Overview
Conquests of the Longbow is the spiritual successor to Conquest of Camelot, a graphic adventure in the tradition of the King's Quest and Monkey Island series. In this game, players take on the mantle of Robin Hood (though that mantle would often change, as over the course of the game the famed bandit adopted several disguises). The game is a fairly faithful retelling of the classic legend. In the late 12th century, the beloved King Richard has been kidnapped on his way back from the Crusades by Leopold of Austria. England must come up with a hefty ransom, but the king's dastardly brother, Prince John, seizes the throne. The loyal subjects of the king, including the outlawed Saxon noble Robert of Huntingdon, must raise the money themselves.
Synopsis
The story mixed history and tradition with legend and fantasy. Maid Marian was represented as being heavily involved with druidic magic and close to spirits of the earth and forest, and Robin would find several stones, pieces of jewelry, and other items that granted magical protection.
Characters
- Robin Hood
- Maid Marian
- The Sheriff of Nottingham
- Friar Tuck
Gameplay
The game combined traditional point-and-click adventure with arcade sequences (i.e. archery) and mini-games (i.e. a game of Nine Men's Morris). Over the course of several days, Robin and his Merry Men would try to find ways of gathering money, such as robbing rich passers-by on a stretch of road near their camp. Often meeting and mugging or negotiating with people on the road would give Robin a new disguise, which would subsequently open up a new area.
It was not up to the player to actually raise enough money to free King Richard; each scripted interaction resulted in a certain monetary reward, and by the end of the game, enough money had been raised. Rather, the player's progress was charted using the classic Sierra metric, the points system.
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