King's Quest : Mask of Eternity

(Sierra On-Line, 1998)

Note : This is the complete, unabridged review, as I wrote it in 1998; I suppose the final (?) King's Quest deserves that much, at the very least...

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The saddest part of the storyline to KQ : Mask of Eternity is how much it reflects the final days of the original Sierra Online software company, itself. Consider: their "King," Sierra founder Ken Williams was dethroned,  several of Ken's most noble knights and fair maidens (game designers and programmers to us) were dismissed, and, worst of all, Sierra's "Daventry" --the quaint building which housed the original offices-- was closed down forever. A dark cloud has fallen, indeed. Even darker is that, with Roberta Williams taking a break from game design, this is likely to be the last King's Quest. Ever.

On one bright side of things, if this is the last King's Quest, it ends the series with...a 3D game engine! Wonderful 3D, too; ice dragons are opaque, castles tower above you, and your fully animated shadow follows you wherever you go. This 3D environment also provides intense exploration puzzles (say buh-bye to the banal icon interface!), in an immense 3D world where nearly every object seen can be climbed, broken, thrown, taken, used, and so on. In addition, while Sierra's prior offerings for several years were of the banal Saturday Morning Cartoon fare, this title's eye candy delivers. Adding to the atmosphere of the game is composer Mark Seibert, with his usual flair for the perfect heroic theme music; even the Main Menu Screen itself has excellent background music!

The story is unique to the KQ world in that King Graham's family is not a part of the game at all; Graham is only seen briefly in the introduction. This time around, the curse is so severe in Daventry, even the King has turned to stone! The only one not affected is Conner, who just happened to grab hold of a fallen shard of the Mask of Eternity just before the curse occurred. This is one of five Mask pieces; Conner must search for the other four, in any of half a dozen lands, to break the curse...and so the "Quest" begins.

This is by far the largest King's Quest ever. However, will this a good thing to everyone...? Fans who never dove into 3D action-adventures like Tomb Raider might be a little intimidated by this game's overall size (although most will agree that anything is better than the former icon interface!). You must search the whole land for clues; every house, chapel, mausoleum, hill, tower, and waterfall, often having to change your angle-of-vision to see things close up or at the proper angle. The only help you'll receive is in the form of an optional tutorial, for getting used to the game interface; that's it. Fans of older King's Quests will be either pleasantly surprised or slightly frustrated by this environment.

More surprises! A Quest-for-Glory style action element makes you have to fight the occasional enemy as you go along. You get to choose the skill level, though, and there's an "easy" mode for those who prefer less action, and more adventure. Ingeniously, optional mini-quests within the game are for items that help avoid harder action sequences -a new sword, for example. While there are action-game-oriented puzzles, such as jumping over molten lava, other puzzles are quite pleasant and not as action oriented. Some puzzles --where the challenge is where to jump-- cut you some slack by "highlighting" the pillar Conner will reach if you press jump in that direction; a nice touch.

Which brings us to the game gripes; understandable in any game company's first jump into complex 3D. While this KQ sequel will be inevitably compared to Tomb Raider, the environment is a bit less interactive. For example, Conner can't swim; he either wades through shallow water, or dies trying. While Lara Croft can survive most small tumbles, Conner is not as lucky; even a small cliff is instant death! This is rather annoying, when Mr. Fancypants, in armor, can't even survive falling off a short staircase. Even sliding down a steep cliff means death when he reaches the bottom. That one really puzzled me: Sliding down a steep hill, wearing armor, means instant death...?

Such "instant death" is vintage King's Quest, though times change. This isn't the same game world, where a game save only took mere seconds to re-load. You have to wait and wait as the whole 3D level is loaded, in its entirety. Then you immediately die, only to have to wait several moments to re-load the 3D game map all over again...and again...and again. This makes such instant deaths a real pain. To make matters worse, a few instant death sequences are caused by an erratic kinetics system; at one point, my Conner character slid off a pillar he was jumping to, right into the lava below. How annoying is that? In truth, KQ:MOE should've given you a better health meter, and cut you some slack with the "instant death" clichés.

Lastly, the gripe of many KQ fans; why no major sight of King Graham, Queen Valanice, Alexander, or Rosella? The manual itself alludes to how fans griped KQ3 wasn't a real King's Quest, until they saw the ending. The implication is that upon this game's finale you'll see why Conner is worthy of a King's Quest, except no such revelation occurs; Conner merely found one of the mask pieces by pure chance. It's almost as if a new James Bond movie starred some guy who happened upon a spy jacket. This has nothing to do with the KQ we know and love, IMO. In most respects, Torin's Passage had as much right to be a KQ as this. However, I admit, this is a nice story. It just isn't a KQ story, aside from a King Graham cameo, and a brief sight of a "Daventry" street sign. Too bad.

	Rating : Small Crater.
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