Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire

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Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
Developer(s)	Sierra
Publisher(s)	Sierra
Designer(s)	Lori Ann Cole
Engine	SCI1
Release date(s)	1990
Genre(s)	Adventure game/CRPG (hybrid)
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Kids to Adults (K-A)
Platform(s)	PC: DOS, Amiga, Macintosh
Media	Floppy disk
Input	Computer keyboard, computer mouse (optional)

Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire was the sequel of the awarded Hero's Quest I: So You Want to be a Hero game. The franchise was renamed as Quest for Glory because of copyright issues involving the "HeroQuest" boardgame.

[edit] Story

Battling the chief guard, Khaveen

Directly following from his success in Spielburg, the newly-titled Hero Devon Aidendale travels by flying carpet with his friends Abdulla Doo, Shameen and Shema to the desert city of Shapeir. Danger approaches as a curse has fallen to the city: an attack of elementals from an evil wizard is nigh. Meanwhile the Emir Arus al-Din of the sister city of Raseir is missing and a tyranny fell on it. The city has decayed to Shapeir's dark mirror.

After defeating the four elementals that threaten Shapeir, the Hero travels to the city of Raseir. There, he is imprisoned by Khaveen and under hypnosis helps the evil tyrannous wizard Ad Avis to resurrect the evil genie Iblis. In the final fight, the Hero attacks the palace and battles with Ad Avis, who falls to his presumed death begging for assistance from his Dark Master. As thanks for the Hero's success in liberating Raseir and restoring its lost splendor, the Sultan of Shapeir, Harun al-Rashid, rewards the Hero by adopting him as his son.

[edit] Gameplay

The recoverable error notification makes a grievous pun and references the previous game

The game follows the way of its predecessor, with several obvious improvements and enrichments. A difference was that this chapter was linear; as the days passed, certain predetermined events would happen, or characters and things would appear in a certain place. All the plot is concluded in 30 game days. A disadvantage is that in the city of Raseir the player could not rest to advance the time since the city's tyrannical government did not approve of it. This restriction makes the game too slow near the end where 3 whole days must pass before action begins; the player is thus forced to wait and wander aimlessly through the city until the game time passes or spend the time practicing his spell casting.

The player has the opportunity to advance his character and explore interesting side-quests available only to a particular class. For example, a magic-user can earn the title of "Wizard" with the sponsorship of the wizard Erasmus, provided he can overcome a series of magical challenges and graduate from the Wizards Institute of Technocery. A fighter may earn a membership in the Eternal Order of Fighters. A thief may perform several thefts, including the running gag of stealing the Maltese Falcon.

This is also the first game of the series where the hero may be awarded the title of Paladin. To achieve this status, the hero must act honorably throughout the game and Rakeesh, the liontaur (lion-centaur) will present to you his Paladin sword, Soulforge. Since the title of the Paladin is given at the end of the game, the Paladin abilities and Soulforge are only usable with characters that are imported into Quest for Glory III: Wages of War and later games.

[edit] Trivia

The X-Ray Specs easter egg in action

Quest for Glory II is the only game in the series without any influence of Erana in it. It does, however, feature a reference to Erana - as she is in one of the portraits of great mages in the Wizards' Institute of Technocery. If the Hero requests her sponsorship in his initiation as a wizard, he is told that Erana had not been answering the WIT's summons for many years now.

It is also the only game in the series to not be originated or remade beyond the EGA graphics engine by Sierra, but AGD Interactive is preparing a freeware remake of the game using the Adventure Game Studio engine.

As in the other games of the series, there are a large number of in-jokes and mythological references, especially, from Arabian Nights. One of them is the name of the Sultan, Harun al-Rashid.

The final city in this game is Raseir, an anagram for Sierra, the company that produced the Quest for Glory series.

Signor Ferrari, Ugarte, and the Maltese Falcon all make appearances in Raseir. Caricatures of the Marx Brothers also play important roles.

The manual is illustrated by famous Marvel Comics artist Ernie Chan

The astronomer may have been based on Omar Khayyám.

At one point, the hero gives a spare outfit to a woman named Zayishah, who changes into it behind a veil. This sequence has a rare easter egg: a character wearing the otherwise useless X-Ray Specs will see through the veil as she undresses. Nudity of any kind is almost unheard of in Sierra adventures outside the Leisure Suit Larry series, but the low-resolution, 16-color graphics show no more detail than a mass of flesh-colored pixels.

[edit] External links

• Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire at MobyGames