I loved Quest for Glory (or Heroes Quest, as it was when my sister and I purchased the first one) when I was younger. We totally mini-maxed it, spamming "pick nose" and sneaking everywhere to max out our skills (and of course we were a thief, because they could do fight and do magic as well.)
What sticks with me, however, is how the story gave the player freedom while still remaining engaging (exactly the points the article makes). So-called computer RPGs focused on the most boring parts of role-playing---combat---and completely ignored the thing that makes RPGs what they are, the player's role in creating the story! Bards Tale and Wizardry games that are contemporaneous to Quest for Glory are decidedly weaker sauce. Games like Ultima that tried to create an open world mostly ended up filling that world with bland variations on the same theme, and lost any narrative drive through endless side quests. Although we ground like only kids with nothing better to do can, there was no need for excessive grinding in Quest for Glory. You could push the story forward fairly quickly, and every puzzle had multiple solutions.
Totally agreed with 32bitkid that Deus Ex is the closest contemporary game to Quest for Glory, combining strong narrative with player freedom.
Whoa, I never knew about the "pick nose" trick, I've played thru the game a number of times as thief, both the original EGA and the VGA remake.
IMHO, the thief was the best class, the only one where you could get all the skills. And that's only if you started on QfG I. Starting as any other class, or a thief in later versions, and at least one of your skills was a zero, which meant you could never use or improve it (as far as I've ever found out).
That's indeed what I remember as well, but in at least one of the sequels it made sense to transition to a fighter to gain the paladin powers on top of the rest. Playing for maximum freedom was actually incredibly constraining in certain ways; I vaguely recall that you get forced by class into a specific endgame for Trial By Fire.
I have to mention to anyone who stumbles across this comment that there have been remakes. The QfG1 remake in 1992 was okayish, but I personally preferred the 16-color version in all its limited glory. But the QfG2 remake in 2011 was worthy of multiple replays just like the original was:
QfG3 is still playable via DOSBox if you can get a copy of the software. I want to play QfG4 again and I unfortunately have never played QfG5 as it landed when I was broke... but I did get a copy of the soundtrack via some filesharing network at the time, and Chance Thomas's work on that soundtrack was absolutely gorgeous.
Only if your lock picking skill was low. Over a certain level you could mine your nose for skill points indefinitely.
I just remembered we used to throw rocks everywhere to increase that skill. Even used to use rocks to chip (and sometimes kill) enemies while running from screen to screen to prevent them getting into close combat. I can't imagine having so much free time anymore :)
I know what you're saying, but if I do get free time again it will be to play the QFG series again! I'm very letdown with contemporary gaming and felt the best titles came out in the late 80s till the 90s came to a close.
The arcade focused stuff that came before was good and impressive (who as a child was NOT impressed standing in awe in front of Rampage circa 1986) but wasn't exactly deep. And the stuff today is almost entirely rehashes of formulas created in the late 80s or 90s.
It's why I've given up on "high end" gaming rigs and now use a Skull Canyon NUC (and a Wii U, Nintendo still has the touch).
What sticks with me, however, is how the story gave the player freedom while still remaining engaging (exactly the points the article makes). So-called computer RPGs focused on the most boring parts of role-playing---combat---and completely ignored the thing that makes RPGs what they are, the player's role in creating the story! Bards Tale and Wizardry games that are contemporaneous to Quest for Glory are decidedly weaker sauce. Games like Ultima that tried to create an open world mostly ended up filling that world with bland variations on the same theme, and lost any narrative drive through endless side quests. Although we ground like only kids with nothing better to do can, there was no need for excessive grinding in Quest for Glory. You could push the story forward fairly quickly, and every puzzle had multiple solutions.
Totally agreed with 32bitkid that Deus Ex is the closest contemporary game to Quest for Glory, combining strong narrative with player freedom.