Death Knights of Krynn - Review @ CRPG Addict

The CRPG Addict reviewed the classic Gold Box game Death Knights of Krynn, part two in SSI's Dragonlance trilogy.

Quests. Probably the best approach since Pool of Radiance. The main quest is only so-so, and with only one outcome, but I loved the number of side quests. Fully half of the game world is optional. (..)

That gives us a final score of 54. This is actually lower than I would have thought; I gave Champions a 56 and Curse of the Azure Bonds a 60. I don't see anything I want to change, though, so we'll go with it. It still puts the game on the "Highest Rated" list, which is going to be dominated with Gold Box games unless the other franchises start bringing it.

1. Game 199: Death Knights of Krynn (1991)
2. Undead on Arrival
3. Good, but Still Second-Best
4. Won!
5. Final Rating

Explanation of the the final score: The GIMLET.



Some of the Gold Box games were recently released on GOG as part of the Forgotten Realms Archives, Collection Two, but sadly that doesn't include the Dragonlance series for obvious reasons.

Update: The Dragonlance games are coming to GOG as well.

More information.

Thanks Arhu! Quick question - are there reasons the dragonlance games won't appear on GOG at some point in the future? I was kinda hoping they might sort it out at some point given they've resolved the licensing issues with the forgotten realms games.

Edit: ah I get it - when you say "obvious reasons" its because they're not part of a forgotten realms bundle! I thought you meant they were stuck in limbo for some reason.

I sure hope they will find them eventually -- or release them if they have found them already. Myrthos posted news about the Forgotten Realms rescue yesterday: pretty interesting article that detailed a lot of the steps involved in getting old games back on track. Licensing Hell sure is a bitch.

edit: GOG.com has confirmed that the Krynn games are on the way, too:
Dragonlance Gold Box Games - They are coming.

edit: GOG.com has confirmed that the Krynn games are on the way, too:
Dragonlance Gold Box Games - They are coming.

Ha now that is awesome news! Thanks!

For me, DQoK was better than CoK. Opinions vary I guess. Perhaps I just enjoyed the high level characters and monsters more.

Wow, very nice!! More reasons to throw money at GoG, weeeeeee!!~

Great article. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed the Krynn games back in the day. I thought they provided some nice challenges and changes. Hope to see those released soon.

Many great memories of fighting dragons in krynn, i look forward to doing it again thanks to GOG.

I played them all long ago (with great memories) and tried to play the first one again a few years ago and just couldn't get into it sadly. For me the time has passed but the future looks promising.

All Krynn games were awesome! Especially when played on a real C64 with color monitor. Nothing can emulate a real C64, when you hear its sound realtime with all the natural distortion effects and the unique ingame speed and the colors. Gold Box games need a joystick for fluid movement and to be able to strike with your multi-attack warriors in more directions, when surrounded. The joystick movements feels like swinging with a sword at those cursed draconians or any enemy. IMO, more fun than a WiiU. Also we held our breath anticipating the success of hits with low level warriors - 1st or 2nd lvl - in the first Krynn game. It was so much fun beating draconians at game begin.

That's why Bard's Tale III. should be experienced on a real C64 only. It was that good. Lot more fun than many PC games coming out nowadays.

The Amiga version was the best by far!

Along with the standard mix and matching parts to make your characters avatar there were a few high quality premade ones to select, but the best addition was visible spell AOE effects for fireball, etc. which were invisible in every game prior and on the other platforms.