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Sierra games or series better than KQ?

Started by Sir Perceval of Daventry, September 06, 2011, 07:27:00 AM

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Sir Perceval of Daventry

While KQ is still my favorite game series of all time, and has been since 1995 ;p, I do think that some other Sierra games were better than it, superseded it.

I personally find that out of all Sierra's series, the Space Quest series was the best written, best constructed and had just as great worlds as KQ had. The writing, humor, and pop cultural references were genius; Scott's acidic, "glass half empty" writing style--which mocked Roger, the player, Sierra in general, Ken Williams and pretty much everyone under the sun in a very tongue (half) in cheek way--Combined with Mark's art direction and sci-fi knowledge made it Sierra's best series IMO. There is not one single bad game in the series IMO; Even SQ5 isn't hated by the fans, it simply gets mixed reactions; And even it too has moments of genius. I do notice, though, that the SQ fan base tends to be more open minded and less ardent when it comes to SQ than KQ fans are when it comes to KQ.

The Conquests series was another brilliant, amazing, beautiful series which utterly trumped KQ as a fantasy series. I wish we'd gotten a VGA remake of Conquests of Camelot--that is one amazing game and one of Sierra's best ever. I wish the series would've continued; it had a hell of a lot of promise. Another series that GOG needs to re-release

Phantasmagoria, too, had a lot of promise and the first game is one of my favorite horror adventure games. I haven't gotten around to playing the sequel yet but I hear it's very different. As a fan of Lorelei Shannon as an author, I look forward to playing it since she wrote it. Regardless, I find Phantasmagoria (along with KQ8) to be Roberta's masterpiece.

Finally, Quest for Glory. This took everything that was great about Sierra's adventure games, and everything that was great about RPGs and blended them together to create what I feel is not a hybrid, but a new genre all together. It too trumps KQ as a fantasy series and is more in line of the direction (tone wise) which KQ should've headed. I hope and pray that GOG re-releases it in full. I've been dying to play it on a modern PC.

Other great Sierra games, IMO: Shivers, Light House, Rama. All classic adventure games that have been forgotten by most people. Same with Willy Beamish and Heart of China--Forgotten Sierra/Dynamix gems. And finally, Hunter/Hunted and Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance--two forgotten fun action games from Sierra's mid 9s peak.


snabbott

I have to admit that while I always liked KQ, Space Quest was my favorite. :o QFG was way up there, too.

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Bludshot

I think the QFG series is fantastic.  I played them far after their release (just a couple years ago), and was very impressed, especially with Shadows of Darkness and Trial by Fire.  Not many games can make bad puns while trying to battle something out of a Lovecraft story.
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"Alack! The heads do not die!"

MusicallyInspired


Cez

Gabriel Knight. JANE JENSEN 4 EVER!!!!

Phantasmagoria is one of Roberta's masterpieces, and one of Sierra's best games. The sequel wasn't very good, though.


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DawsonJ

I've always really enjoyed Torin's Passage, which was supposed to be a series. It really sucks that it was never completed.

Blackthorne

Quest For Glory (Hero's Quest) is an amazing series.  From fun gameplay, to action, adventure, exploration and humor.... it's got it all.  A great game series.

Space Quest is freakin' amazing too.  Space Quest III is one of my favorite video games of all time, period.


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Bludshot

Quote from: Cez on September 06, 2011, 05:01:08 PM
Gabriel Knight. JANE JENSEN 4 EVER!!!!

Phantasmagoria is one of Roberta's masterpieces, and one of Sierra's best games. The sequel wasn't very good, though.

The sequel is however, hilarious.

http://spoonyexperiment.com/category/phantasmagoria/
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"Alack! The heads do not die!"

KatieHal

I can't recommend watching Spoony's LP enough! So freakin' hilarious!  :rofl:

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Big C from Cauney island

Its hard to say better than KQ. I think there are games that are almost equally good but in a different way.  For example, the first doom was a masterpiece.  I also really liked Dagger of Amon Ra.  Grand Theft auto was pretty cool.  Love the assasins creed series.  I would say that many games bring back fond memories, especially including other systems. For example, I consider the first metroid on nintendo 8-bit a perfect game. From what I remember, 2 was pretty much the same. 

