Kings Quest 2015

[Numbers]

Sauron had to be CGI? 

Okay, you try coming up with a practical effect for a character that alternates between being a shadowy humanoid, a cloud of utter blackness, a ten-foot tall giant clad in armor that morphs into a fiery cat's eye and back again ad infinitum, and a weird combination of all of the above that levitates on top of all that.

Gollum looked awesome, Smaug looked pretty cool, Sauron....

Sauron didn't need to be there.

Smaug is my favorite live-action dragon in any movie. True story. It's a pity they built him up as being this unstoppable force of nature at the end of the second movie...and then he dies within the first five minutes of the third. What a waste. They should've just had that scene at the end of the second movie and not ended it on a cliffhanger that got so easily resolved.

Yeah, Sauron didn't need to be in the movies...but we did get a kickass fight scene out of it involving Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee's stunt double, and Cate Blanchett turning into Samara. And also Nazgul that look like the Black Knights from Dark Souls, Radagast making stupid faces, and Gandalf being completely useless and literally being carried from the battlefield, but you take what you can get. The YMMV page on TV Tropes for the third Hobbit movie even says that the Smaug and Sauron scenes are the best in the movie, and the rest of the film is extremely subpar by comparison.

[GrahamRocks!]

*facepalms* I completely forgot about that. Thanks, Numbers!

And yeah, Smaug's pretty awesome. Well, I think he dies that quickly in the book too.

[Numbers]

*facepalms* I completely forgot about that. Thanks, Numbers!

And yeah, Smaug's pretty awesome. Well, I think he dies that quickly in the book too.

I love how you and I have dispositions towards each other that change from friendly to hostile at the drop of a hat, depending on what thread it is.

Smaug's death was even more anticlimactic in the book, as it's told from Bilbo's point of view, and Bilbo doesn't even know Smaug's dead until later on. Smaug, one of the greatest dragons in fantasy fiction, gets killed off-screen in his own book. You only know how he died because Bard said how it happened.

[GrahamRocks!]

Yeah, we're weird like that. Vitriolic friendship/rivalry thing.

[Jack Stryker]

Here's the review from GameInformer.

In recent years, a wellspring of modern adventure games have bubbled up attempting to recapture the magic of yesteryear's point-and-click titles.  Modernizing a genre built upon abstract puzzle logic, trial and error, and frequent backtracking is a tall order, but The Odd Gentlemen has found a solid balance in its return to the classic Sierra fantasy series.  Save for a couple nuisances, this first chapter is a heartfelt and entertaining return for King Graham.

Part of King's Quest's charm lies in the narrative framework of an elderly King Graham recounting the stories of his youth to his granddaughter, Gwendolyn.  Her effervescent attitude meshes well with the tired-yet-playful Graham(voiced by Back to the Future's Christopher Lloyd), giving off a fun, unmistakable The Princess Bride vibe.  Speaking of The Princess Bride, much of the voice acting is spot-on, like the diminutive yet cunning knight-in-training Manny, voiced by the aforementioned film's Wallace Shawn ("inconceivable!").  Lloyd's performance as old Graham mostly works, though the 76-year-old actor occasionally sounds like he's either phoning it in or too tired.  Regardless, I found Graham's storytelling with Gwendolyn sweet and refreshing.

This first chapter features Graham's bumbling attempts to fulfill his lifelong goal of becoming a knight.  Players directly control Graham using an analog stick, which feels perfectly natural.  During some brief early sections, King's Quest appears to be disappointingly linear, with Graham crawling through a straightforward dragon's lair, throwing switches to reveal obvious paths through the monster's sprawling cave network.

Thankfully, the world opens up in a delightfully nostalgic way, embracing the design tenets of the genre's roots.  A large portion of Daventry is open to explore, like the town square's shops, a dubiously advertised floating island, and a spooky woods crawling with wolves.  Players are left to ponder solutions for various conundrums.  How could dipping all my objects into purple dye help me?  Should I pilfer a big shield, wooden tabletop, or a huge circular loaf of bread to use as a wagon wheel?  King's Quest nails that delightful adventure-game sweet spot for me, where a sudden eureka moment triggers a domino effect of puzzle solutions.

