King's Quest 1+2+3

...That's a pity.

Despite the King’s Quest series being my least favourite of all Sierra’s ‘Quest’ games, not having these important games in my digital game collection just felt wrong. Now close to 4 decades later and with different perspective that comes with aging, has my view on KQ changed after buying and replaying them? No. The imperfection of KQ1, 2 and 3 only amplified with time. To be fair, they were made at a time when designers like Roberta Williams were still figuring out game design theory and principles. Some worked, some didn’t. But, what didn’t work also served as lessons for other Sierra game designers when they made their ‘Quest’ games. KQ1 was truly ahead of its time. It had puzzles with multiple solutions, an open world for players to explore, and mostly non-linear story progression. Sadly, the game was plagued with absurd puzzle designs and lack of clear quest objectives. They’re frowned upon now, but mind-blowing back in 1984. KQ3 was the most ambitious of the 3 games. It featured (anxiety-inducing) puzzles to be solved in real time; it had more detailed graphics that also (unintentionally?) led to environmental hazards being obscured. At one point, if you do something before another, you’d miss an important plot point that would make a dialogue very confusing. It had grand ideas that were executed poorly. This makes KQ2 the best game in this collection. It improved on what KQ1 had by offering a more detailed and fantastical word to explore and clearer quest objectives. It’s less frustrating than KQ3 because of its simplicity. Despite the series’ trademark infamous absurd puzzles and random encounters, I had fond memories of it. This game collection will bring nostalgia to players who had played the first 3 KQ games back in the 1980s. Gamers of more recent generations will likely find them poorly designed and frustrating. Because of that, KQ 1, 2 and 3 are best enjoyed with rose-coloured glasses, or simply viewed as important relics of PC gaming history.

It's hard to justify lining Activision's pockets at full price for this package of abandonware, each entry of which has been beautifully remade and available for free. If you're new to the series and under the age of 30 I'd recommend you start with AGD Interactive's remakes of KQ1 and 2, then your choice of KQ3 remake from AGD or Infamous Adventures. They each feature an orchestrated score, gorgeous hand painted-style backgrounds, full voice acting and added content that breathe new life into the venerable games while bringing them more in line stylistically with the later entries in the series. If you just want to see where it all began from an anthropological standpoint and experience a piece of gaming history, then by all means! If you didn't grow up playing text parser adventures, however, you will likely find yourself up against an insurmountably steep learning curve. If you're a latter-entry fan who wants to see the roots of the series or the genre, you may find these relatively unsophisticated. Elements associated with the genre like rich narratives, dialog and character development were still in their infancy, so adjust your expectations accordingly. Still, King's Quest is a classic and a foundational title in gaming history. The ability to walk around as a character within a scene and interact with its objects and characters in third person while effecting the world around you, now just a given in any game, was virtually unheard of at the time. For its contribution alone it deserves its reverence, if not a playthrough for curiosity's sake. And if you can get past its venerability, you'll actually find three very charming tales and worlds to explore, with fun challenges, fairytale cameos, multiple paths and just plain old fashioned adventure.

Thank you for making this piece of nostalgia available. I died after 3 seconds of play and I'm loving it.

Great collection, but where's the VGA remake of KQ1?! It's a part of the history of this game series, and this collection seems incomplete without it.