Such a hard question...  I'll say this, I agree with 90% of infamous adventures greatest games list.  However, a BIG mistake in my opinion is having space quest 4 so far down the list. 

Blackthorne

Quote from: Big C from Cauney island on September 06, 2011, 08:35:31 PM

Such a hard question...  I'll say this, I agree with 90% of infamous adventures greatest games list.  However, a BIG mistake in my opinion is having space quest 4 so far down the list. 

Yeah, but know that we didn't WRITE the list - we merely tallied up the results from the people who voted.  So it was a collective of fans who voted the game there - which was surprising.


Bt
"You've got to keep one eye looking over your shoulder
you know it's going to get harder and harder as you
get older - but in the end you'll pack up, fly down south, hide your head in the sand.  Just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer." - Dogs, Pink Floyd.

Lambonius

SQ4 = teh suck!11!

Just kidding.

Seriously though, it's one of my least favorite in the series, if not the least.  I think I like SQ6 less, but they tend to flip flop depending on my mood.

The biggest travesty of the IA Contest list was that Hero's Quest was all the way down at number 13.  THIRTEEN!!  Best Sierra game EVER.

Sir Perceval of Daventry

#13
Quote from: Lambonius on September 07, 2011, 07:22:24 AM
SQ4 = teh suck!11!

Just kidding.

Seriously though, it's one of my least favorite in the series, if not the least.  I think I like SQ6 less, but they tend to flip flop depending on my mood.

The biggest travesty of the IA Contest list was that Hero's Quest was all the way down at number 13.  THIRTEEN!!  Best Sierra game EVER.

Which SQ is your favorite?

For me it's something like:

1) SQ1VGA
2) SQ6
3) SQ4
4) SQ3
5) SQ5
6) SQ2
7) SQ1AGI

MusicallyInspired

I'm quite surprised. Space Quest IV was the masterpiece of the series in my opinion. I'm glad that Space Quest made the top of the list, though!

Sir Perceval of Daventry

Quote from: MusicallyInspired on September 07, 2011, 08:01:50 AM
I'm quite surprised. Space Quest IV was the masterpiece of the series in my opinion. I'm glad that Space Quest made the top of the list, though!

It's definitely their best work--But I put the other two ahead because SQ1VGA holds some very serious nostalgic value to me, and you know what nostalgia can do, and also it's just a fun little game. I can go back and play it again and again and I love the artwork and worlds you explore. Same goes for SQ6. I love where the story was going and think Josh was a fine addition to the "Guys from Andromeda". He has a mix of the acidic cynicism of Scott with some of the goofyness of Mark.

I wish SQ3 was longer...THAT had the potential to be their best, and it also seems like the game they had the most fun making. And the soundtrack is just plain awesome. SQ4, however, seems to have been a very unhappy experience for Scott and Mark, with Ken and the other executives pushing stuff down their throat that they didn't want. I mean Scott says he and Mark wanted to keep the parser system for SQ4. I would've LOVED that. Beautiful VGA graphics with an amazing, probably much more interactive parser? Epic.

Baggins

One thing SQ1VGA had going for it, was the lack of X's on the screen.

SQ4 had quite a few red Xs like, KQ5 had the red Xs... Rather than the global descriptions.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Lambonius

My favorite is probably SQ2.  Story, puzzles, graphics--it hits all the right notes for me.  SQ4 had too many gotcha deaths for my tastes.

Bludshot

Quote from: Baggins on September 07, 2011, 08:55:23 AM
One thing SQ1VGA had going for it, was the lack of X's on the screen.

SQ4 had quite a few red Xs like, KQ5 had the red Xs... Rather than the global descriptions.

I forgot about those.  There is something strangely frustrating about them.
Deep Thoughts with Connor Mac Lyrr
"Alack! The heads do not die!"

DawsonJ

Yeah. The infamous, "Red X." To me, it was like a mini BSOD; it was like a slap in the face, especially when trying to click on a small item on the screen.