Not just the need for a siege, though i would say that is of great importance in a war story. This structure also more closely follows one of the theme's of Feist's works, where it isn't any one single person who is a hero who does everything to save the day for everybody, but is instead a large number of people working in different parts of the world who each do their separate part to together turn the tide of events.
No, I meant that the benefits you would expect, like knowing more about previous events and the characters, don't really matter because the plot is so self-contained. Basically what Telengard said.
Hey, I like that! Along with the flowy narrations and dialog boxes for every single thing in the game, for me BaK has always had the air of a low budget 60s/70s medieval fantasy movie. It's an interesting atmosphere. Hard to describe. Produces that same kind of antiquated feeling one gets when looking at the oil painted cover artwork from old fantasy/scifi novels.
Actually, there are big differences between the swords, although they look the same only visually. It's not like you only have one weapon with a single gradation of quality.
There's a lot of stuff to do in the YaBon-LaMut-Loriel area. Especially the black inked hands quest.
Yeah. Which reminds me of how stupid it is that on rare occasions, this game gives you single enemy fights, since the most basic of spells can immobilize and defeat a single enemy.
So, what's your verdict?
I've just read the four books of the Riftwar Saga myself, and I wish I had read them all earlier.
I read the original Magician about 20 years ago, and liked it very much then. But now the books are too juvenile and simple for my taste. They are enjoyable enough and easy to read, but feel like a childrens' version of A Song of Ice and Fire. They have the same feudal background with (supposedly) scheming lords, and like ASOIAF there is no one main character, but many different points of views.
But everybody is so bloody nice and beautiful in Midkemia. With few exceptions the good guys are all handsome and jovial, and with even fewer exceptions all the females are either pretty or just as often of "striking" or "unsurpassed" beauty, wether they are 7 or 30. There are no female main characters, yet all the females all strongwilled and always the ones that take iniative in matters of sex and romance. There are no human "bad guys" in Midkemia, nobody is really plotting or scheming; while the enemy are soulless dark elves and goblins who are just "monsters".
And with only two minor exceptions, none of the good guys are cut down in their prime, and everything is almost as neatly wrapped up as a Disney movie.
The supposedly bad guy in the first book was called Guy du Bas-Tyra aka Black Guy. Bas-Tyra sounds a bit like "Bastard". And Black Guy? That should appeal to the Kodex.
Great books for youths or those new to Fantasy, but too basic if you have read and enjoyed newer Fantasy like A Song of Ice and Fire. And they do provide a good background for a computer game. I would have liked to see a turn based strategy game based on them.
But now I look forward to play Betrayal at Krondor, a game I missed back in 1993 due to it being DOS only, while I was stuck with an Amiga getting more and more obsolete.
What is as round as the earth, but all the water in the ocean can not full me up?"Sieve"?!?