Like the Sierra games of old, Graham can venture into certain death.  I watched the prospective knight get crushed by a dragon and turned into squirrel food.  Thankfully, Gwendolyn calls out her obviously alive grandfather on the mistelling, allowing players to select a safer path.  This clever mechanic, along with generous auto-saving, prevents players from becoming too frustrated or falling into the infamous fail states of the old games.

Being free from severe punishment takes the edge off in a nice way, but King's Quest occasionally frustrates.  The open design of Daventry is the biggest asset and most frequent hang up.  Without any type of map, you can easily lose track of where the winding paths lead, even if you've traveled them several times.  Adventure-game purists might appreciate it, but even as someone who grew up playing many LucasArts and King's Quest gamesI found it tedious.  Another snag lies in the unskippable cutscenes and dialogue, which become even more annoying when you're trying to investigate an object and accidentally activate a scene you've seen too many times.

Visually, King's Quest is comparable to other modern episodic adventure games.  The heavily stylized character design reminds me of Telltale's suite of games.  However, The Odd Gentlemen's wonderful animation brings these characters to life.  Little touches like young Graham's flowing scarf and flailing arms as he flees add a lot of personality.  I noticed a couple woodland critters scampering along with jarringly minimal animations, but these flaws are infrequent.

So far, King's Quest is remarkable in its ability to call back to the classic design of the '90s point-and-click adventures without succumbing to as many pitfalls.  The combination of wacky character interactions, goofy logic puzzles, and heartfelt story beats has me eager to see what's in sotre in Chapter II.  The team at The Odd Gentlemen has created one of the most endearing, true-to-form adventure games I've played in recent years.

- Tim Turi.

8

Concept

Return to old-school adventure game form with a feather-capped legend in the genre, while shaving off the most annoying bits.

Graphics

The rough, basic character models and environments are saved by a charming art direction and incredible animations.

Sound

Most of the voice actors perform wonderfully, with a few odd exceptions.  The music and puzzle sound design is on point.

Playability

Controlling Graham directly feels great.  Frequently getting lost while backtracking and the occasional repetitive puzzle design are issues, though.

Entertainment

One of the best examples of an aging formula done right by modern standards.  The engaging characters, challenging puzzles, and entertaining story arcs make it easy to recommend.

Replay value

Moderately high.

[Birdy]

Hm. Sounds like a pretty standard review of this game. Like I said, the general consensus seems to be "good, not great."

[GrahamRocks!]

Well, that's still better than having it be irredeemably horrible. TSL has a mixed reaction too.

[Rock Knight]

It would have been great if the second Hobbit movie ended with that song from the '77 cartoon playing during the end credits.

Smaug: I am fire. I am death.

Bilbo: ...what have we done?

*end credits start rolling*

Singer (voice stuttering throughout): The greeeeaaaatest adventure is what lies aheeeeeaaaad...

The mood whiplash that resulted from that would've hospitalized millions of people.

It's a pity Led Zeppelin's Battle of Evermore was never used to close out any of those movies.

[Numbers]

Oh man, can you imagine if a Gorgoroth song played during the end credits of one of the movies? Imagine Return of the King's ending, with all of its emotional heaviness, suddenly followed by this song playing during the end credits:

(For those not in the know, the name Gorgoroth comes from Tolkien's writings.)

[Rock Knight]

That'd have been awesome

To go back on-topic though, honestly, it seems like the new KQ was incredibly forgettable - and quickly forgotten. No one at all really cares about Chapter 2's release. Doing a re-watch there's nothing that special about the game, it's just a bunch of overly-used Pixar archetypes, stupid kiddie humor, and cliches. Every single character in the game has no real substance and basically just fulfills standard, generic Pixar-y, Disney-esque Fantasy tropes, IE Amaya  is the strong, outspoken, tough, tomboy woman; Pillare is the disgruntled, touch as nails French woman; Olfie is the dummy; the Alchemist and his wife are the creepy old couple...The rest of the characters outside of Whisper are utterly one-note and forgettable...

