500 Word Game Reviews: King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown (AGD Interactive)

Here’s an older game… and an older review, I’ll admit, but one I haven’t posted on here before. Bit short on time this week! 😳 Maybe I’ll use this as an excuse to check out King’s Quest II soon.

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King’s Quest I: Quest for the Crown (AGD Interactive version) (2001-2009) – Point-and-click adventure, PC.

Story: The kingdom of Daventry is suffering, so the elderly king summons his greatest knight, Sir Graham (the player character), and instructs him to find three magical items. If Sir Graham is successful, he will be crowned the new king!

Gameplay: Much like Zork (which I reviewed last year), your goal is to search the vast game map for treasures, with each one raising your score. The major difference between Zork and King’s Quest I is the advantage of being able to see where you’re going and what you’re doing – in fact, the original 1984 KQ1 was the first adventure game to feature an animated character and scenery!

The lands of Daventry will present you with a number of puzzles, obstacles and hidden items to be uncovered. Most of what you’ll see is borrowed from fairy tales, so bear that in mind when facing trolls on bridges, or deciding what to do with a handful of magic beans.

King’s Quest I is not a long game, if you know it well – ‘longplays’ on Youtube manage to complete it in an hour. But first time around, it’ll take you far longer due to your frequent deaths, struggles to find necessary items, and lack of any idea where you’re supposed to be going.

One final thing that KQ1 has in common with Zork: it’s possible to leave the game unwinnable by using an item incorrectly (seriously, don’t eat those magic beans!), or not possessing a key item after reaching a point of no return. And the game won’t tell you that you’re screwed, potentially leaving you searching for hours for a solution that isn’t there. If this doesn’t appeal to you, fear not – the AGD Interactive version gives you the option of disabling these dead ends.

Controls: You move from one scene to another by walking to the edge of the screen in whichever direction you want to travel. Most scenes allow you to go North, South, East or West, assuming there’s no obvious hazard or barrier in the way. You CAN do this with the keyboard, but it doesn’t allow much fine controlling, so unless you like walking off cliffs, stick to the mouse!

Most other interactions require the mouse – you can ‘look at’, ‘interact’, ‘talk to’ or use any inventory item on anything you see by selecting the relevant icon and clicking on it. This is where the game gets particularly frustrating, as if your character isn’t QUITE close enough to perform the interaction, or if your click is off by a pixel or two, it won’t work… which often left me thinking that a solution to a puzzle (which turned out to be correct) was wrong.

Graphics and sound: While the art from the original KQ1 is very basic, almost MS Paint-style, the AGD Interactive version looks really nice and detailed (if low-res). It also adds voice acting and better sound effects, which certainly added to my enjoyment.

Overall: An important piece of gaming history, which helped influence many of the later point-and-click adventure games that I love, updated for a newer generation of gamers. Basic plot, frustrating controls and unfair deaths mean it’s far from perfect, but worth experiencing (especially since it’s free)! 6/10