Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire

Yosemite Entertainment, 1999

This is the last chapter of the Quest for Glory series which was started in 1989 with it's first game, Hero's Quest, which was later remade with icon driven interface, VGA graphics, improved sound effects and music under the title, "Quest for Glory 1: So You Want to be a Hero." In Quest for Glory V, you have been sent to Silmaria by Erasmus the wizard to take part in the Rites of the Ruler ship. The ruler of Silmaria has been assassinated and someone is trying to release the dragon by destroying the five pillars, situated in five different locations around the island. These magical pillars are meant to keep the evil dragon sleeping in its lair and villages around the island safe from its evil deeds. The game also features most of the characters from previous Quest for Glory chapters.

The graphics in Dragon fire are breathtaking with excellent digital sound and music. The interface is point and click and very easy to maneuver. If you enjoyed the previous Quest for Glory games then I would highly recommend playing the last in the series.

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

Sierra On-Line, 1992

In this sixth episode of the well known King's Quest series, you play the heroic Alexander, whose beloved Cassima is in imminent peril in her own castle. After being alerted to Cassima's fate by a magic mirror, you must journey to the magical Land of the Green Isles to save your heart's desire. The Land of the Green Isles consists of five islands and you travel between these islands by mean of a magical map and solve puzzles in order to gain favor from the inhabitants.

This is rather an improved addition to the King's Quest series. It is fully mouse-driven, offers a bank of icons from which to select various actions and has an easy to access inventory. While the graphics are not of very good quality, this game is a splendid classic with many magical lands to explore including the land of the dead.

NiBiRu: Age of Secrets

Future Games, 2005

NiBiRu: Age of Secrets is a mystery adventure game that will definitely brush up the playing excitement and fun of a Broken Sword adventure game, except that you control Martin Holan and not George Stobbart. The game is developed by the company that formerly served us with their excellent dark mystery adventure game, The Black Mirror and this is the reason that NiBiRu also displays similar quality of graphics and animations found in The Black Mirror.

In this game our hero, Martin Holan is a young archeologist and a linguistic who has been contacted by his uncle to examine a mysterious World War II tunnel unearthed by the construction workers while building a new highway in Bohemia. Upon arriving in Prague Martin finds out that the girl his uncle arranged to meet and brief him the details of this mysterious tunnel has been murdered in cold blood and the motive behind the murder somehow seems connected to this mysterious discovery. From here onward, for Martin Holan, this short expedition visit to Prague seems like taken a dark turn to the most dangerous and thrilling journey that will take him into the very heart of the ancient Pyramids of Mayan valley. The adventure that involves outwitting cold-blooded mysterious gang of murderers, overcoming problems, solving logical as well as inventory based puzzles and finally discovering the deep and dark secret powers of NiBiRu, an unknown planet in our solar system, which was first discovered by the Nazis and they hired scientists in order to work on these powers so they could utilize them to dominate the world, which as per their finding was also the main cause of the demise of Ancient Mayan civilization.

Graphically, the game's 3D environment is a reminiscent of The Black Mirror with over eighty locations to explore and dozens of interesting characters to meet and interact with. The musical score and sound effects are quite charming and mesh well in the game environment. Game puzzles vary from not-so-hard to very hard and challenging while they are mostly inventory based. Despite the games linear storyline the exploration and puzzle solving is non-linear within a particular location. In the ending lines, I would say that this is a game that no adventure gamer should miss for it is all fun and entertainment than anything else.