King's Quest: Mask of Eternity

The Good
It was a mildly entertaining action / role-playing title, but it was not a quality Sierra product.

The Bad
Fighting? We can fight?

Perhaps it all wouldn't have been so bad if the feel of the series has somehow been kept alive, but it wasn't. Fighting just seemed so antithetical to the nature of a KQ game.

The graphics were pretty rough looking, even at the time of release. Compare this to Grim Fandango. Granted that wasn't fully rendered, but it was worlds beyond what Sierra created for this game. Most of the textures looked so blotchy -- it was all just so messy.

I also didn't like the linear layout of the game. Granted, ever since KQ4, the series has not provided the same open-world design. However, with KQ 7 and KQ 8, you feel like you're forced along.

Lastly, the voice acting is something out of a bad Masterpiece Theatre. Stilted quasi-british annunciation made me want to skip most dialogue.

The Bottom Line
Where KQ 7 had been sugar and gumdrops, KQ 8 was snakes and spiders. The series took a dramatic, and final, turn with this release. As a basic role-playing games, it was decent. However, there is nothing in this game that even reminds me of King's Quest.

The Good
We had a lot of fun playing it. The graphics are nice, the music is good: general atmosphere is drags you into the game. Puzzles are sometimes difficult, but never impossible, as is the fighting.

The Bad
There was barely anything wrong with it. In every aspect it lives up to what you might expect from a 3d action/adventure in 1998. It never excels and there is nothing astonishing or renewing about this game. I never played another kings-quest before and while playing I didn't feel I should have. Most maps / levels were fine. The last on (realm of the sun) was not to exiting and lacked the inspiration the rest of the has.

The Bottom Line
Mask Of Eternity is nice action adventure game, well worth playing.

The Good
Some references to past games?

The Bad
Everything. Gameplay and all the techinical stuff is awful. Worst of all is it signifies the death of adventure gaming at Sierra. It cannot be called an adventure game. IT is an action game and a poor one at that.

The Bottom Line
This was Sierra's flagship adventure game series. Sierra wishes to proclaim Adventure gaming is dead. That fact alone made this game depressing to play. Yes, this game wasn't aggravating or annoying, it was depressing.