Quest for Glory III: Wages of War

"Wages of War" is my least favorite game in the "Quest for Glory" series, but it's entertaining enough and hardly a turkey.

My main problem is the plot - it's too simplistic. You (the hero) arrive in the Africa-like land of Tarna to stop an impending war between two tribes, the Simbani and the Leopardmen. Right from the beginning, you're told that, although the Leopardmen appear to be the aggressors, the true villains of the piece are a group of demons who are hiding out in the jungle and trying to trigger the war for their own diabolical purposes.

The trouble with this story is that there's no mystery to it. I think it would've been better if the hero didn't know that the demons were involved right from the start, and had to work to uncover their presence. Also, the anti-war tone gets a little preachy sometimes. Though I'm hardly a warmonger myself, I do find it condescending when a computer game tells me, about 8,000 times, that war is bad and peace is preferable. (The message is somewhat hypocritical anyway, since all "Quest for Glory" games have a strong violence component!)

On the plus side, the African setting is interesting, and the graphics - though dated - are cool. The hero also encounters some well-developed and unusual societies (though many of them are populated by somewhat stubborn, unsympathetic characters). If you play the Wizard, you'll get to enjoy some unique and atmospheric sequences, like creating a magical staff and fighting a duel with the shaman of the Leopardmen.

The next game in the series, "Shadows of Darkness," is infamous for having technical problems, but it's really a much more literate and interesting game than this one, so I think it's worth soldiering through its glitches to have an overall more rewarding experience. Still, "Wages of War" is pretty decent, and it's relatively short, so it doesn't really outstay its welcome.