Chris InglisQuest For Infamy is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Infamous Quests. It was originally released on PC in 2014, published then by Phoenix Online Publishing, and the game recently saw a release on Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on March 4, 2022, published by Ratalaika Games. While anyone looking to play the game today may think the graphics look too old to bother with, I assure you, if you enjoy good stories with great humourous banter, you will enjoy this.
Quest For Infamy starts with Mr. Roehm, a roguish fellow, getting up to no good with Baron Brandlevrot’s daughter. He escapes in a straw-filled cart to the town of Volksville, in the picturesque Valley of Krasna. Stuck in town due to a bridge being out, Mr. Roehm finds himself unintentionally drawn into the secretly nefarious goings on in the valley. As he explores the town and valley, he faces a strange cult that has plans for the peaceful valley and unravels the connection to a mystery that has long plagued the people of Krasna.
After the intro sequence, you are left to your own devices and must walk, talk, use and fumble your way through conversations and getting to know the townsfolk. I predominantly play point-and-click games on my PC with mouse and keyboard as it’s easy to pixel hunt looking for items that can be interacted with. Playing this game on Xbox was a slight challenge at first as you need to cycle through cursor options to change from talk, to look, to use, and you can only cycle the icons one way so if you’re too quick and skip over the icon you want, you must cycle through them all again.
Despite this, the slight frustration was cast aside easily as I settled into the humour, sarcasm, and crassness of the dialogue between characters. The town’s bar is called the Jolly Rogering, and swearing is not out of bounds at all. The humour is delivered so well by the outstanding voice acting which had me laughing the nights away. Navigating the town was a bit of a mission, trying to remember where specific buildings were located. It reminded me of playing the original Quest for Glory games, using graph paper to draw a map of locations as I discovered them.
After meeting most people in town and witnessing a public beheading, you must choose one of three mentors to side with. This is where you choose your class to play between rogue, sorcerer or brigand. I found a fellow called Kurdt in the bar who looked like Jason Statham and I liked his smart-assed demeanour. As I always like to play warriors/paladins in these RPG games, he was my choice and a brigand I became.
Each class in Quest for Infamy has its own side quests and combat abilities which meant each of the three playthroughs would have enough variation if you were inclined to try completing them all. Combat wasn’t far into the story and if you’re played games like Quest For Glory, you’d be familiar with the simple turn-based combat with a couple of class-specific options to throw at the enemy. Be sure to save you game often though as there are plenty of ways to end the game quickly outside of combat. I tried stealing the blacksmith’s horse – a guard came and killed me for it.
I really loved the nods to the Quest for Glory games that inspired Quest for Infamy. There is a section where you need to climb up over the Volksville gate in the middle of the night. As a brigand, climbing wasn’t a strength of mine so I had to repeated attempt to climb the gate and eventually gained +1 to climbing, then got over the gate. Another time there was something shiny up in a tree that was reminiscent of a scene from Quest for Glory 1. The narrator says, “You see a glint of metal in the nest.” “Nah, you don’t really.” While I got much enjoyment out of these, they would be lost to anyone that hasn’t played the QFG series.
Overall, Quest for Infamy is an excellent nod to 90’s point and click games but with its own wit, charm, and humour that hit all my nostalgia feels. The wonderful art and music, and convincing voice acting had me lost in nostalgia each play session.
This review utilised an Xbox key provided by PR Hound. Quest for Infamy is available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
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