Questron - C64 Review (original) (raw)

There is a lot the first Ultima left me pining for that simply is not delivered in its first sequel and in subsequent RPG games of the era. While it is true Questron borrows heavily from Ultima, it is an homage well paid, and finely executed.

Questron follows a predictable path: there is a good wizard, and an evil wizard, and your quest is to kill the evil wizard. You are a lowly serf with a taste for adventure. At first your main concern is training and staying alive. You can play games at temples to increase your stats a little. Buying a horse will decrease the amount of food you consume when you travel. Certain monsters are only weak to certain weapons, so its not always wise to sell old ones. Monsters are encounters as you walk. You only encounter one enemy or group at a time and you do not see enemies until you attack them. Occasionally you will run into friendly creatures that offer you something to buy, like hit points or information. Eventually you become strong enough that you are noticed by the good wizard, Mesron, and he calls you to the castle. In the castle there are several people, like Mesron, the King, and the Princess, who will increase your stats. Interestingly you have to rob the castle of its most important loot before the king will knight you. It is then that you receive the quest to destroy Mantor and you are told to sail to his evil lands. Around this point your hometown is destroyed, and it's not the last town to fall. It's rather personal now.

You can kill anything in all of Questron! or so you think. Instead the new lands offers harder overworld monsters, and finally, dungeons. There are three dungeons, offering good variety, that are easy to navigate. Having cut my teeth mapping with Bard's Tale, Questron's dungeons were refreshing. The combat may start out tame but soon monsters are melting your armor, breaking your weapons, and that 20000 hit point total that seemed so impregnable just floors ago is creeping closer and closer to zero along with your armour spells and fireballs. Don't forget once you collect the object you are looking for at the bottom of the cave, the monster generation rate skyrockets.

The last dungeon has smaller floors than the first three but is a 15+ floor gauntlet that's sure to tire you before you make it to the final castle where evil guards will swarm to attack you. Can you crawl to Mantor's chamber with enough strength left to strike him down? Can you expect any sort of ending? You bet!

There are many aspects that fans of the first Ultima will strongly appreciate. Hardly a simple ripoff; Questron delivers solid game play. Combat is resolved quickly (stock up on fireballs!) and the world and its dungeons are explored at a brisk pace. A great game that marked the beginning of a solid RPG engine. Highly recommended.