. Cost me ~4000 gold a piece.

daaaaaaamn

 

[SCO]

bah, i grinded so much my abilities overflowed.

 

[Wyrmlord]

bah, i grinded so much my abilities overflowed.

Yes, I think I had 120%+ in some abilities by the end. I shamelessly also abused the bug exploit that gave 100+ Strength to Gorath and Owyn. THERE WAS NO NEED FOR THAT!

I haven't played BaK since, because I felt I may outdo even that and make the game a lot less fun.

 

[Renegen]

Some amount of grinding or metagaming is good in BaK because the battles are so unfair. Three missed swings and your character dies versus winning the battle unscathed.

 

[SinVraal]

That's the beauty of a game where enemies don't scale.

 

[abnaxus]

What do blessings do again?

I blessed my weapons and armour in Betrayal in Antara but they didn't seem to have any effect. They didn't even make my equipment unbreakable.

Some amount of grinding or metagaming is good in BaK because the battles are so unfair. Three missed swings and your character dies versus winning the battle unscathed.

No amount of powergaming can turn Patrus into a decent character. The chapters with him are excruciating to play through.

 

[Johannes]

How much more is there to see by going everywhere every chapter, instead of just waiting for a sensible time later? I didn't mess around so much, just went where the game expected me to. I usually feel a bit stupid if I go totally against the games spirit like that, taking tours of the game world when I'm supposedly in a hurry. Makes the combat boring too I'd wager.

 

[Infinitron]

How much more is there to see by going everywhere every chapter, instead of just waiting for a sensible time later? I didn't mess around so much, just went where the game expected me to. I usually feel a bit stupid if I go totally against the games spirit like that, taking tours of the game world when I'm supposedly in a hurry. Makes the combat boring too I'd wager.

It's okay to do that the first time you play, sure. If you ever replay, you'll be probably be more curious to see what's going on in the world outside of the main path.

 

[SCO]

it's very important since a lot of the main plot / setting is derived from those side-quests.

Spoiler

The glamrehel weapon, the rusalkas, the temple of kaolli, the ambush and why of it, the nighthawks leader and why of the obsession with chess, where did owyn came from anyway, the various 'interesting' stones and graves (the hand of glory quest was nice only found it about the third play), the hidden chests. What the fuck was happening with the statue of lims-kragma and the uprightman (though you never find that out either), the stuff on the forest

Still, don't expect detailed stuff, the game doesn't work that way, despite what the flowing text suggests.

The problem with the game it's that it's actually too easy, regardless of what the rations might make you think. Bak combined with some of the more stringent travelling requirements of Realms of Arkania for instance, would be even better.

Still, i did love looking for the spells, and made a game on later playthroughs of finding them as early as you can. It's surprisingly (or not) possible to find most of them except that wyvern one, the patrus translation spell (which you never get) and that scripted one from the witch and rage of the mad god very early.

Owyn was a much better mage than the author insert when he meet him

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, there's an entire (fairly well developed) subplot in the game that eventually turns out be a red herring. I thought they were saving it for a sequel. Not sure if they ever did, didn't play RtK.

 

[Kahlis]

Well. And I thought I was a clever consumer for getting a Two-handed Broadsword with the red blessing for Locklear before the end of Chapter 1...

 

[Wyrmlord]

By the way, I must admit to a bit of double standards.

Having to explore for spells in BaK was fun.

But having to explore for spells in Legend of Grimrock, for me, was not fun.

I think it was rather that in the former case, it was a discretionary thing to make Owyn better. In the latter, it was entirely essential, and that made it a lot less fun for me. I don't know.