King's Quest is an adventure role-playing game in which the player assumes the role of Sir Graham of Daventry. As Graham, you must traverse a magical fairy-tale world in which you must reclaim the treasured magical mirror, shield, and chest which have been stolen. If Graham gets the items back, King Edward the Benevolent will bestow the crown upon him.
The game draws heavily on fairy tales. During his wanderings, Graham climbs a beanstalk and visits the land of the giants, confronts the witch from Hansel and Gretel, descends to the land of the leprechauns, faces off with the bridge guarding troll from the Billy Goats Gruff, and looks through Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards.
King's Quest is an adventure role-playing game in which the player assumes the role of Sir Graham of Daventry. As Graham, you must traverse a magical fairy-tale world in which you must reclaim the treasured magical mirror, shield, and chest which have been stolen. If Graham gets the items back, King Edward the Benevolent will bestow the crown upon him.
The game draws heavily on fairy tales. During his wanderings, Graham climbs a beanstalk and visits the land of the giants, confronts the witch from Hansel and Gretel, descends to the land of the leprechauns, faces off with the bridge guarding troll from the Billy Goats Gruff, and looks through Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards.
The game is challenging, because the player must rely on his or her own wits and observations,
 | | |
needing to explore Daventry, collect clues, "pay" for help from other characters by helping them (for example, giving a bottomless bowl of stew to a hungry man in exchange for information), and solve sometimes complex riddles. Additionally, the player can sometimes use items incorrectly (for example, it is a much better idea to bribe the goat with a carrot than to kill it with a dagger), which causes you to lose the game. Other perils wait as well: a mischievous thieving gnome who will rob you of your valuables, a dangerous sorcerer who will turn you into a helpless animal, and a malevolent wolf who will eat you. You can also fall off cliffs or bridges, drown, or be eaten by a witch, which makes the game difficult, and often requires a few tries to get your quest right. Some aspects of the game are simple to overcome. The layout of Daventry is quite simple, and keeping a map will help the player navigate through the kingdom with ease, making solving the riddles to find and collect the stolen items the primary challenge. Although the game is rather easy to beat, it will pass a few hours teasing the brain and keeping the player guessing.
This game is a great introduction to the King's Quest series, and is recommended for anyone who enjoys fairy tales and solving sometimes tricky puzzles. The King's Quest series games become more advanced and sophisticated after this, so this is a terrific place to start for people not familiar with the series.
