Questron - Review @ CRPG Addict

Arhu

Arhu

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The CRPG Addict played through Questron from 1984, SSI's first foray into the CRPG market. Incidentally, also CRPG Addict's very first RPG experience back in the day.

Questron took a lot from Ultima, but Richard Garriott could have learned a couple of things from Questron--like how to treat a winning player. Am I still irked at not being invited to my own victory party? You bet I am.

The score adds up to 29, but I'm going to boost it to 32 with 3 bonus points. The first is for the minigames, which are fun by themselves even if they don't lead to much in the way of character development. I give two more for the excellent ending. In an era where too many games simply dump you do the prompt upon completion, Questron deserves a lot of credit for making the end a true ceremony.
Click to expand...
  1. Game 200: Questron (1984)
  2. Questron: Some Messed-Up Values
  3. Questron: Game Change
  4. Questron: Won! (with Final Rating)
More information.
 
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Great review! Questron was one of the first RPGs that I played, the first being Ultima III. I played on an Atari 800XL.

Questron was a good game for the time, but I enjoyed Ultima III more. Questron seemed less advanced after playing it on the heels of U3. For instance U3 had a party where Questron just had a single character and magic wasn't available in combat until later in the game. The things that set it apart just as using different weapons for different monster types was a good feature on paper, but having to keep switching weapons became a chore.
 
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Xian said:
Great review! Questron was one of the first RPGs that I played, the first being Ultima III. I played on an Atari 800XL.
Click to expand...

Wow, same here in same order! Also on the 800XL. Victory high five! Well, I played Dragonstomper before those. I agree with your comparison between the two. I missed U3's in-game music in Questron. But I liked Questron in some ways more. Combat wasn't so tedious for example. World exploration was great in both.

Anyone miss that awesome framerate in the dungeons? hah! At least it draws the monsters.
 
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Not my first CRPG but I do clearly remember playing this on a 5.25" floppy on Commodore 128 during the summers of 1988 & 1989.
 
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The ending is what makes this game stand out over the other Ultima/Wizardry clones of the era - or really any game.

You would not see a cutscene this good or long for decades - most of what you got back then, if anything, were like the romance of Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man.

Questron's ending was over the top - in a good way.

--

The mini games were also pretty good - it was the best way to get the cash you needed by working the casino.
 
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It was a good game but I enjoyed the Wizardry/Ultima games a bit more than I did this one. The fun minigames do make it stand out for me, even to today, some parts of this game had a huge influence on the industry, both then and now.
 
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