To start with, King's Quest 7. Before I had an income, I think this was the game I owned that I played the least. I don't know what it was, but the opening cutscene, style of the interface, and world design seem to be doing everything they can to ruin immersion and remind you that fallible human beings with good intentions created it, rather than sucking you into the world. I never got past the desert when I originally owned this, it just didn't hit me right. After King's quest 5, which was my last KQ game (I didn't buy many games in these days so it was common to skip entries in a long series like this), this game was a huge let down. Fastforward to today - I was on a King's Quest kick and wanted to play through all of the games. KQ7 nearly thwarted my efforts. Some of it is decent - the puzzles are usually logical - but it is quite a chore to play. The characters walk to slow, the direction style is way over the top, and hearing any line of bad dialog more than once is cringeworthy. I think you had to be the right age group to appreciate this game when it came out, and have good memories from then to enjoy it now. I feel i am not too hard on most games, but this one really rubbed me the wrong way. The time I spent on it was wasted. I think I actually cheated more on this game than any other in the series, just because trial and error was so irritating having to hear or watch the annoying error responses. KQ7 - major fans or those suffering from nostalgia only. Or masochists like me who just had to play through all of the games :) On to KQ8. An interesting counterpoint to KQ7. I think not many fans of King's Quest will like this game. Almost none of the things that made people enjoy the previous games are present. No king graham (or any of the royal family at that), few difficult puzzles, no clever responses when you die, and the story took a darker turn. On the other hand, this game also includes heaps and heaps of combat, which traditional adventure gamers abhor. But as a light rpg/adventure hybrid? This game is actually quite good! Compared to other similar games of it's time, such as Ocarina of Time it falls a bit short, but it comes close. Sierra had a difficult time with the change to the 3d engine I'd imagine, and the game was probably released a year or 2 later than it feels like it should have. But it has it's charm, and pulls in the adventure game elements well. I found the combat enjoyable, the leveling up addictive, and the puzzles, especially on the last level, challenging enough. If you approach it as an rpg with adventure elements, there is value there. I also found it to be very immersive - the graphics are low poly and the colors a bit dark, but the artists pushed the technology they had very well. The sounds and music also are outstanding! The voice acting was very refreshing after putting up with 7. On a side note, the mask reminded me of majora's mask from zelda :) KQ8 - pick it up if you like fighting things, leveling up, and doing a few puzzles here or there. Even if the boss is a pushover ;)
