King's Quest 4+5+6

In this collection of King’s Quest games, we have 3 games that were made at a time when Sierra’s technology started to catch up with Roberta Williams’ vision for the game series that made her a household name. With each game, the in-game world became grander, and more detailed, colourful and whimsical. The fairy tale-inspired worlds of KQ finally became more real and tangible. Yet, graphics and sounds are just a small part of the equation in making a game. While Williams’ writing also became more mature and sophisticated with each title, her designs of puzzles remained wanting. Although other Sierra ‘Quest’ games (as well as those from competing developers) evolved in their puzzle designs, the puzzles in KQ4 and 5 were still absurd and frustrating like in previous 3 KQ games, if not more so. So KQ4 and KQ5 might have looked pretty/prettier, gameplay still felt dated. The gem in this game collection is KQ6, which Williams co-designed and co-wrote with Jane Jensen. I think Jensen’s contribution to this game had been instrumental, because the game’s flow, story and puzzles were vastly better than those in previous KQ games. The puzzles were still challenging, but not necessarily due to moon logic. As a result, even the overly saccharine story and stage theatre-like dialogue didn’t deter me from enjoying this game. Unlike other Sierra ‘Quest’ games, GOG don’t offer as great of a discount on KQ games for some reason. While KQ games aren’t really my cup of tea, I think this collection is worth getting just for KQ6 alone. When played back to back with the King’s Quest 1 + 2 + 3 collection, you can see the evolution of this game series, and appreciate the vision and effort that Williams et al. had put into their work. Overall, I think KQ 4, 5 and especially 6 are more playable, and certainly more approachable, than KQ 1 to 3. It’s a good collection of games to snatch up during a sale if you want a copy of PC gaming history in your games library.

While King's Quest III is my personal favorite, KQ IV-VI are debatably "the best" of the series. KQ IV was the first real "jump" in technology in the series, King's Quest V had the biggest jump, & King's Quest VI is the shinning masterpiece. KQ IV developed a new level of cutscenes & storytelling, while also introducing some compelling characters to the series. Rosella, the daughter of King Graham, is the 1st female lead in the series. She's quite the strong character. KQ V brought VGA graphics & a CD "talkie" version & while the voice acting is amongst the worst I've heard, it was rather unique for the time. Plus, you'll want to strangle your owl "friend" Cedric, who is a constant coward, but somehow, you end up loving hating him. The puzzles range from straight forward-logical to "how did people solve this without a hint book?". Regardless, the story told is quite good, and Mordak makes for a fantastic villian. KQ VI isn't just the "best" of the King's Quest series, it's considered to be one of the best adventure games to this day. The voice acting is stupendous. The plot & character development is also at its pinnacle. From the quirky & weird, to the dark & macabre, KQ VI brings a wide range of characters & emotions. Be warned though, it is possible to reach some "dead ends" where the game is unwinnable, but your character remains alive. That being said, the puzzles are rational without being too obvious to be a challenge.

These three games are as surefire a 5 star as I'd give to anything, and not just for King's Quest VI. The reputation of King's Quest VI is well-deserved, and enough has been said about it over the past years. The game simply does not have any obvious flaws. King's Quest V seems to be a love it or hate it type game, I'm on the "love it" side. The most beautiful graphics of the series with it fantastic variety of locations and probably the most exciting King's Quest story. Who can resist such a classic journey through forests, deserts, snowy peaks, islands and seas, to a spectacular wizard showdown in a creepy fortress? Not I! One of my favorite games ever. King's Quest IV is perhaps the most underrated of the series. I'm one who maintains that the end of the parser era (and this collection is representative of that shift in adventure gaming) did mean a loss to some of the "adventure" feel. There's a freedom in being able to type almost anything and still coming up with funny responses you hadn't seen before that doesn't exist with simple point and click interfaces. There are advantages to point and click yes, but it still felt like something of a "dumbing down" for some of us hard core adventurers. This game also contains what I consider one of the all time classic adventure game sequences, the grave digging at midnight. All in all, as easy a 5 star rating as there is.

Does anyone know how to enable Hi-Res character portraits? site:gog.com/wishlist/games/kings_quest_vi_multimedia_edition

This is the first game I ever played/owned back in the day on my Tandy 1000. I played this game for years and never beat it - this game holds so much nostalgia and memories for me. I had it on an emulator 10 years or so ago, but never thought I'd be able to buy it again :). So happy! I spent SOOO MUCH TIME in this game back then!!!