Customer Reviews

King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Recently I've been thinking back . . . about the good ole days of video-games on the old Nintendo Entertainment System and what games struck me as absolutely fun and memorable. Here's one of them!

What I remember most about Kings Quest V was how different it was from other games at that time and how well it was made. The puzzles were certainly challenging at times, but also fun. There was one particular puzzle where you have to find a desert oasis and I actually got out some scratch paper and drew a primitive map of where I had travelled in this desert to find this oasis.

There is a great deal of variety in this game. You make your character walk through screens and interact with objects that he sees. Some of the locales I remember are a village, a cave, a desert, and a foreboding castle.

Another testament to this game's greatness is that I once got stuck on a puzzle that had to do with a witch that lived by a tree. I asked some friends at school, and, even though they had played this game YEARS ago, they still remembered enough about it to help me with that puzzle.

Overall, this was a great game, and if I still had my old NES, I think I wouldn't mind at all popping the cartridge in just to play it again.

This fifth installment of the King's Quest Series marked the franchise shift from floppy disks (although you can still purchase KQ5 in that format) to CD-ROM. While this switch promulgated a new frontier for graphics, video, sound, and gameplay, it was not without its faux pas.

The plot of KQ5 is much in line with its four predecessors, that being rooted in the fantasy tale of the Royal Family of Daventry. When out on a stroll one day, King Graham comes back just in time to see his castle whooshed away by the evil wizard Mordack. Armed only (initially) with an old wand and a travelling partner (Cedric the Owl), Graham sets out to rescue his family and reclaim his home.

When not bugging up or screwing you over (I'll get to that in a minute), this is an incredibly fun adventure game that will have you puzzling through a multitude of scenarios using the traditional knapsack-method of adventuring (pick up an object, use it later). Plus, unlike the Myst series, King's Quest is much more low-key and silly, basing its puzzle scenarios on old fairy tales, animals, or funny puns, as well as allowing you (the player) to interact with many people/things in your environment. It is difficult to master (especially in the labyrinth-like desert and the final "end boss" task), but ultimately quite fulfilling in the quest.

Here is the big problem, though: There are too many scenarios in which the player can miss something at the beginning of the game (and something quite inconspicuous at that), then play for hours, only to discover that they have to start almost anew again. For example, there is a gameplay element in KQ5 involving Graham saving a rat from a cat. Unless the scenario plays out perfectly at the perfect time, there is absolutely no way to finish the game. While I had that knowledge coming into the gaming experience (pretty much just playing for nostalgia's sake), I can't imagine how frustrating it would be for the first-time player.

Also, the infamous "heap space" error may make the ending of the game rather torturous for you instead of thrilling. At the apex of the final puzzle/battle, your computer may give you an error regarding "not enough heap space" (I still don't know what that is!!). It may happen, it may not...it's just a frustrating crapshoot.

Thus, while with all my heart I wanted to give this classic game an overall five-star review, I just could not. In terms of overall "fun", it is easily a 5, but add in the no-win scenarios and glitches and the frustration begins to build up. However, if you (like I was) are nostalgic for the "good old days" of PC gaming, by all means come back to this gem. I was able to get things up and running easily on my Windows Vista operating system.

I grew up on King's Quest. My parents were playing King's Quest I when I was in the womb, and every time a new King's Quest came out they would play it. When I was very little, it was exciting to watch them play the games. As I got older, I would be very eager to help them solve some of the puzzles. It was such an amazing experience to explore the lands, meet characters, and solve problems with all of the items in your inventory. I learned a lot about mythology and fairy tale lore. King's Quest V was such a breakthrough in computer graphic technology and was dramatically better than its predecessors. What a great game it was!!

I grew up with Sierra games. The Kings Quest triology being some of the best challenging games I played as a child. I recomend any of the series. It will make you think no matter what age you are.