I don't know why I enjoy adventure games. Why do you enjoy them? Maybe it has something to do with the fluffy hippie-talk that Michael Samyn keeps publishing about people wanting stories over gameplay. That's probably not true, but good storytelling can definitely amplify weakly interactive gameplay into a meaningful experience, and the King's Quest series is according-to-Hoyle proof of that.
The game is remade with voice acting, relatively lush graphics (compared to the 1986 original), and a streamlined interface using the AGS engine. Purists are going to recall the exploratory joys of the text parser, but if you're a new-skool design geek like me, you're going to prefer mouse-driven context-sensitivity. Use an item, right-click to cycle over the the walking icon, and then mosey right along, pretty smooth.
The story is a twist on the usual gather-objects-for-heterosexual/power-driven objective dynamic that the first two games are based on. "Heir today, gone tomorrow" is a departure; you're a slave boy unaware of his noble heritage, and must subvert the tools of the evil wizard who is your captor. Yeah, this involves gathering a lot of items, but hey, it's a twist, not a revolution. Even this small twist offers you, if you're open to it, a range of feelings -- of emancipation when you first experience nature and other people through Alexander's eyes, of death-apparent when you have to reload for the 10th time after the cat trips you on the stairs or you fall off the path. It's not The Brothers Karamazov, but it's a step up from Grimm's Fairytales.
Sounds like an improvement
Sierra's text parser was never their strong point, even by the standards of the time. Its worst sin, to my mind, was that it tried to fool the player into thinking that it had understood commands that it hadn't. I remember being severely stuck in KQ3 because I had tried looking in a place where I was supposed to find an object, but had phrased it in a way that the game didn't understand, producing a misleading response along the lines of "You don't see anything special". So I can only imagine that the elimination of the inadequate text parser would improve this game.
Games and Stories
I completely agree with Michael Samyn's flower hippie propaganda! I find a gaming without story a completely tedious waste of time, but will go on to play games with even shallow, melodramatic storytelling for absurd lenghts of time, over and over again.
I appreciate the fact that some people play games for their mechanics, like mastering PVP combat or board game tactics. However, I am not one of them, and I wish dearly more games catered me that were actually written after Grim Fandango :)
- Just a LARP writer from Finland -
Maija
Oh, okay
Technically, a misuse of the phrase "according to Hoyle" which means "according to the definitive standard." But since it's possibly a joking reference to Sierra's "Hoyle's Book of Games", I'll let it pass. ;-)