Quest for Glory III: Wages of War was not planned. It was an afterthought, a bridge, a diversion based on the idea that Rakeesh and Uhura’s homeland and story was too interesting to just be mentioned in passing in
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire. It also had the added bonus of easing the Hero, and his narrative, into the decidedly more unfriendly and dangerous confines of Mordavia in the subsequent
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness. And so we got a glorious accidental gem of an adventure that stands proudly toe-to-toe with the rest of this venerable franchise.
In subjecting
Wages of War to
the PISSED rating system, I’m going to try
really hard to perform a nostalgia-ectomy and judge the game on its own merits--and by
the guidelines of the PISSED scale--instead of just going “OMG 10/10 FIVE STARS IF YOU DON’T LIKE THIS U SUCK!”
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| Pictured: a scene from my nostalgia-ectomy. |
It will be difficult, but I can do this. I have you, The Adventure Gamer’s loyal readership to keep me honest here. Let’s do this, hero-style!
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| Alexandros’ final stats and score. |
Puzzles and Solvability: 4
You might be a little surprised by this low rating, but I have to tell you that the puzzles in
Wages of War are just not difficult. Yes, they’re logical for the most part, although
getting the fire opal from the meerbats is pretty random. Still, most puzzles are boiled down to “Do I have the right inventory object for the job or for this quest that somebody told me about?” or “Did I go to the right place after the right event has been triggered?”
I can already hear the chorus of “That’s the case in
every adventure game!” Fair enough. But even in light of this concession,
Wages of War didn’t have any moments where I was wandering around, wondering what to do next in the face of unsolvable puzzles. There were just issues I hadn’t found the right tool for yet.
Need a prophecy? Get a gem. Bring back the gem and get the prophecy. See a monkey in a cage? Free the monkey. Need to cross a waterfall? Get vine. See monster, kill monster. And so on. I suppose the
Simbani initiation trials take a bit more brain power, and I did enjoy the mini-games of spear-throwing and wrestling, as well as Awari, but none of them were particularly difficult. You can “brute force” them, or
as Chet discovered, even fail them and still progress. It’s not
Leisure Suit Larry V levels of inconsequential, as there are still things you must do in order for the game to progress, but it’s close. Perhaps the various
wizards’ duels in the wizard-character playthrough provide more of a challenge, but the paladin just kind of moves from puzzle to puzzle with relative ease.
And yet, this doesn’t detract from the experience since
Wages of War is so darn enjoyable. Still, I’d hardly put these puzzles up there with the likes of
The Secret of Monkey Island or
The Fate of Atlantis or even the
firsttwoQuest for Glory games.
A note about combat: It better and more challenging than I remembered, at least if you have the difficulty jacked up to maximum, but it’s tactically limited and gets tiresome. Most fights don’t give enough of a reward to make them worthwhile, and while the enemies are varied, the encounter rate is
high. Excessively so. At least it’s easy to kill your foes at a distance with daggers or rocks, and I’m assuming offensive magic, or just crank the speed to max and run through several savannah or jungle scenes until you get away.
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| That flaming sword, though. |
Interface and Inventory: 7
There really isn’t much to say here. The interface is typical Sierra point-and-click fare from the era. Everything works as planned, there are great and often humorous textual descriptions for most stuff that you click the “Eye” on, you walk where you want your character to walk, and you never feel like the interface gets in your way. In fact, you don’t even notice it’s there.
Specialized buttons work as intended, such as the menus for running, sneaking, walking, and magic. Combat is also a breeze, since you can use the mouse to click on “Swing,” “Thrust,” and so on, or do what I did and utilize the numerical keys on your keyboard.
The inventory is solid, with well-done pictures and descriptions that will never keep you guessing what the hell it is that you just picked up, or what it’s used for. I appreciate little touches like the sapphire pin from
Trial by Fire carrying over if you imported your character, and the canned SPIM (“Special Portion Instant Meal”) rations provide a chuckle in that typically anachronistic fashion typical of most Sierra adventure games. There are no puzzles to solve
within the inventory, but your inventory is used to solve puzzles. It’s very philosophical; I wouldn’t expect you to understand. In fact,
I don’t even understand .
Let’s move on.
Story and Setting: 7
Here is where
Wages of War shines. Honestly, I’d give it a 9 for a setting and about a six for a story, which washes out to a 7.
