King's Quest: Mask of Eternity

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.

The Good
I liked the idea that it was an attempt to bring a first and third person perspective to the game. Running around trying to find the broken masks pieces fighting blocky enemies was different.

Being able to fight creatures with your sword and bow added a bit more, entertainment to the otherwise dreary boring scenarios.

What I liked about this game is that it probably encouraged better RPG games to follow (such as Ultima IX Ascension) which was way more exciting and entertaining.

The Bad
It was not the Kings Quests we are used to. Very dreary, sometimes difficult to follow the plot line at all, and extremely linear.

The original release was very buggy and often things weren't where they were supposed to be or events did not trigger when they should have.

The levels were boring, especially running down similar corridors or same looking areas within a scene. Climbing up steep walls etc..

Unfortunately this is a game that you cannot really replay. Even after the game has sat on your shelf for a couple of years, you will still be reluctant to want to pick it up again.

You will probably use a walkthru or a cheat just because of sheer frustration in trying to figure out what exactly you are supposed to be doing, often leaving you running around a scene for hours encouraging mental irritation and heart burn in the process.

The Bottom Line
This was probably a failed attempt to bring the King Quest Series into a semi quest adventure/ RPG game.. lacking in most of the important aspects of each of these type of games.

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.