Quest For Glory II: Trial By Fire

"Trail by Fire is one of the best RPG/adventures out there!"

This game is a direct sequel of Quest for Glory 1: So you want to be a hero, and it impoves on the previous game in everyway! From a better graphics, fight sequences and music, this game is is a MASSIVE improvement.
As with the QFG1, Trial by Fire is a RPG/Adventure game hybrid. For those who haven't played an Quest for Glory games, this means that while you walking around solving puzzles, like a normal adventure games, there are also many RPG trappings, such as fighting monsters, and having statisicts which effect your actions. (For example, if you want your fighter to be able to climb trees and wall, make sure you assign some of your craetion points to climbing at the start of the game.)
There are three classes which your character can be (Fighter, Theif and Magic User) and each character class solves puzzles in their own way. Let's say your walking along and you find a wall blocking your way. A fighter will bust through the wall using his great strength. A theif will climb over it, while magic user will cast a spell to remove it. In addiontion to solving some puzzels differantly, there are some sections of the game that can only be access by certain classes. (Or by mixed character. That is characters who posses skills they normally wouldn't have.)

Story:
QFG2 starts with the hero, Shema, Shameen and Abdulla arriving in shapier by magic carpet (Remeber how you left Speilburg at the end of QFG1? Well, your character was travelling here, to shapier!). After that, the hero aids Shema and Shameen in setting up their new inn, the ''Katta's Tail Inn''. Everying in the desert city seems calm, but soon the hero of Speilburg will have his work cut out for him.

Graphics:
The graphics in QFG2 are drawn alot better, and are more detailed. in QFG1, when you were walking, your hero could only face forward, back, left and right. Now, it's possible to have him face in all directions, which is alot more realistic, and is very cool.
Now before you start to complain that the graphics aren't very good, you ahev to remember that QFG2 is an old game. So... while the graphics are nothing when compared to, say, King's Quest 7, making that comparison isn't really fair.

Music:
While only being standard soundblaster music, the composer weren't lazy, and there are many differant tunes in the game, depending on what your doing and where you are. The music allso fits the situation, so you won't have tense sounding music when just walking through the city street, while having a calm, lazy sounding tune while battling.

Puzzels:
Most of the puzzels have a logical answer, and I've found that there's always somone who can give youa clue...if you ask the right question. And that's a problem. Becuase when you are talking to NPC's, the only questions they will answer is those you ask yourself. Unlike QFG 1 remake, 3 and 4, there is no list of prepared questions, and sometimes the clue you need will be missed just becuase you didn't ask the right question, or you used a differant wording. (e.g. typing ''dirt'' instead of ''earth'')

But that aside, mose puzzles aren't too hard, and alot are actually based on the skills of yoru character. Sometimes you'll just find that your character isn't skilled enough to do what your telling him. This just means you should go and train your character and try again.

RPG elements:
The RPG side of the game comes in the form of combat, and statistics. You have a character sheet, with various skills listed on it. To actually improve a skill, you must use it. So, if you want to get better at dodging, dodge alot while in combat. Any skills that are at zero though will never improve.

Combat happens in certain areas, and you can see your enemies running towards you. In QFG2, random combats only happen in the desert (There are alot of other story related battles that happen in other places too). When you enter combat, you can see your health and stamina represented by a bar (they'll also be a mana bar, if your character has magic). You can see a health bar for your enemy. In combat, ther are four things you can do. Attack, dodge, block and cast spells.

Overview:
In short, despite one or two shortcomings, Trial by Fire is one of the best adventure games you can get. While hardcore RPG fans will not finding this interesting (QFG2 is more adventure game than RPG) adventure fans will love. And becuase this game doesn't speed up when played on modern mahcines (At least, it played the same on my p100 as it used to on my 386), it's still worth playing.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/23/00, Updated 10/23/00