Tarna as a city and a land is an absolute joy to behold.
Wages of War’s African-inspired setting was unique at the time, and remains so to this day. It’s an underused milieu, as evidenced by the popularity and aesthetic impact of Marvel’s recent smash
Black Panther movie. Audiences, whether in movies or games, like to see things that they have not seen before, and
Wages of War delivers.
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| I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: who wouldn’t want to stay at this inn (clown aside)? |
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| The Simbani Village was a unique setting unlike any seen in an adventure game or an RPG thus far. |
I just had a thought: Lori and Corey Cole apparently had wanted there to be a smaller settlement--a Hamlet, if you will--in
Quest for Glory I that the hero could visit instead of Spielberg. Alas, this idea didn’t make it into the game. In
Quest for Glory III, with Tarna and the Simbani village, we may have the
only example of this in the entire series.
That’s just an aside. The setting in
Wages of War is top-notch. Even the savannah and the jungle themselves almost feel like characters, menacing, untracked places that dare the hero to explore; their scope is conveyed quite nicely by the game’s world map (more on this in the Envirionment and Atmosphere category).
The story in
Wages of War is weaker that the setting. It’s competent and does the job of getting the hero
to Tarna and giving him plenty of stuff to do once there, but it’s pretty predictable and cliche. There was really no doubt that the demons were behind it, though the fact that the Demon Wizard Rakeesh had defeated before was back for revenge raised the stakes. However, as discussed before, the demons’ plot to foment a war doesn’t stand up to heightened scrutiny.
But the story doesn’t detract from the game. It just doesn’t have a “Wow!” factor. Any plot holes and false leads do serve the interest of the story, and the continuity errors, such as
how the heck was Johari captured, anyway? are minor and don’t affect anything save for my ability to nitpick. So I feel that this rating is more than fair.
That cliffhanger ending, too, is highly effective.
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| For real, this time. |
Sound and Graphics: 8
This game is beautiful, one of the best-looking we’ve seen on this blog. From the city of Tarna to the Heart of the World to the Lost City and the Pool of Peace, every setting is filled with vibrant colors, lush vegetation, and a unique sensibility that fits
Wages of War’s setting perfectly.
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| The Sultan of Shapeir’s palace from the intro. |
I mean, even the hero’s room at the inn looks good!
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| Tell me you wouldn’t pay to stay here. |
Sure, the battle graphics have no backgrounds . . .
. . . and the savannah scenes are barren and kind of phoned in . . .
. . . and yeah, there are no other people wandering the bazaar--or even moving around at the same time the hero is save for a handful of circumstances . . .
. . . but LOOK AT THIS GAME. It is a true work of art.
The music and sound design is likewise top-notch: Rudy Helm and his crew deserve a round of applause for their work. From the dynamic way that themes change depending on when the hero is close to or far from a certain place, to the melodies themselves, the music heightens and in some way drives the mood of every scene. I could sit here and describe every last piece of music, but I’d rather link to it and let you be the judge.
(The Inn theme, the Simbani Village theme, and all four overworld themes are personal favorites, though.)
Environment and Atmosphere: 8
I said it before, and I’ll say it again:
Wages of War is pulp. It’s like a 1930s adventure serial crossed with an Edgar Rice Burroughs or Arthur Conan Doyle yarn, with a dash of Robert E. Howard thrown in and sprinkled with some early era Hollywood movie magic. And it is awesome.
It has all of the tropes: Dashing foreign hero exploring a strange and exotic (to him) land and winning over the locals, fantastic creatures of magic and mystery (both good and bad), fierce warriors and crafty wizards, talking animals, dangerous monsters, lost cities, and even a little bit of romance. Right is right, wrong is wrong, there is no moral ambiguity that seems to be all the rage in storytelling these days, and the good guys aren’t afraid to kick ass and take names.
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| Except this jerk’s name. We never found that out. |
Combine the evocative music with the stunning visuals and unique setting, and you can practically
feel the cloud of mosquitoes chewing your face off in the sweltering heat of the jungle, as you search desperately for a way to the Lost City over yonder waterfall . . .
Or maybe I just need to turn on my AC.
