King's Quest 7+8

For 7 only: There was controversy over the change in looks from prior games. I found the graphics fitting to the more Disney-like fairy-tale story and leads. Initially odd, I quickly came to enjoy them and doubt the prior style would've served the story and characters as well. The story was good, tho cheesy at times, and the alternating protaganist stories were fun. Some criticize the removal of dead-ends; not me: they're one of my most hated aspects of other Sierra games. The amount of time wasted in earlier games when I missed something and had to load a save from way back and repeat a bunch of stuff, sometimes a few times, frustrated me and led to checking walkthroughs periodically to ensure I wasn't missing anything. I realize some like the extra challenge, and to each their own-it'd be ideal to give the option, like the KQ1 remake-but for me, I want to just play and enjoy a game and get through it and move on to the next. I don't want to spend a few extra hours because I have to replay half the game. It's not fun, just an annoying waste of precious time. Which leads to the main issue: despite having no dead-ends (thrice I thought there were), it still wastes ample time needlessly. The prior games had a speed slider that stayed put; here it's not only hidden (the + key), it's extremely erratic. Sometimes it's a fast/slow toggle, others you have to hold it. And it's CONSTANTLY slowing back down. I had to speed it back up several times a minute. Animations and "cutscenes" are also slow and dragged out. This is all made worse by the significant back-and-forth built into the story. It made me again resort to hints/walkthroughs, which diminishes the game and which I also had to do more than I'd like due to many of the "puzzles" being rather obtuse, because otherwise it takes far too long. Finally, the save/restore system is simpler and mostly better, but makes it too easy to accidentally restore to a point much earlier and lose progress. stupid char limit...

Though they're technically in the same series, it's hard to imagine an odder package deal. If you're an old-school adventure game or KQ fan, odds are you'll find KQ7 charming and enjoyable. I enjoyed it overall, though I found the Disney-esque feel to be a bit sickeningly sweet at times. But it also has an unexpected dark side at times. The walk speed is insanely slow - it will really test your patience. KQ8 is very different from every other game in the series, and for that reason, it has been pretty universally hated. However, I think with the benefit of time, and looking at it as its own game, it's actually a pretty fun action/RPG/adventure hybrid. It's a bit rough around the edges by today's standards, but I had a great time with it. A lot of the dialogue has a "medieval english" vibe to it that was surprisingly endearing and fun.

This is one one of my favorite games, all time. King's Quest 8 is not your standard KQ point and click adventure, Sierra was pushing limits at the time and brought out a full texture mapped 3D world to us at a time when you didn't really see that yet. It should be called KQ8: Silent Hill because there's an eerie theme to the whole game too, the world is very dark and foreboding. And the amount of detail is so impressive considering the year it was released.

First: I am rating these on my own CD ROMs. I have not purchased from GOG. These games mark a sore spot for me. They denote the fall of possibly the greatest game series of all time, signalling the demise of the adventure genre, dooming gaming to a decade of FPS junk. KQ7 I'd rate 3 stars. It's an okay game in its own right, but a huge step down from the high bars set by 5 and 6. The art quality took a major step down from beauty to cartoon foolishness. The voice actors all come across as whiny and unrelatable, basically doing character assassination from previous entires. The story is pretty slow and unengaging. Plusses include fantastic background music, interesting locations, and some appreciated tie-ins to earlier parts of the series. I wouldn't recommend it to the average gamer, but it's interesting enough if you want to know how the King's Quest series unfolds. KQ8 is a measly 2 stars. The entire game is "Running around the game and click your mouse to attack things." For endless, endless hours. There's like... 3 puzzles in the entire game, and a few more annoying platformer tasks. The entire game is dark [visually], and there's no real reward for finishing, the game just ends. I don't give it a 1 star, because for a 90's 3-d platformer... it has really good controls. Gameplay is actually kind of intuitive, and for its time, the ability to run around and explore things was pretty cool for a little bit. But that's about it. This game destroyed King's Quest, and destroyed adventure games. Boo. Hiss. In Summary, these games are all right if you want a nostalgia trip, or wonder "What ever happened to that amazing King's Quest series?" But other than that can't really recommend for the new adventurer.

My review is based on the original copy of KQ8. Since I have never played previous KQ games, this review is not about how successful KQ8 is as a sequel. KQ8 is a hybird of 3D action-adventure game, point-and-click adventure game and role-playing game. You can pick up weapons, armor and magic potions. You will do fighting, puzzle solving, platforming and exploring. The tank controls of the game are quite okay but the 3rd person camera gets clunky too often. The GUI of the game is handy without lots of menus pausing the game and taking you out of the game world. The game graphics are outdated with low polygon count and dull colors. And the level design is sometimes poor because of the lack of details. Evens so, the game areas have strong atmosphere thanks to the great musics, voice acting and sound effects. The main focus of the game is too much in fighting with too simplistic combat system. You just keep clicking your left mouse button to perform attacks with your melee or ranged weapon. No blocking, no dodging, no parrying or anything. The combat system is easy to learn but it is just not interesting. Besides, the enemies have no special features to bring some variety to combat. There are puzzles to solve and they are nicely mixed between the logic and the physical, but they are not that challenging. Also, the story of the game is flat without interesting characters, climax or memorable moments. If KQ8 would have been something like Quest of Glory with 3D graphics and without any connections to KQ game series, it would have been much better game. KQ8 is too insufficient for an adventure game, too clunky for an action game and too simplistic for a RPG. Despite the flaws, the game has strong nostalgia value to me.