Summary
Whosoever plays this game will have to remember their fairy tales
The Good
Sierra's previous
King's Quest installment,
Quest for the Crown, managed to sell so many units that its creator,
Roberta Williams, decided that it was time for another KQ game, subtitled
Romancing the Throne. In the last game, King Graham managed to collect the three treasures (shield, chest, and mirror) and got granted the crown just before his predecessor dies. Happy to be king, he thinks of having a queen for companionship. Unable to be satisfied with the many damsels that roam the land, Graham asks the magic mirror for help. It shows him a vision of a beautiful girl locked away in a quartz tower in a faraway land, and in order to reach it, Graham has to search for three keys that will unlock the three doors that lead there.
I read in other people's reviews for KQ2 that this is basically a remake of the first, so before I continue, let me make a few things clear: First, the game is set in the land of Kolyma, not Daventry; Second, you won't find King Edward still alive and well; And finally, Kolyma has different locations to those in Daventry. The only thing that is the same between the two games are the same uniform that Graham wears, the fairy that floats down and casts a spell on you in order to protect you from Kolyma's bad eggs, and the dwarf that steals all your possessions.
The graphics have not changed since the first game. They still have that chunky 16-color look that plagued Sierra's early “Quests”, as well as LucasArts'
Maniac Mansion. But this is what technology used to be like back in 1987, but this didn't stop game players from enjoying the sequel.
Like KQ, I liked walking around the environments until I ended up at the same place, no matter if I kept walking north, south, east, or west. It is easy to get lost in these environments without using a map. You could end up walking around in circles, or meet your doom. I was glad to find out that there are actual locations in Kolyma, such as the church, antique shop, and Dracula's castle, rather than nothing but a few houses in Daventry. When I entered these buildings, what I saw next was amazing. The insides are well-drawn and you can interact with what is inside.
There are a few pieces of music in the game, more than KQ. Although it is played through the PC Speaker, I don't have a problem with the crappy 1-tone sound since I was already used to it. The music is enhanced if you happen to have a Tandy computer, since its PC Speaker is capable of producing more than one tone.
Greensleeves is the theme song for KQ2, just as it is for KQ, and, although not very original, suits a fantasy adventure game like this. I like listening to the song as it relaxes the mind.
The game uses a text parser interface, where you have to use the keyboard to type in commands. Some people favor the text parser over the point-and-click, mainly because that they can get away with typing anything they like and the game produces a funny response. The function keys [F1-F10] are used to save, quit, restore, or restart a game. What I like about this is that it is a quicker way than
just entering
SAVE GAME,
RESTORE GAME, etc., or accessing the menu. The [F2] key is used to turn the sound on and off.
You still have to know your fairy tales, such as
Little Red Riding Hood, to get you through some parts of the game. Unfortunately, I forgot my fairy tales ages ago, so I was stuck in the game for a long time.
KQ2 was originally released on floppy, and it required you to save and restore games on a blank, and this is the version with CGA graphics, since CGA cards were commonplace. However, as technology progressed, and EGA cards became available, Sierra remade the game, but although the remake still used the AGI interface, it lets you save and restore games onto a hard disk rather than a floppy. This is wonderful that Sierra did this. I can still remember getting a disk error when I played the old version.
The Bad
There is one annoyance present in Sierra's other AGI games. If you walk off the screen, you enter the next screen, like you should, only you are still walking. Knowing this, I am not sure whether or not I will fall to my death, or fall into the lake and drown myself unless I type
SWIM into the text parser. “Auto-Swim” was not available until
KQ3.
The Bottom Line
If you like collecting treasures in KQ, then you will enjoying getting the keys in KQ2. I believe that chances of getting the floppy version are quite rare, but with a little hunting, you will certainly be able to buy the hard disk version for a small price.
AGD Interactive, the first three letters being the abbreviation of “Anonymous Game Developer”, released a VGA version of KQ2 in the last few years. Not only did they remade it, but they also changed the subtitle to “Romancing the Stones”, to make it in line with the movie starring
Michael Douglas and
Kathleen Turner. They also extended the game, making it rather long and adding features to Kolyma such as new characters and more locations. If you feel that KQ2 is too short, then give AGD's remake a go. A voice pack and music enhancement is also available. As of this writing, I have yet to check it out myself.
