GAME REVIEW: King’s Quest – Episode 1: A Knight To Remember

Dragons are amazing. From Puff the Magic to the Hungarian Horn-Tail to Smaug, each can inspire joy, terror and even awe in equal measure. So bearing that in mind when I see a Facebook advert for a new game involving a medieval twig of a man fleeing from a dragon my attention was gained. Said game turned out to be King’s Quest, a reboot of a graphic adventure game series with the same name, which recently become available on the PSN store.

Developed by The Odd Gentlemen, the game is said not to be a reboot so much as it is a reimagining of the original. Not that I could confirm that since the original was released in 1984 when I was but a twinkle in my father’s privates. Anyway, I shall be concentrating on reviewing King’s Quest as a new game in its own right rather than any sort of reboot is what I was trying to say.

Being toted as the first of five in an episodic game series, King’s Quest follows the story of King Graham, a now aged monarch, recounting tales of his youthful adventures to his rambunctious granddaughter, Gwendolyn. This first chapter, A Knight to Remember, details Graham’s arrival in the kingdom of Daventry as a teenager and his adventures as he tries to beat out the competition and win a place as a king’s knight.

The game however, begins before any of this and plonks you in the middle of a woodland almost leaving you to fend for yourself. It immediately shows the puzzle aspects of the game that will follow throughout the story. After figuring out how to descend a well and discovering a hidden passage, blocked by a mattress of all things, Graham comes across a sleeping dragon (which pleased me to no end) and another puzzle ensues while the older Graham narrates his quest to retrieve a magic mirror from the slumbering reptile.

As you progress, more of the gameplay makes itself known, with the appearance of one of the biggest pains in my quite sizable backside, quick-time events. Now, should you not be a fan of such things, don’t be immediately put off like I was. They aren’t actually too difficult and should you fail, you’ll merely hear the wise voice of King Graham wittily saying ‘And that’s what would have happened if I’d messed up.’ Then you’re right back where you started. That is perhaps one of the best features of this game. Similar to Playdead’s Limbo, King’s Quest requires a fair bit of trial and error unless you happen to be incredibly lucky or refuse to attempt any game without a walkthrough. But, failure has no penalty as within seconds you’re right back where you were and able to try again.

The quick-time events make up the more action packed areas of the story, such as boss fights, while the bulk of the game is progressed through via the aforementioned puzzles. Similar to old style ‘point and click’ adventure games you travel about the kingdom collecting different objects which can be used, traded or changed to create progress. It’s sometimes difficult but not to the point of throwing your controller at the screen and stomping off down the pub to calm down (see: Dark Souls). Instead it’s difficult in a way that makes you feel unbearably smug when you figure it out and leave you boasting to your pet that you’re the smartest person whoever did smart, or at least I did. One aspect that did get a little tiresome after a while was moving about. Graham never seems to be in a particular hurry to get anywhere and more often that not you’re required to traipse from one end of the city to the other to advance. Not a big thing I guess but when you’re impatient, like me, and checking everywhere for the one thing you’ve overlooked it can be a right royal pain.

So, gameplay aside what else is there to say? Well one very pleasant surprise that had me giggling like a schoolgirl over a vampire was the characters themselves. They’re simply put, very funny. The odd one liner from the stock characters doesn’t exactly fit the medieval register but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Example: speaking to the old couple running the potions shop I didn’t expect the response to ‘Do you have any advice for me’ to be ‘Of course, we’re old. And judgemental!’

Despite the humorous dialog, the game does have its more series points. One character tragically loses their life and I’ll admit to being saddened by it, especially since the tone remains sombre for a little while rather then jarringly going back to comedic.

Overall, the story remains the strongest element of the game since puzzle solving and the odd quick-time event get a little slow-moving at times, but the varied characters and witty, if out of place, dialog were more than enough to keep me entertained. Plus, it has a dragon, what more could you ask for?