Games review: King's Quest: A Knight to Remember

King's Quest first began 32 years ago on the IBM PC, roughly around the time I was getting into video games and the Commodore 64.

Over the years we've seen the once-regular King's Quest appearing every two to four years, before fading into the clouds of nostalgia with nothing since King's Quest VIII in 1998.

However, with Sierra now under the helm of Activision, The Odd Gentlemen (developers) have stood up to reignite the passion of adventure games with the aim of bringing back what many see as the first true graphical adventure. They are trying to obtain the nostalgic feel of old-fashioned adventure games while also appealing to those who are used to a more modern title.

Sadly, most people who get their hands on this new offering of King's Quest won't fully appreciate how far the franchise has come over the years. But for those over 35-40 you might actually appreciate this even more than your children or younger friends.

So, King's Quest (2015) is a five-part episodic adventure, and chapter 1 (Knight to Remember) sees the regular clumsy-looking hero 'Graham' on his quest to become king (and initially a Knight).

Spoken as an old man's tale, the story begins with a short introductory section about Graham's adventure to recover a mystical mirror from a one-eyed dragon.

Soon afterwards the main adventure starts as you are approaching a town called Daventry to enter the competition to become a knight.

With four others standing in your way, you'll have to undertake a series of challenges from finding out what's under Acorn's belly to outwitting your main rival. There's a range of twists and puzzles and plenty of places to go and faces to meet.

Graphically there's a great art direction which doesn't quite reach the heights of titles like Trine, but gives a pleasant cell shaded effect without looking too cartoon-like, and while not awe-inspiring there are some nice visuals on board, which will rarely leave you in trouble trying to distinguish items.

There's some great voice-acting, and while I don't think it's quite up to the standards of some other titles - with a few knights especially sounding identical - it's still very good and helps to get across the light-hearted atmosphere. There's nearly always some chit-chat whether as narration or the characters you meet along the journey.

With numerous jokes and nods to yesteryear there are plenty of reasons to explore your surroundings.

Thankfully there's no point where I felt rushed so I could take the title at my own pace. However, there's one section (about two-thirds of the way through the six-hours chapter) which left me a little frustrated. This was due to all the wandering around with little direction on what to do.

Controls are incredibly simple with your thumb-stick covering movement and 'A' as the main interaction button, while 'X' opens your inventory. There are a few occasions where other face buttons are used, but you won't be getting confused by the commands.

The occasional lack of direction is a blessing in disguise, there's little hand-holding and the old point-and-click adventure style shines through, although it would have been nice to see more random items that could be viewed for a funny remark (ala Monkey Island).

Throughout a Knight to Remember, you'll have to make a number of decisions. Sadly these aren't highlighted as crucial apart from early commentary when escaping a dragon, so it's impossible to know if these are major branching events (such as Life is Strange) or maybe more scripted decisions which seem to end the same (like quite a few from the Walking Dead). Either way, we won't know for sure until later chapters.

One thing is for sure: it has the nostalgic feel of an old-fashioned adventure game, full of humour and challenges, all wrapped up with modern technology.

At times this nod to yesteryear seems to hold King's Quest back a little from a title like Life is Strange. However, for older gamers, it's also highlighting a part of our hearts which we seem to have shut away compared to the days of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island.

Overall, King's Quest: A Knight to Remember, is a pretty good start to a new episodic adventure, and the developers have done a fantastic job of re-imagining such a classic title. While King's Quest laid new ground 30 years ago, the new iteration might not pave the way for adventure games going forward, but it certainly bridges the gap of those left behind.

Ratings

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Graphics: 8.0/10

Sound: 8.0/10

Value: 8.5/10

Overall: 8.25/10