King’s Quest is a welcomed reunion for returning players and for the new generation of adventure gamers, it’s definitely worth taking a look at.
Los Angeles based game studio, The Odd Gentlemen, is behind King’s Quest and Creative Director/Lead Writer Matt Corba’s enthusiasm for the game is unparalleled, with a number of obscure references dropped throughout his presentation. The five-part episodic series begins with the first chapter titled, A Knight to Remember, releasing this week on July 28th. While its entirety is split into five parts, Corba mentions that each episode has a longer playtime than most episodic games and to quote Corba simply, “we went overboard.”
The story begins with King Graham coaching his granddaughter Gwendlyn for her first fencing tournament and eventually ends up retelling a rather long tale the player will then relive. Depicting the young Graham of Daventry in his ascension from squire to king, we start at mere humble beginnings. In a hands-off demo, Corba walked us through the introductory puzzles with a bit of sidetracking. If you go the wrong way, left instead of right, King Graham gives an escalating number of cues eventually intervening and blowing the player in the “right” direction.
King’s Quest builds upon the core fundamentals of story, gameplay, and art. Following it are several underlying themes of compassion, strength, and wisdom that are central to the plot. The hand-drawn painted visuals were painstakingly brought over as assets in the game as a subtle but notable way of telling the player that a lot of time was spent on making everything look and feel like a King’s Quest game. The main question framing the latest entry appears to be: What’s the best gameplay for this moment?
Furthering that point, the artistry combines with the gameplay to deliver a well rounded experience. The player can interact with the environment and objects in the world through command prompts. Conversations aren’t one-sided and can branch off depending on your choices. There’s even a little mini-game with a bridge troll. While other story-centic games enact a “big decision” moment that dramatically effects the game going forward, King’s Quest takes more subtle cues in its choice and consequence department. The real boast here is that there is a copious amount of branching storyline elements that will require multiple playthroughs to find. If the current branch has a harder puzzle too difficult for one to solve, the game will provide an easier path to move the story along.
While the original creators, Ken and Roberta Williams, aren’t directly involved in the new game, Corba reassures us that the couple has given their blessing to their work on King’s Quest. With an star-studded voice acting cast including the likes of Zelda Williams, I can say that the latest entry in the King’s Quest series is in good hands. It’s out today on Xbox One, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
