King’s Quest holds a special place in my gamer heart. It’s been three decades and change since the first adventure of Sir Graham of Daventry came out.
I was two years old when Sierra published the game. It was some years later that I played the series for myself. Then, after a time, adventure games fell of the face of the earth, making way for first-person shooters and massive RPGs.
So a new entry in that series, made by a new developer—The Odd Gentlemen—in an era of much more powerful 3D graphics and bigger budgets is a pleasant surprise. That it’s also a terrific, beautiful game true to the spirit of the series but with much lovelier graphics and better voice-work makes matters even better.
The first episode of this new King’s Quest reboot is absolutely charming. A Knight To Remember is some of the best fun I’ve had with a video game this year, and one of the best episodic titles I’ve played period. It’s refreshing to play a game not centered around killing things, much as I enjoy that. And more refreshing still that it never gets bogged down or boring, but remains thoroughly engaging from start to finish.
Unlike the episodic Telltale games—The Walking Dead, Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, etc—there aren’t a ton of choices in King’s Quest: A Knight To Remember. You have dialogue options, but for the most part you can (and should) explore all of them. Sometimes actions or items can change which dialogue options become available, but there’s no one right or wrong choice to be made. In fact, in the entire first episode—which ran several hours—there were really only two choices I might describe as “pivotal.” Likewise, there are multiple solutions to problems, and missing some of them won’t necessarily hinder your progress.
Having only played the episode once, I’m not sure how these choices will impact later episodes or change the story, but at least one of the Very Big Choices ought to have far-ranging consequences. It’s intriguing, and all the more powerful since there aren’t a ton of big choices to make. That can bog a story down, or end up gimmicky. Depending on how the coming episodes play out, I can see myself replaying the game just to see how my decisions shape the future. A part of me wants to play it again already.
the main character, Graham, is an elderly king regaling his granddaughter Gwendolyn with stories of his youth. He tells two stories in this episode. The first is a brief dungeon-delving adventure featuring a dragon. The second is much more drawn out, and takes place prior to the events of the prelude, before Graham became a knight. It’s much longer and full of much more in-depth puzzles, a few of which had me stumped for a while. Others are fairly simple. Much of the game is a series of story puzzles or smaller, more contained puzzles. Quite a lot of it makes you think, and when you come to the right solution it can be a bit of an “Aha!” moment. Very satisfying indeed.
The entire episode plays out with full voice-acting, a lovely cartoonish art-style that looks a bit like the cartoons of the late 1970′s and early 1980′s. Think The Last Unicorn or Flight of Dragons but with a bit more saturation. The story is silly and cute, with genuine laugh-out-loud moments sprinkled alongside some very Disney-esque humor. It’s a game that can appeal to all ages, both in terms of story, humor, and gameplay. Indeed, I played much of it with my two children who enjoyed every second—though perhaps not quite as much as I did. I think my eight-year-old could play the entire thing on her own, though I imagine it would be quite challenging at that age.
Indeed, the way puzzles weave together and various items have to be found to unlock new areas or resolve different quest lines is actually quite brilliant. I wish more games placed such an emphasis on problem-solving and discovery. Even the sequences with brief Quick Time Events (which I normally hate) felt fine in this setting.
It’s not at all a platformer, either, despite the game moving into the 3D realm. Yes, there are parts where you hop from rock to rock, but it’s more a matter of pointing in the right direction and pressing a button than precision timing. Every segment is some form of puzzle, whether making choices about how to trick someone in a race, or finding just the right ingredient for the local baker. I really did find myself wishing that more games were like this, even games with actual combat and roleplaying elements.
There’s none of that here. You don’t fight or kill. You aren’t a gritty, grimdark knight. It’s a lighthearted romp through Daventry, and everything from the narration to the lively, colorful cast of characters is magnificent.
“It was not exactly as I remembered it, but it wasn’t all that different either,” the aged King Graham tells his granddaughter early on in the game. Truer words were never spoken, though much of what King Graham narrates is a far-fetched or glossed over. He’s an unreliable narrator, to say the least, and a charming one. His puns are terrible and wonderful all at once, especially since he makes them most often when you fail at something. When you die, he brushes it off by saying things like “That’s what would have happened if…” which is a clever way to deal with “death” in a game like this.
Better still, old King Graham is voiced by Christopher Lloyd and honestly I could listen to him all day long. (The entire voice cast is great, including Wallace Shawn of Princess Bride fame in a role I think must be purposefully reminiscent of his character in that film.)
If I had to complain about anything, it would be the load-times (at least on Xbox One, the platform I played the game on.) They can be frustrating, especially when you’ve gotten a bit lost or can’t solve a particular section of the story and have to backtrack.
And it would be nice to be able to skip dialogue after it’s been listened to once, or interrupt actions. Occasionally you accidentally hit the action button and repeat something you know won’t work. Sometimes it’s not entirely clear if you’ve moved on to another spot and can try looking or interacting there instead, and so you do something twice by accident. A bit more control here would be helpful.
On the other hand, I only encountered one real bug, which had young Graham floating in the air where a bridge used to be. I didn’t get stuck or anything, so it was no big deal.
Either way, these are very minor quibbles indeed. And so long as the next episodes are as good—and I have high hopes they will be—I’m not overly concerned.
From exploration to puzzle-solving to the charming story and lovely graphics, King’s Quest: A Knight To Remember is a delightful game. It takes some of the Telltale formula, then adds in a lot more action and problem-solving and combines that with a story that isn’t grim or terrible, but instead remains fun, funny and engaging. Old fans and new will find something to enjoy here, in a genre that’s all but disappeared from gaming.
As the saying goes, “The really don’t make games like this anymore.” But they should.
I can’t wait for Episode 2.
