Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail

The Good
Everything from the music to the graphics (though limited to 16 colors, the game had real artistic talent behind the sprites and the animations) was fantastic.

The game features a lovely mix of action and adventure. The action elements aren't a main focus in the game and aren't too involved (think Space Quest), so people who love adventure games shouldn't be turned off.

The puzzles in the game can be challenging but I managed to get through the whole game without being really stuck more than once. The only time I got stuck was a part that involved yelling, which was an action you didn't have to do at any other point in the game.

The game also has multiple endings based on some of the decisions you make, just like with Conquest of the Longbow (another exquisite adventure game).

Someone mentioned the riddles in the game as a bad part. For me, they were some of the most interesting puzzles in the game. The riddles are masterfully written in a way that anyone should be able to solve them given enough time and thought. I first played the game when I was 13 and managed to solve every riddle I encountered, and I played the riddles section multiple times to see every riddle. Anyway, some people might be turned off and may want to immediately progress to the next section. For those people, the riddles might have been pretty frustrating.

The Bad
I didn't like the part in the game where I got stuck. Like I mentioned earlier, it involved yelling which was something you didn't have to do throughout the whole game up until then, so I never even thought to try it. I imagine lots of people got stuck on the same part for the same reason.

Every single puzzle is still very logical. Unlike too many games, there's no brute force strategy to figuring out what to do where you run into parts where you have to just try every single action you can think of with no sense of direction. Looking around each environment gives clues as to what you do, and just about everything should be obvious. If not, you'll probably hit yourself on the head when you figure it out because the game really does a great job of filling you in.

The copy protection puzzles are probably the most annoying thing. I didn't even think to look in the manual when I first played the game with the riddle of the flowers.

The Bottom Line
I would say this is one of the greatest adventure games ever made, not just for aesthetic reasons (though it certainly is among the best in this department as well), but for the straight-forward adventure gameplay with some entertaining action moments.

To me, Quest for Glory, Conquest of Camelot, and Conquest of the Longbow offer the best Sierra has to offer when it comes to the adventure department because they offer some of the most straight-forward (but not necessarily easy) puzzles, often with multiple approaches.

The Good
The feature that most distinguishes Conquests of Camelot from other Sierra games of the period is that you (via King Arthur, your in-game cypher) are required to partake in many more challenges than simply solving item-manipulation puzzles. At one point you must slay wild boar; at another, you're dueling with a saracen; at still another, you're jousting. This, coupled with a fairly logical puzzle system, makes Conquests of Camelot a gem worth seeking out if you can configure your system to support it.

The Bad
The one feature that is guaranteed to irritate a fair number of gamers are the riddles. At one point, Arthur must solve a number of riddles to advance. If you cannot answer even one, you're stuck. Luckily, the riddles themselves rotate, so if you're stuck on one, leave the screen and return to get a new, possibly easier one.

The Bottom Line
King Arthur must venture out to recover the Holy Grail. Along the way, he undergoes a variety of challenges, physical, mental and spiritual, that make up the core of the gameplay. Imagine King's Quest with combat and a semi-historical flavoring and you've got the core of Conquests of Camelot.

The Good
It's more mature than Roberta Williams' King's Quest games, including the slightly adult comedy, which I think is often quite clever (to get the comedy you sometimes have to be clever or lucky enough to think of the correct line to type). I like the semi-historical, semi-mythological/religious content and that it's set in the "west"(England) and "east"(Israel), there doesn't appear to be much bias, though part of the ending arguably shows a Christian bias. I'd say that the problem solving and battles are challenging, but not excessively so(except for the Saracen) and to balance the difficulty, the game is quite short.

The game has a serious feel, but is balanced by Merlin's comedy and the history, mythology and religion being sometimes taken lightly. Christy Marx has arguably put a kind of feminism in the game, as King Arthur you often have to prove yourself to females, including the goddess Aphrodite, to progress in your quest for the holy grail. Whether it's really feminist or not, it makes the game stand out, especially in its time. I also like that there is a blurring of good and evil, friend and foe e.g in Guinevere, Lancelot, The Lady of the Lake, Aphrodite and her servants etc.

The Bad
The Saracen knight, who serves as the game's final boss, and the battle system you have to learn to beat him. I like the knight himself, he's presented as an honorable foe, but I can't say I enjoyed the challenge of learning the attack and defense, swordfighting system, defeating him was just too long and draining.

I think in the main, the game isn't preachy, though you're told that you must be "perfect" to acquire the grail ("perfect" is revealed to mean a strong fighter, clever and charitable/sacrificial) I think the game's story is presented as mythological, not too serious and there's some suggestion that the gods themselves aren't perfect. But there is one part that I think crosses the line, the part concerning the thief of Jerusalem and the way you or the grail itself deals with him. The thief appears comedic, he's dressed in only a loin cloth and turban, but his fate isn't very comedic even though the way the grail deals with him should be expected, the grail is supposed to expect perfection. But I think this part leaves a particularly bad taste right at the end, you appear to be serving a rather cruel and unforgiving god.

The Bottom Line
So it's fantasy like King's Quest, but more mature and adult and quite a bit better in my opinion. It has faults, but probably an above average Sierra adventure.