Summer is often a drought period for new games, with most of us assumed to be outside sunning ourselves. However, Microsoft aims to change that with a line-up of summer titles such as King’s Quest: A Knight To Remember. The title is episodic and tells the tales of an old king called Graham in his younger hay day, with a much greater emphasis on gameplay than say Life Is Strange. You may remember him from the 1984 title too.
The narrative style of the game is very charming and I’d quite easily say it’s one of the best on the Xbox One for it. It brought back memories of a bed time story in a way, as the king is telling the story to his granddaughter called Gwendolyne. As you play through the game, the girl will chirp in with witty lines about your decisions in game and it feels like there are two stories running alongside each other. It’s really quite something and it has to be witnessed to see how effective it is.
The visuals of the game aren’t outstanding and there are a few frame drops, but that isn’t the charm of this puzzle title. The force behind it comes from the game’s story and how it’s told. I loved solving the various puzzles by finding the correct items and a lot of them involved the correct timing of items being found – so to move a large boulder you need to acquire a lease for a vehicle, but in order to get that you need a lantern to get into a dark cave filled with monsters trying to eat you.
The game is very much move around and click, with an array of intriguing characters to peak your interest. There are definitely heroes and villains in this fairytale adventure and there are a variety of twists to keep you on your toes. The overall difficulty of the game will challenge most players, as most of it involves doing things in the right order as mentioned previously.
The general feel to this title is very comedic and it will even have the older ones in chuckles. It’s safe to say that the choice of character in Graham was a grand one, as his goofy-like behaviour often gets him into trouble or misfortunate adventures. It has to be said voice actor Christopher Lloyd has done a superb job with Graham’s tone, as it brings a brilliant experience overall.
Once you finish the title you can’t go back and do more, so make sure you do everything you can in the first episode as you find it, otherwise you’ll probably need to rewind to a later save. Generally, though most things are hard to miss, as they’re always pointed out to you or made obvious so they stand out.
I can quite confidently say King’s Quest is one of the most unique narrative experiences I’ve ever played and I can’t wait to see how the rest of the episodes play out. I’m guessing that we’ll relive a number of the king’s stories and meet a variety of creatures and people. Kids will also love this one, as it will feel like many popular bed time stories, but more interactive for them to play through.
Pros
- A wonderfully told story
- Impressive work from Christopher Lloyd on Graham
- Interesting gameplay
Cons
- Value for money may be questioned
- Occasionally dips in performance