King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!

The Good
This game has excellent graphics, great music, and a wonderful interface. I've always been firmly on the side of a graphical parser, especially in Sierra's case, where they were pretty weak as far as the text flexibility went.

The Bad
Some of the worst written puzzles on the planet. Did you accidentally throw the stick instead of the boot? Well, now you're stuck! Did you feed the eagle the wrong food? Sorry, hope you saved. So, you have those inventory catch-ems, and then you have one thing that cheapens any adventure game in my eyes, which would be mazes. There are mazes in this game, which is more or less a really lazy way to pad out the game (which is relatively short in comparison to some other games). In addition, an annoying talking owl character that provides annoying commentary on everywhere you go AND some of the worst voice acting the gaming world has seen, this game just isn't worth it.

The Bottom Line
This game isn't good. It was pretty neat whiz-bang technology at the time, but Sierra did far better games (see Kings Quest 6).

The Good
This was the first KQ game where you don't have aching hands from typing monotonous commands all day. Now you can just kick back and click your way through the game! That was definitely a nice addition to the series.

And most of all...... The first KQ offered in 256 color VGA!! Obviously the EGA and VGA versions look like they came from separate worlds and one would pity the person who had to play it with only 16 colors (like I did). The game was a bar-setter for the rest of the Sierra series and other game companies as well. At the time, it felt as though I was playing a cartoon... Much improved music and sound effects were added to the newest of the series which brought to life all the cartoonish environments and characters.

It was also cool how your friend, Cedric the Owl, flew around with you the whole time helping you... it made it feel as though you weren't alone on this quest and you had a little traveling buddy with ya... definitely added enjoyment to the atmosphere.

A groundbreaking classic PC adventure game with TIMELESS written all over it.

The Bad
A horrible attempt was made to transfer this game to video game consoles and failed miserably due to the fact they chose to transfer it to NES which was 8 bit. It looked and played worse than the EGA version on PC and ruined the idea of a Sierra 3D Animated Adventure Game in the eyes of many console gamers.... The PC version of the game was another flawless and classic adventure game from Sierra.

The Bottom Line
Another classic from Roberta Williams with an easy to use interface and gorgeous sound and graphic capabilities. A must play for the fans of Sierra adventure games....

The Good
The graphics are dazzling, with a revolutionary sound card and easy-to-use point and click interface. Graham searches for his family, using cleverness rather than fighting to overcome his enemies. This game is great for kids and adults and I've seen whole families work together to solve it. This game isn't dated by lousy graphics, or anything else inferior for that matter

The Bad
The gameplot is incredibly inflexible; there's only one, or possibly two solutions to each problem, without even much flexibility in the order of solving problems. It's rather frustrating not to be able to do something that would work in real life, or be able to tell characters whatever you want, as you can in Ultima. Also, the maze is a pain to navigate, and the desert can take a while to map.

The Bottom Line
A wonderful game for any age. Everyone should try one of the King's Quests, preferably KQ5 or KQ6. They teach kids how to solve problems through logic rather than violence and that good deeds are always rewarded, as the hero travels through a magical, fairytale world. They show adults that even middle-aged, completely settled kings can still go out and save the world.