Review by: Chris Harding
Published: February 8, 1999

A near decade ago the series began, with about as much fanfare as you could generate in those days. Sierra Online’s Quest for Glory games are a storied series, and for good reason. The first four incarnations in the line carved out the adventure/role-playing niche single handedly. Veteran game designer Lori Cole and company have years of experience. With such credentials, however, come high expectations; couple that with a more than two-year development cycle and you’ve got one of the most anticipated games of the year — Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire.

If you’ve not played the Quests don’t worry — getting started late in the series won’t be difficult at all, although it won’t be nearly as rewarding as it is for those who have been there since the beginning. Fans will be rewarded with visits from some old faces, including Katrina, Elsa, Erana, Erasmus, and Rakeesh to name a few. Getting to know and interacting with characters such as these has been the signature feature for each of these classic adventures, and Dragon Fire is no different. In fact, the essence of this game is character interaction and dialogue.

The previous games were all fairly straightforward in storyline, and although they were entertaining I never felt like they were dynamic enough. Dragon Fire fixes that problem by adding more than just the standard elements of good versus evil. This one begins with you, a wandering hero of sorts since your days in Mordavia, having been summoned to a land called Silmaria. Nestled on the coast of the island Marete, Silmaria is a realm in turmoil. Recent events, like the assassination of the king and an invasion of the border towns and villages, have driven away many local merchants, fisherman, and travelers. Without a king, and vulnerable to hostile attack, Silmaria has asked you to enter into the “Rites of Rulership”: a competition that will determine the next king, and fate of the kingdom. There are seven rites in all, and as you finish each one, more of the game’s plot and storyline will be revealed. I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but you’ll soon find that the assassinations, the raids on Silmaria’s fishing villages, and the kingdom’s war with the tritons of Atlantis are all related. It will be up to you to put the pieces together and figure out who is behind these sinister events.

Gameplay in Dragon Fire is fairly consistent with the previous titles, walking the fine line between being a classic graphic adventure and an action-based role-playing game. One feature that will play a large and somewhat frustrating role in gameplay is the new combat system. The main problem is an interface issue: what looks to be a near flawless adventure game interface turns into a mouse-clicking nightmare in combat. Simply keeping your mouse targeted on an enemy is a difficult task, requiring a mouse and keyboard combination that would make even a six-fingered man frustrated. Luckily, the combat element never gets so difficult that you think about giving up; rather, it serves as a mild annoyance.