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Conquest For Camelot: The Search For The Grail

1990 Sierra adventure game by Christy Marx, probably one of the last to have EGA as the top graphics option and use the text parser system.

I only used a walkthrough to help me learn the tricks for beating the action sequences more quickly.

What I liked:

- Puzzle difficulty is just right, probably a little on the easy side compared to other games of the era. By easy, perhaps I mean ‘logical’.
- Nice blend of logic riddles, inventory puzzles, dialog puzzles, and observational puzzles. There are no spacial puzzles in the game.
- Some creative use of the parser. There are some commands that are used only in single instances, but they make sense.
- Graphics, while not technically impressive even for the time, are excellent for the atmosphere they create. It’s not a case of what is being used, but how it is being used.
- Many of the environments are beautiful and quite evocative. I’ve been to some of the ancient places in this game, and they are recognizable in appearance and atmosphere even in these relatively crude EGA renderings.
- The script, both the narration and the dialogue, are best in class for the time. They still hold up today.
- Nice blend of true history and historical fiction.
- The manual is used for copy protection, perhaps once or twice too often, but it is integrated very well and the information you learn from solving the puzzles this way adds to your sense of place and purpose within the game, which ends up enhancing the experience much more often than it diminishes it.
- The story is a classic one, but Christy Marx incorporates many elements, both fantastic and historical, to make it fresh again.
- Moral choices that have some impact on how the rest of the game plays out, particularly the ending.
- The game usually warns you or forbids you from doing anything that would cause a dead end. Save often and you won’t have any major dead man walking situations, as far as I could tell.
- It feels like you are on an epic adventure.
- Some arcade sequences are not as bad as others.

What I didn’t like:

- They are worth persevering through, but there are several action sequences. A couple of them can be easily overcome using ‘tricks’, which are mentioned in most walk throughs.
- Some action sequences are not as bad as others. But I would have preferred to solve all of these problems with my wits instead of with my keyboard numpad. (I don’t consider the ice sequence an arcade sequence. You can puzzle it out pretty easily, although it does go on a bit long.)
- There is a maze. Could be worse, but it’s there.
- There are a couple of instances where the parser could be more generous. ‘Examine’ and ‘Search’ ought to be synonymous in a game like this.
- What is supposed to be the climax of the game, or the semi-climax, is pretty anticlimactic.

Overall: 8/10.

Christy Marx is one of my favorite video game writers. The atmosphere, dialogue, storytelling, and the reasonable, well integrated puzzles all kept me hooked on this game.  It really sparked my imagination and became much more than the sum of its parts. For me, this is true of most of my favorite games.

     

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I finished Neely Cootalot the Foul Fleet. It was very, very funny. Great puzzles too and adorable characters. A smashing indie game with great voice acting too.

Well worth a replay soon.

Also, A New Beginning was a great game from beginning to end, story held my interest until the very end. A must play for all point and click fans.

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I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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Adv_Lvr - 03 March 2021 11:29 PM

I finished Neely Cootalot the Foul Fleet. It was very, very funny. Great puzzles too and adorable characters. A smashing indie game with great voice acting too.

Well worth a replay soon.

Also, A New Beginning was a great game from beginning to end, story held my interest until the very end. A must play for all point and click fans.

Heart

I just started Nelly Cootalot: Spookbeans Ahoy and it is *very* good. So funny and pleasant!

A New Beginning is only .99 on GOG, so even though I don’t like many Daedalic games (stiff, glitchy), I will give this a try.

     

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Baron_Blubba - 04 March 2021 06:55 AM

Nelly Cootalot: Spookbeans Ahoy

Adv_Lvr - 03 March 2021 11:29 PM

Neely Cootalot the Foul Fleet

Adv_Lvr - 03 March 2021 06:39 PM

Spoonpeaks

These poor birds! All these misspellings.. Nelly would be horrified Gasp

Although, “Spoonpeaks” might give David Lynch a few ideas for a new TV series…

     
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Recently completed games 1 - 5 in the Space Quest series. This was my second/third time completing all these games, not counting all the aimless hours spent clicking around and getting nowhere in my very misspent youth. Here are my thoughts, in very brief.

