Order of the Thorne: The King's Challenge

I really enjoyed Quest for Infamy and thus instabought this game, because I thought I'd get a real PnC game with an interesting story and a fancy music system. But boy was I wrong. What the game's description doesn't tell you, is that this game is aimed at children and people who enjoy stuff for children. There is no story to speak of, the dialogues are cringeworthy, mediocre to bad voice actors, terrible animations, very short game overall. On top of that, the game design falls short on several ends: the music system is a bad joke, puzzles are either too easy or too abstruse and a bunch of events/items needs to be triggered so you will spend some time wandering around aimlessly. So I guess it's really an old school game, beautifully avoiding every good idea of the last 25 years.

Got in to this game expecting a Sierra title, but got a short and simple story that could be expanded later into something much greater. Order of the Thorne: the King's Challenge is a steady, but somewhat lacking experience, without most pitfalls or innovation from older point and click games. This is not a entirely bad thing, game is good looking and completely voice acted, with mostly good performances. Characters and locations are detailed as well as memorable and charming, but you don't get to spend much time with them. It took me less than three hours to complete this game without guides while getting all of the achievements and to me that seems bit too short. Puzzles are mostly well made and many require you to listen to the clues given, no moon logic needed, but some solutions you just need to stumble on to. I kept saving on multiple slots, just in case something went wrong and at one point I thought I had screwed up, but, to my knowledge, you cannot soft lock this game, which is fine to me as it gives freedom to experiment. However, this game barely punishes you for anything, at most a raptor chases you to next screen and this is something I do not like. Though I said I like experiment freely, if you just get rewarded for everything you do, with not risk of ever loosing, point and click game loses some of its charm on me. They are not necessary if the game is challenging or long, but OotT:tKC is neither. Overall, I do enjoy The King's Challenge and would love to see more of this series and I would recommend this for anyone with afternoon to spare, especially if you are interested in point and click games. I also think that younger kids might find this game a good introduction to genre.

Order of the Thorne is a short game made with AGS engine about a bard on a quest to find the queen of the Fairie Kingdom. Game design is solid. Most puzzles were pretty logical and, when you have no idea what to do and resort to trial and error method, there are not many items you can have at any given time, so that isn't very irritating. The gimmick of this game is that you can play songs that affect characters around you. However it is very annoying that every time you play a song you have to listen to its jingle without the ability to skip it. When you're doing trial and error it gets annoying really quick and adds tedium to the game. The story is basic fantasy with a lot of feel good vibes. No twists and turns. The characters are also pretty simple and one-dimensional. Sad thing is that they ended with a plan to make a sequel, but, as I understand, it didn't happen unfortunately. However the story of this particular game is pretty much complete in itself and sequel not having been made doesn't really hurt it. The artstyle is what you'd expect from AGS games - similar to oldschool 2d adventure games. Overall everything was pretty. One downside is that, unfortunately, there's some pixel hunting required in the game, and the interactive objects sometimes don't stand out too well. One time, I had to consult a walkthrough after inspecting every available location just to find out I didn't notice a pretty small item on a table. Music is pretty nice, but I was a bit confused by electric guitar being present in one track that is used during the intro and during the game's culmination. The game is also pretty short, can be completed in 2-3 hours. Overall it's a nice way to spend an evening if you like point-and-click adventure games, but nothing too spectacular.

So, this is one of modern "retro" games, intended to feel just like game once was. And result is, actually, pretty good. Best thing about game - very logical puzzles, which doesn't require you to invent "crazy" schemes as in many quests. Moreover, many time you almost clearly told that you need to do and just sometimes you have to use trial-and-error. Overall, one can say this quest not very much about puzzles and more relies on frequent coming back and forward and scripted events, which is quite generous and necessary to progress in game. There is fair amount of humor in game, but its doesn't feels like comedy. Music is pleasant to hear (i kinda disappointed that OST is not present in GOG nor as part of game goodies nor as DLC) and picture is...well, fine. Its rather too lowres to my liking, but its part of retro feel. Also voices is good, especially Little Sir one, which i feel like most memorable character in whole game. There is some less good parts too: Frequent backtracking gets little tiresome closer to end of game and overall idea of using lute is feels interesting but underdeveloped. Playing music never really affects gameplay much except some plot enforced scenes. You can basically play music 3 or 4 mandatory times at whole game and never touch it anymore. Overall - i recommend it to everyone, especially if you not very sure about such genre, its good sample to try if you like it.

Short indeed, but wonderful and easy. Reminds me of the old good "point & click" games.