Still a classic adventure RPG after all these years
The first game I can remember playing is Hero's Quest (eventually renamed to Quest for Glory after a lawsuit by the creators of a board game with the same title), so my review for this game certainly comes with a certain sort of nostalgic bias. However, this is also a game I frequently revisit, and I can say assuredly it still holds the same appeal as it did when I was five or six.
Quest for Glory 1 follows you as a thief, warrior, or magic user (and later in the series, a paladin). Through an early character creation process, you add points to selected abilities, such as sneaking, magic, or strength. Any class could dabble in the others if the user so chose, though any class with a starting stat of 0 could not be increased during that game. All other stats increased through use, so a character's vitality and agility would increase through combat, while sneaking would increase by (you guessed it) sneaking.
The story was simple but sufficient for those days of adventure games. You come to the valley of Spielberg, looking to make your name as a hero. Through many adventures, you eventually could become a hero of the land, though the perils and tribulations could also just as easily lead to an early demise. Played like a cross between an inventory-based adventure game and an action RPG, Quest for Glory was unrivalled in its unique take on the adventure game.
The game's greatest strength was in its writing, a trait shared by all the games save for the last in the series. The characters' dialogue was witty and very funny at times. Even with its primitive graphics, Spielberg feels like a living world, one I'd love to visit. And that's really another draw of the entire series - you never grow bored with the places or the people, and there's always something around the corner that makes you feel a part of that world.
Musically, there are some classics in the game. The Quest for Glory theme is excellent (try looking up the Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire CD if you have some extra cash), and other memorable tunes like Erana's Peace give an ethereal, fantastical feel to the proceedings.
Graphically, well.... this is an older game. The VGA remake holds up fairly well, but if you're coming into these games looking for great graphics, look elsewhere. For the time, however, the graphics were rich and vibrant. You could tell the programmers really cared about this world and its people just by the amount of detail they managed to cram into it.
My only complaint would be that the game is very difficult to play on modern systems, though this does not affect the overall score of the game as it's mostly a technical issue with modern computers. I recommend looking up a how-to guide on the game or using DOSBox. It can be run, but you'll be hard pressed to find a copy and get it moving on a modern system.
Overall, Quest for Glory was an amazing start to a classic series. If you're a fan of older games, you owe it to yourself to look this one up.