Every screen in
Wages of War has a purpose. There is something to do or people to talk to everywhere. The team did a great job of making the game feel open-ended and reliant on player choice despite being relatively straightforward. And although there really aren’t that many places to go to in the savannah and jungle, the game
feels majestic in scope--I for one found the world map/random encounters system to be a smashing success, conveying the sense of traversing a massive landscape.
Yes, I only gave
Conquests of the Longbow a 7 in this category, and that game had fantastic environment and atmosphere! But medieval England was an actual place. Tarna is
Tarna. It’s a world of imagination, albeit one based on the real world. More importantly, it’s a place that you feel like you actually want to go. In my humble opinion,
Wages of War sets the benchmark for environment and atmosphere, and I think all other games played on this blog released afterwards need to be compared to this one.
Dialogue and Acting: 7
There is no voice acting, so let’s focus on the writing and dialogue.
It’s fantastic.
Every character sounds unique with their own speech patterns and syntactical tendencies, from old friends Rakeesh and Uhura, to new friends Kreesha and Yesufu and Manu, to Johari, and to the wonderfully strange denizens of the bazaar like Kalb the meat merchant, the cranky oil seller, and the Sanford and Son-impersonating junk dealers.
Oh yeah, and Salim. He’s . . . a trip.
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| *scans room nervously for Federal agents hiding nearby* |
I particularly like the way that
Wages of War explores the themes of conflict and friendship. In particular, the relationship between the hero, Uhura, and Rakeesh just feels like old friends hanging out and sharing stories despite the danger they face.
During the endgame, when everyone comes to help the hero out and fulfill the prophecy, none of the relationships seem forced or out of place, save for Kreesha, but cut the girl some slack!
All told,
Wages of War continues the
Quest for Glory tradition of high-quality writing and characterization. Well done.
Final RatingAlright, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for where we calculate our final PISSED score. Let me sharpen my calculator here (don’t ask) and crunch some numbers!
4 + 7 + 7 + 8 + 8 + 7/.6 = 66.66, rounded up equals 67.
A respectable score! But us Adventure Gamer reviewers are allowed to add or subtract a shiny discretionary point, as long as we can rationally justify the decision. Or not; the mods are flexible. And I feel like based on
Wages of War’s thematic cohesion, pulpy vibe, and overall enjoyment factor, it certainly deserves to be bumped up to a 68.
68, the same as the original
QfG I, two points higher than
QfG II, and a sweet-sixteen points higher than the
QfG remake.
This is fair.
Wages of War holds together really well despite its relative ease, middling story, and somewhat weak combat system. Its positives in atmosphere, graphics and sound, and overall fun factor more than outweigh these negatives. The story, while nothing special,
feels special due to the great characters and mini-stories and set pieces within the larger narrative: Befriending Harami and Yesufu, getting married to Johari, becoming a Simbani Warrior, getting your prophecy, and so on. There are so many fun things to do, many of which haven’t been seen in an adventure game, that
Wages of War remains a memorable experience to this day.
And gamers thought so upon release as well!
Neil J. Rubenking in PC Magazine praises the “lush, vivid backgrounds,” and “rich soundtrack,” mentioning a lot of the same points I did in his micro-write-up of the game.
Computer Gaming World was more effusive in its praise, with reviewer Jeff James singing the expected praises of the graphics, sound, and interface, though he paid special attention to
Wages of War’s setting. He also commented on the high encounter rate and various conversation bugs that I experienced in this playthrough before ultimately stating that
Quest for Glory III will be “tough to surpass.”
Though nothing is as gracious as
Dragon Magazine’s five-star review (What? They gave a game five-stars?!):
“This is by far the finest of the Quest for Glory adventures created by Lori and Corey Cole. It also happens to be one of the most detailed graphic adventures released by any company, with a storyline is replete with new and interesting characters. The animation is well-plotted and planned you'd swear at times you're looking at a movie that you can interact with.
Quest for Glory III (QFG3) is a delightful repast in a market filled with junk food.” (emphasis mine)
This game’s contemporary reputation as being the weak link of the series seems strange to me, although I know that tastes change with time. Further,
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness was arguably better, improving on the already impressive
Wages of War in nearly every metric.
In conclusion, you really owe it to yourself to play
Wages of War, even if you’ve never played a
Quest for Glory game in your life. The setting, atmosphere, music, and visuals will suck you in, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy your time with this game, flying cobras be damned.
