Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse

Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse is an intriguing example of how an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure can work without relying on the dense statistics, complicated character creation, and methodical turn-based battles normally associated with classic computer RPGs. Developed by Cyberlore Studios and published on Steam by SNEG, it favors an accessible action-RPG structure while retaining the fantasy storytelling and sense of adventure expected from its tabletop origins. Its age is immediately apparent in the visuals and interface, but its unusual setting, straightforward mechanics, and focused narrative allow it to retain a distinctive personality. The adventure places the player in the role of a young corsair whose family has fallen into disgrace. As the son of a sultan and the man betrothed to the caliph's daughter, he has considerable personal stakes in the events unfolding around him. His journey becomes a quest to restore his family's honor while confronting the mysterious problems surrounding powerful genies and the forces manipulating them. This provides a stronger emotional motivation than simply hunting monsters or collecting treasure. Family reputation, responsibility, rom…

Overall this was a pretty fun game to play. Compared to older gold-box titles this one does pull more of a Zelda'ish feel, but it definitely has it's own more ARPG style. The graphics are actually very fine to look at considering their age, and the movement for me was smooth and responsive. Combat basically centered around your sword and magic casting 'spells' as you find or buy them. There are no stats or skills that you manually level up, (even though you do have D&D stats), it is just your character progressing through the story with items that are 'upgraded' as you progress. The story is solid and provides some twists and turns at times. Even on todays hardware the gameplay aged fine and it plays smooth. I did not have a single crash, hiccup or bug in my playthrough. If you're looking for a simple D&D escape, I'd say give this a shot. It's still a fun little game.

Disneys Aladdin is based in this, I wanted a magic carpet ride, instead I got a magic carpet flight straight out of september 11th

Way ahead of it's time

A game carried by the story and the puzzles, both being amazing. If you can handle the early 90s quirks, it will give you the experience of a very interesting and unique DND setting. Cons include the awkward combat and the multitude of moments in the game where you will be just lost. Use of a guide and the cluebook (included in the Steam version) are very helpful and recommended. The manual doesn't give too many tips, but it is nice to read for some basic background and a general idea of the lore. It took me about 20ish hours to beat (Steam counts the launcher (which is used by all DND Classics in Steam) being open as playing the game, thus the additional hours. Definitely recommended if you can deal with early 90s action game jank.

I grew up on this game and am too biased to give a straight review. (I love it to death and hasn't aged as poorly as others, imo, but again I'm biased as hell.) I did want to report that my saves rolled back after closing the game and I lost an hour or so of progress. I'm guessing something with the Steam cloud saves got jumbled up. Maybe it was a fluke! Who knows, but there it is. I've never had that happen with any other game, and these older games can be finnicky. When I play this on DosBOX on a non-Steam install, I've never had saves rollback before.