And Manny is basically Wallace Shawn in every movie ever. He makes for a very weak villain when you compare him to Manannan, Lolotte, Mordack or Abdul.

Maybe it was because of the horrible voice acting, but even though characters like Jollo, Cedric or Abdul Alhazed aren't particularly "deep", they're very memorable.

[GrahamRocks!]

I have nothing to say. -_-

[Jack Stryker]

Maybe YOU don't care, but YOU don't represent the entire fanbase.  And of course Manny was a weak villain.  He'd have to be, for Graham to defeat him before he's even a knight.  How was he supposed to defeat some powerful sorcerer, with very little adventuring experience and only a dagger, a bird bomb, or a pie to defend himself with?

[Rock Knight]

Maybe YOU don't care, but YOU don't represent the entire fanbase.  And of course Manny was a weak villain.  He'd have to be, for Graham to defeat him before he's even a knight.  How was he supposed to defeat some powerful sorcerer, with very little adventuring experience and only a dagger, a bird bomb, or a pie to defend himself with?

Only like 10 people care about this game. it's been forgotten. Do you see any talk about the game anywhere anymore? No. No one really cares outside of a very few.

[GrahamRocks!]

Maybe YOU don't care, but YOU don't represent the entire fanbase.  And of course Manny was a weak villain.  He'd have to be, for Graham to defeat him before he's even a knight.  How was he supposed to defeat some powerful sorcerer, with very little adventuring experience and only a dagger, a bird bomb, or a pie to defend himself with?

Well, to be fair, Gwydion... *disheartened shrug*

I just... I just don't know anymore. I'm listening to Chuggaaconroy's LP of Kirby's Epic Yarn in an attempt to cheer myself up about... all this.

[Jack Stryker]

Alexander had access to Manannan's spell book.

Also...

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSierraGames/posts/886964848005750
https://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=TtoJchJSJSc

I count quite a few more who seem interested in episode 2.  And yes, I do see talk about the game elsewhere.  Like GameInformer; which is where that review came from.  And the community hub for the game, on Steam.  So shut up and stop trying to kill our interest in the game.  Just because YOU don't like it, doesn't mean WE don't have the right to.

[GrahamRocks!]

At least Numbers is being civil. He doesn't like the game either, but he at least understands why people like it, and expresses why he doesn't like it in informative and funny ways.

Me, I want my friend back. RK and I bonded over this game, back when it was first announced and he was just as satisfied as I was about it on release day. Heck, LAMBONIUS liked the game! You know how rare it is for Lamb and I to agree on something?! Though he did say the game had it's flaws, which I'm not surprised at, really. I could see where he was coming from, though.

No game is perfect, after all. Especially on the first episode.

[Birdy]

Goodness... odd that a game like this could be so divisive...

[Numbers]

Goodness... odd that a game like this could be so divisive...

It's actually not surprising at all that a franchise being rebooted by a different team of people would be divisive amongst the fans who are old-school KQ only, and those who love all things KQ and are just happy to be getting more stories. Reminds me of the Star Trek reboot, wherein all the old-school Trekkies were up in arms about JJ Abrams "ruining Star Trek forever" and the rest of the world was just happy to finally have Star Trek films that didn't suck. Check out Damar's pissy posts on the new Star Trek movies on this forum, they're a goldmine of comedy.

[GrahamRocks!]

Oh my, yes.... I remember that.

I think divisive, I think 50/50. The new game has been received mostly positively... It's just that the minority is who didn't like it is louder. Er, no offense to you, Numbers.

[Birdy]

Ah... I can understand that. That also probably explains my knee-jerk negative reaction to the Hobbit movies