Space Quest 1 (VGA)
Light years (haha) beyond King’s Quest 1 (both in the original versions and the VGA remakes). There is one major dead man walking scenario, which is triggered by missing a very easy to miss thing in the opening segment of the game. Otherwise, the puzzles are pretty good. Despite the game being very short, there’s a decent amount of places to go and experiences to be had. More plot in this one than in the next two games.Dying is funny. Good game, worth playing through if you are thinking about playing the SQ series. 6/10.

Space Quest 2
I played the Infamous Quests freeware VGA remake, because I did not want to do that stupid vine maze ever again. I should have suffered through the stupid vine maze. Without a text parser interface, this game is not nearly as much fun. Also, certain puzzles were changed, and not for the better. The graphics and sound in this game are quality, the voice acting is quite good, and there are no glitches—extremely impressive for a freeware game all around—but the actual game design is not nearly as good as the original. SQ II original: 6/10, SQ II Remake: 4/10.

Space Quest III
Back to the parser! Yay! It works well in this game. One of the funniest of all the SQ’s, too. However, while this game has quite a few highs (the opening ‘chapter’ is so very good and fun to puzzle out), there are also some terrible lows. There are three arcade sequences , and they are all pretty bad—I’m usually tolerant of arcade sequences.Also, if you don’t play Astro Chicken in the Monolith Burger, the game makes no sense. Winning at Astro Chicken is crucial to the plot, but you don’t have to do it. Otherwise, there are some really good puzzles to be had here, and some classic SQ planets to explore. 6.5/10.

Space Quest IV
Glitchy as all get out, with a lot of deaths that are truly due to random bad luck. You will die often. So save often.
Otherwise, this game isn’t nearly as difficult as some folks say it is. Remember to write down the time machine codes so you can travel back and forth to pick up whatever objects and info you might have missed the first time around, and there are very few dead ends. It’s also very funny, and features some of the most iconic Space Quest moments, characters, jokes, and puzzles. Nostalgic rating: 9/10. Trying to be objective rating: 7.5/10

Space Quest V
Despite being a product of considerable development attrition, this is by far the best game in the series and one of the best Sierra adventure games of the era. There are very few DMW dead end situations, and most of the puzzles are, if not logical, consistent with the typical Space Quest version of moon logic. Very very funny, with some of the best puzzles in the series—in fact, no other game in the series even comes close. My only quibbles with the game are a small one: Having to hover near the communicator in order to get the frog to jump on it, and a BIG one: The big end puzzle is a total time waster of a maze, where you are never quite told where to go or what to look for. Like all the worst mazes, it’s not difficult, just disrespectful of the player’s time. Otherwise,  this is one of Sierra’s best games, in terms of visuals, story, and puzzle design. Rating: 8/10

Series rating:
Even though my scores are pretty low, the Space Quest series is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. There are lots of recurring characters, gags, and places from game to game, which adds a lot of meat to what is otherwise a very story-sparse experience (with the story rich SQ V being the positive exception). As adventure games, they might not be mechanically all that great, but as an overall experience I would certainly recommend them all. At the very least, they will make you laugh—and that goes a long way when a game is at least good, even if not excellent.

     

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Finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Brilliant game, loved every bit of it. Very, very good story that keeps surprising you with new turns and twists till the end. And even after everything seems to be resolved, they come up with a final twist that leaves you with a sad smile. That said, I figured the identity of our hero before it was revealed, but this didn’t spoil the fun since most characters we meet play some important role in the complex plot.

And the game mechanics is simply great - both the idea and the implementation. It feels so satisfying to save someone’s life. In fact Ghost Trick is very humane for a game with so many deaths. Maybe my only complaint is that Missile appears too late as a playable character and its power to swap objects of the same shape is underused since most time it relies on similar objects rather than shapes. I was also hoping to play as Yomiel and use his power to control people, but, alas, this happens automatically and only during the last scene.

