King's Quest 7+8

The package of King's Quest 7+8 is hardly a tantalizing purchase. Let's start with the worst of the two. King's Quest 8 is widely panned, and it deserves all it receives and more. What we are faced with here is a dull, bland action-adventure with a couple of tie-ins to King's Quest here and there. Many have complained that it isn't a King's Quest game. I would go further and say it isn't even really much of a game. Even imagining it were unrelated to the KQ series, it still wouldn't be worth picking up. Why not? A combination of many different factors. The controls are abysmal and directing Connor feels like leading around a drunken monkey with a banana. No better is the non-existent plot or the bland and empty locations that feel excessively large just to pad out the game. Combat is repetitive and unfulfilling, with AI swarming into the player's mindless clicks, what few puzzles exist are both frustrating and mindless (jumping puzzles with these controls?) and the dialogue is cheesy and stilted. Even at the time of release, the game could really only lay claim to one positive achievement, and that's relatively impressive graphics - but as you can see by the screenshots, beauty is a fleeting thing indeed. King's Quest 8 isn't even worth playing, and even should you buy this package, I wouldn't recommend opening it. By comparison, King's Quest 7 is the greatest game of the 90s. But that's by comparison to KQ 8. All things considered, KQ 7 is a rather mediocre adventure game in its own right (and as KQ7 was the first adventure game I played, all those years ago, it pains me to say that). It is in virtually every way an improvement upon its successor, with interesting locales, a coherent and even somewhat intriguing plot, better dialogue, actual puzzles that require some thought, and, ironically enough, it is much better looking - its Disney-style animation has stood the test of time much better than KQ8's "cutting-edge" 3D graphics. Still, though, it's far from perfect. Perhaps the game's most egregious flaw is being easy to the point that it feels "dumbed down." It is literally "point-and-click" in the sense that you have a magic wand that glitters over things you can interact with. Clicking on those things makes whatever needs to happen, happen. In other words, the game is quite playable by travelling around mindlessly clicking everything. The game also streamlines death, allowing you to continue from the screen before, which is a mixed blessing. First, it reduces the frustration of the "Save early, save often" gameplay from earlier KQs. However, it also removes any tension or need for preparation from the game, knowing that you can just magically respawn without consequences should your next action lead you to disaster. The final questionable aspect of the game is a more subjective matter, and that is the Disney-fication of KQ. The game has an awful lot of annoying, cartoonish characters which are often cringe-worthy and some even pushing you to get away from them as soon as possible. The ultimate problem with KQ 7 isn't that it's not a good adventure game. It is. It's just not as good as most of the other adventure games on this site, and the fact that it is coupled with the unplayable mess that is KQ8 leaves me strongly encouraging adventure gamers to spend their hard-earned money on other titles here, and to only come back once they've exhausted other options or if playing KQ 1-6 has left them jonesing for some more.

KQ8 does not work. GOG has no plans of fixing it, as it's been broken since at least 2010 (Yes, 15 years! Most likely it's been broken ever since GOG started selling it). I tried multiple computers, Windows, Linux, several Glide wrappers, nothing works. Seriously, just read the reviews. This is a borderline scam. KQ7 works as expected, and does not deserve a 1/5 rating. Frankly, these two games shouldn't even be in the same bundle together.

I LVOED KQ7 a LOT.. it was a very delightful and wonderful addition to the series! As for KQ8.. in my opinion it wrongfully gets a bad rep for being so different.. a lot of people complain about the graphics and the controls. But if you take time to learn them it's actually not NEARLY as bad as some other games I've played in my day. KQ8 still ranks up there as one of my favorites, and I would consider this package a GREAT deal as you get TWO great games.. not just one.

My review is more about King's Quest VIII When i start playing it, my mind drifts back to the 90s when i first played this. The soundtrack is great too. You have this ominous mysterious dark vibe that you hear in each region and it fits the game perfectly. Even though the plot is simple, its still enjoyable. I think the reason why the plot is simple is because the game straight to the point. You have a villain, you have a hero, you have your quest of saving the world and that's it. I don't know how but somehow this works perfectly fine. I love every region but all time favorite is The Dimension of Death. The build of the level appeals to me, again the soundtrack makes it amazing and i love it when you wander through the level not knowing what is waiting for you in every shadow or corner. Im playing this game in 2020 and still i get the urge to explore each level completely and making sure that i don't miss anything of it. That's how great of an impact it has given to me. The characters are interesting as well and I love how these characters are being straight to the point and telling you what needs to be done. Most of the time i'm just wondering what their back story might be or what their connection is with the Mask of Eternity. I really wish Sierra would have done something about that instead of turning them into random forgotten characters. The voice acting is as bad as in King's Quest VII but it doesn't really bother me. Long story short about King's Quest VII. Most reviewers say part VIII is trash but to me part VII is trash. It looks too cartoony or something what Disney would make (nothing wrong with that but not my cup of tea), I don't like this whole point and click system except when i'm playing Shivers or Lighthouse: Dark Being but not in this kind of game. When i just look at King's Quest VII i don't get the same feeling as when i look at King's Quest VIII. In fact it feels like part VII was made for little kids.

Just talking about KQ VIII here (the "other" game in this package). 1998 was a difficult time for adventure game development, and Sierra knew it. The video game landscape was changing, and the indirect puzzling and plot-driven game play of their adventure line felt antiquated, uninteractive and unexciting as 3D games had found their feet, offering new levels of immersion and interaction. Another Disney-esque romp through fantasy lands would be derided as "last-gen", merits aside. For the franchise to continue, it needed to reinvent itself. Mask of Eternity is what we would today call an action adventure, or perhaps adventure RPG, at least a prototypical one. It combines open environments to explore with melee and ranged combat against various foes. The combat is extremely facile- there is no finesse or strategy to your strikes, and the game provides you will far too many healing items to account for it's uneven difficulty. The environments are standard fare for such a 3D title in 1998, but feel simple and artless attached to the Kings Quest license, so renown for it's charming environs. The odd puzzle does appear from time to time as well- environmental puzzles akin to those in shooters like Hexen 2, again lacking the charm and depth of earlier entries in the series, but that is to be expected. The game is ultimately much too shallow. It's RPG elements and combat are just too simple to hold interest, and it's puzzles too easy. The puzzle of what to do with this storied but aged license was one Sierra did not solve with this game. The game is disliked by fans because the series is inextricably linked with the history of adventure games, a heritage this game sheds distastefully. Just as Pac Man belongs in a blue maze eating fruit, King Graham belongs in a bright forest solving puzzles for fairies and woodland creatures. What should Sierra have done instead? Perhaps, just waited. The new series by The Odd Gentlemen is excellent.