Seasoned adventurers will try to combine every inventory item with everything in sight. But the world is so vast and there are so many items (you can get over-encumbered!) that brute-force puzzle-solving will get you nowhere. Progress is less about raising stats or combining items than talking to the right person, in the right place, at the right time.

You can play a Fighter, Thief, Magic-User, or import a Paladin from the last game. Problems have multiple solutions, ranging from casting the right spell to picking the right lock to punching the right face. I always picked the Fighter, much to the sarcastic narrator's delight: “You read the book, written entirely in one-syllable words, obviously intended for Fighters. It's absolutely fascinating.”

Combat is a war of attrition. Fought in an arcade-like manner (or set to auto-battle), individual encounters aren't overly challenging, but eventually you'll find yourself lost, poisoned and down to your last potion. Flee in terror and you'll be chased, screen after screen, until you find sanctuary or eternal rest – whichever comes first. Resting is only possible in a few locations, and the feeling of relief when you step into the warm safety of the inn should be familiar to anyone who played the original Resident Evil.

Few games have such atmosphere. As you leave town, the excellent soundtrack slowly fades, as if afraid to follow you into the woods. Darkness doesn't fall in Mordavia, it slowly suffocates the light. And as the gnarled trees look more and more like grasping hands, you might catch yourself wondering: Waitaminute... was that thing there before?

QfG4 was also one of the first “talkie” games, using CD-ROM technology to store thousands of spoken lines. Back then, actually being able to hear people talk was something of a revelation.