Still the game was surprisingly long and full of content for a handheld console. That last chapter was actually unexpectedly brief gameplay-wise, while heavy on story. Was expecting the opposite - a traditional “now we are throwing everything you’ve learned in your face, deal with it”, but no, they actually made the ending less of a brainteaser and more of a movie. And I think that was a pretty good resolution of the “anticlimactic adventure endings” problem raised at these forums.

Like I said before, the concept could’ve been easily extended to a sequel or a spiritual successor. Yet another 10 years have passed, and nothing followed, sadly. Guess it’s one of those unique little gems that appear once in a year and become a cult classic.

Oh yes, forgot to mention my favourite quote that pretty much sums up the whole experience:

Please stop gossiping about me inside my own head!

     

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Thanks for reminding me of that game. I *really* want to play it. Because I’m a little bit of a DS purist, I tend to forget that it is available in good form on other systems. (The DS version is not easy to find any more)

     

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Finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Brilliant game, loved every bit of it.

This game got the Nintendo game of the year award. Well deserved. The DS version is quite collectible. I have a copy. This game was one of the many great adventure games released on the DS. I know it’s on IOS as well.

I’ve got to give this game a replay soon.

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yes, Luhr, it is, I guess this and Deponia2 are the weakest of Daedalics

     
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yes, Luhr, it is, I guess this and Deponia2 are the weakest of Daedalics

Not even close. In fact, I’d say This is their best release. It got rave reviews. A New Beginning is the best adventure game I’ve played this year.

GAME Got a 4 star review here:

A New Beginning is an adventure game by Daedalic Entertainment released in 2011 for iPad, Mac and PC. It has a Stylized art style, presented in 2D or 2.5D and is played in a Third-Person perspective.

The Good:
Gripping plot
Stunning hand-painted artwork
Memorable and relatable characters
Clever and satisfying puzzles
Grand orchestral soundtrack


For weakest I’d go with Harvey’s New Eyes.

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i ve heard this opinion before, and it is valid, but i can say with 100% being sure it is not one of their best, at least not to this poll

https://adventuregamers.com/forums/me/viewthread/622/P30/#36319

     
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I, this website and 148 apps among others completely disagree with you:

Graphics / Sound Rating: ****
User Interface Rating: *****
Gameplay: ****
Replay Value Rating: ****

Overall: ****

“Saving the world is nothing new in gaming but, for once, A New Beginning has an explanation for the cataclysmic events that unfold - and it actually makes sense.”

There’s plenty more where this came from. Anyway, we are going off topic, this is my last post on the subject.

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well, the best adventure ever made in this decade; Edna and Harvey, has a 3.5 ratings here.

     
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Adv_Lvr - 06 March 2021 08:28 AM

Finished Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Brilliant game, loved every bit of it.

This game got the Nintendo game of the year award. Well deserved. The DS version is quite collectible. I have a copy. This game was one of the many great adventure games released on the DS. I know it’s on IOS as well.

I’ve got to give this game a replay soon.

Heart

I think it is available on Steam as well. I would prefer to play it there or on DS. I don’t like gaming on my phone.
There is one DS adventure game that almost no one seems to have played…actually there were two, because there was a sequel. I don’t remember the name, but you were a detective who could talk to ghosts or spirits. *Not* Ghost Trick. This one got very mixed reviews. Do you remember what it was?

Edit: Touch Detective! That’s the game I was thinking of!

     

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No, Ghost Trick is not available on Steam unfortunately, it’s either DS or iOS. Funny, but only after finishing the game I read that the iOS version has improved graphics and is a preferable choice. Although I’m also not a fan of playing games on my phone, and I’m not an Apple user anyway. One thing I learned is that sometimes the solution to your problem is right under your nose - I had no idea my friend owned the game all those years Smile

It was so good and refreshing that I already want to replay it and discover all the content I missed. While it’s pretty linear and gives you clear directions where to go next, you can explore different places on your own and discover some new things. There are also tons of dialogues with wacky characters that could be easily missed.

Advie - 06 March 2021 12:50 PM

well, the best adventure ever made in this decade; Edna and Harvey, has a 3.5 ratings here.

Same with Memoria which was an absolute delight to play, gave it 4.5 stars last year.

     

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