Betrayal at Krondor

Betrayal at Krondor is an RPG that wasn't afraid to play at literature. The game is set in the world of Midkemia from Raymond E. Feist's books and is told in nine chapters like a novel: each opens with a text introduction, changes the party's makeup and goals, and takes the player across a vast landscape from coastal towns to mountain passes. The tale of betrayal, elven politics, and a dark mage is unusually mature for the genre and written with a feel for dialogue. The chapters alternate so the player sees events from several sides and gradually pieces together a picture of a much wider conspiracy.

Krondor rests on several clever ideas. Characters have no classic levels; skills improve with use, and the player can flag which abilities they want to train preferentially. Combat is turn-based on a small chessboard-like grid, where weapon reach and positioning matter, and weapons and armor wear out and need upkeep. Chests scattered across the world are locked with word riddles whose clues are wordplay and puzzles, and to this day it's one of the game's most distinctive features. Travel is slow, with camping, healing herbs, and random encounters, which strengthens the feeling of a genuine expedition. Herbs, arrows, and money are limited, so besides combat you're also weighing whether you can afford another night out in the open.

Technically it was an interesting mix: three-dimensional landscape interspersed with digitized character portraits and extensive texts that carry most of the atmosphere. The music is quiet and melancholic and suits reading better than action. At the time the game was highly praised precisely for its story and used to be called one of the best adaptations of fantasy literature into a game. Today it feels slow, but that slowness is deliberate; anyone who likes RPGs with a lot of reading and thinking will find one of the best-written games of the entire decade. The response was such that Krondor's story even got a novelization, and the series received further sequels.