King’s Quest I:
Quest for the Crown (enhanced SCI version)
Review
Storyline and
Gameplay
Since this is
just a remade version of the first King's Quest game, there's not much
to say that haven't already been said in the review of the original version.
The gameplay is basically exactly the same as in the original. Minor changes
in the design include a different location for the pebbles and the name
of the gnome, slightly easier to figure out. The initial part of the original
game, where you had to enter the castle and talk to the king to get your
quest has been moved to an automatically running introduction that can
be viewed from the starting screen of the game. This is a nice and logical
change. Also, the ending of the game has undergone a similar makeover and
lasts longer than the original. The "hazards" in the game are a little
less dangerous in this version of the game, except for the killing of the
witch that is much more difficult than before. Using the mouse to move
Graham around on the screen makes it easier to perform actions like climbing
the beanstalk, which is nice. All the text in the game has been rewritten,
and does not resemble the one in the original version. It's much more fleshed
out and interesting. The parser is also more forgiving and has a much larger
vocabulary. A logical improvement.
If this game
would have been a standalone product, it would be logical to complain about
the simplicity of the storyline. But this game is simply a remake of Sierra's
first 3D-animated adventure game, made seven years earlier, so judging
it by the standards of newer adventure games would be a bit unfair.
Graphics
The graphics in
King's
Quest I: Quest for the Crown is a dramatic improvement from the original
version. Both backgrounds and animated objects are as beautifully drawn
as the SCI Version 0 system allows. It's very hard to believe that the
backgrounds are still drawn with polygons.
Interestingly,
it was chosen that the graphics should be completely redrawn, instead of
looking just like better versions of the original graphics. The key elements
in each screen are therefore just as in the original game, but the look
of everything has changed a lot, making everything more realistic and functional.
This gives the game a completely different feel than the original version,
and even someone who has played the original version can get a new experience.
Music and Sound
Effects
The original King's
Quest: Quest for the Crown had almost no music or sound effects. This
has been improved in the new version. There are many musical pieces in
this version of the game that helps to enhance the ambiance in many places.
The music is simple and short, but it does the job nicely. It's not necessarily
an advantage having music playing in the background at all times. While
walking around in Daventry, many sounds from the forest can be heard. Birds
chirp and waterfalls splashing around you. This was something you couldn't
experience in the original version. Together with the graphics, the music
and sound effects gives this game a different feeling than the original,
and it's a nice feeling.
Technical issues
The early SCI
games are still easy to get to work on a modern computer and this game
is no exception. There may be issues concerning music and sound with some
modern sound cards, but other than that the game runs just perfect.
Final verdict
This game usually
gets a bad rating because it's really only a cosmetical improvement of
the original one, with better graphics, sound and music and a smoother
gameplay, while the story and puzzles are far behind the standards of other
adventure games released at the same time. This may be true, but it was
never the intention of Sierra On-Line to make more of this game than they
did. Unfortunately, the outcome was not what they had expected. Instead
of showing the glory of the original game made better-looking, it made
the old game look hopelessly outdated. It's easy to be disappointed if
you expect this game to be as challenging and interesting as other adventure
games of its day. Also, you can get a lot of joy out of playing the original
version just to experience some computer gaming history, but that cannot
really be said about playing the remake. But you can still have use for
the remake in three ways: Either you play it instead of the original to
begin with, because it's a lot smoother to solve it in the remake, and
you may then play the original version just for fun. Or, if you've already
played the original version, you can experience Sir Graham's adventures
once again and experience the big technological improvements. Finally,
if you have problems solving the game in either version, playing them parallell
to each other can be a good idea. Some puzzles are easier to figure out
in one version of the game, and some are easier in the other. The differences
in the two versions may be what it takes to make you see what you are supposed
to do.
King's Quest
I: Quest for the Crown is not a bad or unuseful remake of the original
version, but it aims a little higher than it can reach. Still, a King's
Quest fan should not avoid it just because it's not the original version.
It's not like playing a completely new King's Quest game, but it's still
rewarding to play.
Golden Moment
Experiencing the
many differences between this game and the original version.
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