I agree with the review. After all the years of super hyping this game, long before there was little more than screenshots--this game got more publicity probably than any fan game ever, and more publicity than any Sierra fan game ever--Long before a demo was even released. You hyped this game more than any fan groups which had actually given results.
And this game helped bring Activision (then Vivendi's) attention on the Sierra fan community to the point where it is dead now, because after POS hyper promoted this game as a quasi-real sequel to Sierra's games, they've decided that other fan groups (such as AGDI) cannot make any more Sierra related fan games. Once this game is out, the Sierra community is dead--and I believe it's largely because of the 'spit in Vivendi's face' publicity style this team did for this game.
And after all the years of waiting, and broken promises (Remember "Winter 2005"?), and massive hype you deliver pretty much an incredibly short, interactive movie (more a movie than Phantas was) that lasts under ten minutes of actual game playing if you just play-through the gamen without staring or looking at everything --After nearly a decade of waiting and hyping this game to every source possible like it was the Second Coming.
4 years ago you released a demo which is essentially the same as what you've just released, with only a few more cut-scenes added--No other puzzles or gameplay, the demo was essentially Chapter 1. From 2005-2010 (between the two shutdowns) you had five years to work on the game, and instead you obviously worked on 'Corridor 9' and started to trim more and more off of TSL--
I remember when you guys told us you had a "Big Announcement"--And you had everyone hyped up and excited for it, never once letting on what the announcement was, acting as if all was normal, or even better than normal--And it came that the announcement was essentially that unless you got money, all chapters except 1 & 2 were cancelled. You led people on believing for weeks that some huge, great announcement was coming, and than dropped the hammer on us all. You claimed you had made the decision to cut off 3-10 months before and in all that time acted as if all was well.
And finally...Frankly, I supported this game for years..But I don't like the direction it's taken. The tone is way too somber, the characters and atmosphere way too dark. Was King's Quest dark at times? Yes. But nothing like this. This isn't the pseudo-tension of KQ6--The game's tone, dialogue, and characterizations are all very angst ridden and melodramatic--Like a soap opera more than a simple fairy tale.
What you've done here, to make an analogy, is what the Nolan films did to the Batman franchise--Turned it into a gritty and twisted version of what it originally was. At least Nolan could argue that the Batman source material was dark and gritty--You guys can't.
You've turned a game series that was one of the most light hearted, cheesy and adorable series ever to grace a computer screen into a dark angst ridden game wherein everything is depressing, everything is melodramatic. I mean for example Graham wanting to rip the plants down because they remind him of his current situation--That sounds more the feelings of an overly emotional (emo) teenage girl than the Graham we saw in any other KQ game, or even in the King's Quest Companion.
You've essentially tried to make King's Quest meet a Final Fantasy game, even down to Alexander's appearence. From what we've seen from the different character stuff over the years, you've no sense of who these characters are. For example, Rosella selfish? Rosella who risked her life for her father and helped out restless spirits and enriched a poor Fisherman and his family for no other reason than to be kind and help? She's selfish?
I'll just conclude this by ending my review of the game with an utterly ironic quote made by a 'Kimmie' in the May 2005 Birthday Chat:
[16:08] <Kimmie> are u not all glad that the game will be out soon and not 2009
[16:08] <Kimmie> lol