Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail Overview
Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail is a text parser driven adventure game. Its narrative is initiated by a curse upon Camelot, stemming from the romantic entanglements of King Arthur, Gwenhyver, and Launcelot, which has brought famine and drought to the kingdom.
Player control shifts to King Arthur himself after three knights sent to find a curative Holy Grail vanish. His search spans both England and the Holy Land, blending real geography with myth. The setting incorporates an alternate ninth century where pagan deities exist alongside Christian beliefs, though this is not explored through detailed historical or religious simulation.
Gameplay involves typing verb object commands, some with keyboard shortcuts, to navigate varied scenarios. Rather than a strict focus on inventory puzzles, tasks include exploration, riddle solving, information gathering, and action oriented sequences like jousting. A simple economic system is also part of the experience.
The game allows for multiple solutions to problems and does not mandate completing every major objective to proceed. However, Arthur's performance is tracked in three categories: skill for action sequences, wisdom for acquired knowledge, and soul for moral choices. A low score in the soul category specifically results in an unfavorable conclusion, making the overall experience challenging in terms of narrative consequence.
