Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
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| Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness | |
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| Developer(s) | Sierra |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra |
| Designer(s) | Lori Ann Cole, Corey Cole |
| Platform(s) | PC: DOS, Windows |
| Release date | 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure game/CRPG (hybrid) |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Kids to Adults |
| Media | Floppy disk, CD |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness is an adventure game/role-playing game hybrid. It is the fourth installment of the Quest for Glory computer game series by Sierra Entertainment.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Drawn without warning from victory in Tarna, the Hero arrives without equipment or explanation in the middle of the hazardous Dark Caves in the distant land of Mordavia. Upon escaping from the closing cave mouth, he meets a mysterious young woman named Katrina who assists him again several times in his journey. He encounters several old foes, including the not-quite-dead Ad Avis and the ogress Baba Yaga, and makes several bizarre new allies. The Hero is ultimately coerced into assisting Ad Avis' Dark Master (who turns out to be Katrina) in collecting the Dark Rituals that will awaken Avoozl the Dark One (an obvious Cthulhu pastiche, and most likely a reference to the Slavic deity Chernobog) from his slumber underneath the Dark Caves. Naturally, the Hero is freed from this control and thwarts their plan, destroying Ad Avis in the process. During the celebration of the Hero's somewhat pyrrhic victory, the wizard Erasmus appears, summoning the Hero to the land of Silmaria.
[edit] Differences from Previous Quest for Glory Games
[edit] Content
Quest for Glory IV, while maintaining the humor of previous games, features far darker themes. Centered around a dark cult summoning an unfathomably large evil, the game was a far cry from earlier villains such as Baba Yaga. Additionally, the undead and Lovecraftian monsters differed significantly from the lighter monsters of earlier games (there were, however, vampyric rabbits reminiscent of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail). Moreover, to fight the new monsters, Quest for Glory IV implemented an entirely new fighting system. While sometimes criticized as clunky, the new system was undeniably different.
[edit] Sound
Quest for Glory IV is the first in the series to feature voice actors and an audible narrator, John Rhys-Davies. Additionally, the game featured a largely original sound track by Aubrey Hodges – although it did feature a reprise of the Hero’s Theme from previous games and a rendition of Anitra's Dance by Edvard Grieg which played as background music in the Mordavian Inn.
[edit] Cast
- John Rhys-Davies - Narrator
- Jennifer Hale - Katrina
- Gregg Berger - Dmitri Ivanov aka the Burgomeister
- Jeff Bennett - Ad Avis / Bonehead / Dr. Cranium / Igor
- Cathianne Blore - Anna
- Hamilton Camp - Lorre Petrovich aka The Chief / Punny Bones
- Cam Clarke - Domovoi / Gypsy Davy / Nikolai
- Jim Cummings - Boris Stovich / Hans
- Bill Farmer - Leshy
- Joan Gerber - Magda
- Jess Harnell - Franz
- Mitzi McCall - Bella Markarov
- Diane Pershing - Erana / Rusalka
- Stu Rosen - Yuri Markarov
- Neil Ross - Erasmus / Ivan
- Susan Silo - Baba Yaga / Fenris / Olga Stovich / Tatiana the Queen of the Faery Folk
- Russi Taylor - Tanya Markarov
[edit] Other Notabilities
[edit] Bugs
The floppy disk version is notorious for having many in-game bugs, but a patch was eventually released. Most notable of these bugs was “Error 52.” Now famous among game fans, Error 52 occurred mostly when running the game on newer machines. Appearing during one of the games later battles against a Chernovy, the bug precluded victory. The other notable bug “Error 47” occurred under similar conditions, however it appeared earlier in the game. Error 47 also made the game unwinnable. Fans of the game have devised countless methods of beating the errors, however the most effective is to run DOSBox or a Windows 95 emulator.
[edit] Tarot Sequence
A particularly detailed sequence in the game involved the Gypsy Magda gathering information about the hero's future and his possible enemies or allies using a deck of Tarot cards. The images used for the game were taken from the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg[1], a Rider-Waite-Smith clone deck, and the layout used appears to be unique to the game.
[edit] External links
- Unofficial patches to the games made in SCI (QG1 remake, QG3 and QG4)
- Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness at the Internet Movie Database
- Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness at MobyGames
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