Christy Marx' debut as game designer for Sierra is a fun adventure set in Arthurian lore. As none other than King Arthur himself, you must search far and wide for the Holy Grail, which will reportedly return your dying empire to its former glory. Three stalwart Round Table knights have already disappeared before you, so finding them is a priority as well. With a lot of great historical anecdotes and other historically accurate elements (the spoken tongue in the game is Olde English, for instance), Conquests of Camelot boasts excellent production values. Unfortunately, too many puzzles exist merely for the sake of copy protection, and make the game downright unrealistic and too easy. It seems a bit far-fetched, for instance, that King Arthur would have to be quizzed on the meaning of various flowers and Greek gods to progress in his quest. Fortunately, the game does a good job of holding the player's interests to the end, mainly through its well-written story, and many varieties of gameplay unseen in previous Sierra adventures, such as several fun arcade sequences, and the breaking up of the total score into three areas, e.g. "spiritual" points. Conquest of Camelot, despite its uninspired puzzles, is a great game, especially for newcomers who are looking for a good introductory-level game. Just be prepared to open up the manual a lot . Reviewed by: Underdogs |