CURSE OF THE AZURE BONDS

These classic games haven't aged badly, but I sure have.

- Jody Macgregor

Years before Baldur's Gate came along, the CRPGs made in the Gold Box engine, including Curse of the Azure Bonds, were my introduction to the Forgotten Realms. Which is why I'll always associate the setting with women in impractical armor and names that can't be taken seriously. In Curse that's the priest Gharri of Gond, though a few years later Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures would introduce the unforgettable Lunit Bdufe—a name that makes Drizzt Do'Urden seem downright mundane.

The Gold Box games also introduced me to factions like the Zhentarim and the Red Wizards of Thay, two of the organizations in Curse of the Azure Bonds trying to control you via the magic tattoos of the title. Nothing can ever just be blue in a fantasy novel when it could be azure or sapphire or cerulean, right? I think Hoodoo of the Blue Tattoo would have been an even better name myself.

Curse kicks off when you wake up with magic tattoos and a month of missing memories. When those tattoos compel you to attack a local royal, you learn they're a medium for mind control and set out to get them removed. It's funny how that quest to remove something that's controlling your mind foreshadows Baldur's Gate III, even down to the amnesia if you play the Dark Urge.

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