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

The Good
King's Quest V is Sierra's first major departure from their text parser adventure game interface. The primary new feature is the icon system to allow the player to interact with the world, and it was (and still is) a controversial change.

Backgrounds are no longer computer artwork in KQ5, but nicely scanned oil paintings in 256 colors. They look fantastic and work quite well, furthering the "storybook" theme. However, the sprite animation is similar to previous Sierra games. The music is also very nice and there is support for many sound cards. Sound effects are minimal, but the new multimedia CD-ROM version features voice acting -- another first for Sierra.

The plot is decent, although I don't care for the introduction.

The Bad
The mouse interface had its good and bad points. Although it allowed the game to possibly reach a much wider audience, the icons really did reduce the amount of detail that was put into the setting. Fortunately, the new graphics help to offset this to some degree. Also, some of the icons are rarely needed and just take up space. This was rectified in later games.

While the new interface makes KQ5 easier to play, it does not necessarily make the puzzles much easier. Some are challenging, and I could not get through the game the first time without a couple of hints. Beware, like most "classic" adventure games, it is also possible to make mistakes in a few places such that you can not finish the game!

Furthermore, there isn't much replayability in this title. The puzzles are solved in one way, and although you can travel around a bit, most puzzles are also solved in a linear fashion. Oddly enough, I replayed it a few times; on repeat, it seems like a different game if you have struggled through the first time.

Getting back to the graphics, they are quite good in VGA. I also played the EGA version, and I can say it was UGLY -- much worse than any of Sierra's 16 color games of the era. They simply took the 256 color images and reduced them to 16 colors and the results were terrible. The only thing worse was the console version.

The final complaint is the box size. Sierra left their traditional box size, which was small by industry standards, and blew it up to a thick monstrosity. Most other publishers that hadn't done this this quickly followed suit, and this wasn't brought back under control until the time of this review, 2002.

The Bottom Line
King's Quest V is a classic adventure game that marks a turning point in the genre. Many questioned whether some of the changes were for the better. In any case, it turned out to be a huge hit, and is definitely worth playing through once.

The Good
Gamers may have to be of a certain age in order to fully appreciate the technical wonder that is King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Younder!.

Early adventure games -- Sierra has a major player in the genre -- were initially text-only quests. Much like the days of classic radio dramas, these early computer games required the player to use his imagination (and typing skills) in order to advance in a world that only existed through on-screen text.

Gradually, adventure games began to feature CGA and EGA-style graphics to create the characters, items, puzzles and locations that the player had to interact with.

It would be wrong to dismiss CGA/EGA graphics outright as hopefully archaic.

However, it was not really into the jump to VGA graphics that computer games -- especially adventure games -- could really create a environment that look more like an epic cartoon or painting, as opposed to something that (for lack of a better word) "looked" like a computer game.

King's Quest V was the first game in the series to make the jump to the superior VGA graphics. The result is a an epic adventure game set in a lush and beautiful game environment.

VGA graphics may not impress younger generations of gamers, but (in 1990) it was simply incredible to play an adventure game with VGA graphics and marvel at the game's artwork and character design.

King's Quest V also shinned in the audio department, and (while other gamers may disagree) I enjoyed the transition into more point and click, icon-based game play mechanics.

Sierra did not skimp on the storyline in King's Quest V. King Graham is about to return to his castle (after talking a lovely walk), only to see his castle (and all his family members) whisked away by an evil wizard.

As is the case with the previous King's Quest entries, the game manages to put a creative spin on familiar fantasy elements, and quests often require you to help out other creatures (large and small).

Story elements from previous King's Quest games are smoothly brought into the part V and (interestingly enough) certain events in part 5 are further developed in King's Quest VI.

Overall, it is hard to find too many odious faults with King's Quest V. Hard, but not impossible.

The Bad
The groundbreaking nature of King's Quest V's graphics and music can easily be lost on younger gamers.

In the 1990s, VGA was superceded by SVGA. Computer disks were superceded by CD-ROM technology.

As popular as King's Quest V was in 1990, it didn't have as much of a long-lasting impact on the adventure gaming genre as did say, Alone in the Dark (1992).

Alone in the Dark (1992) was released a few years after King's Quest V, and it represented a significant shift in the look and design of adventure games.

Where as King's Quest V represented the advances in classic adventure gaming, games like Alone in the Dark (1992), "Tomb Raider" (1996) and "Resident Evil" (1996) represented a successful mutation or spinoff within the adventuring gaming genre.

Younger gamers are probably more familiar with the spinoff and its tropes. These spinoff adventure game environments were "3D" with pre-rendered (if not polygon) graphics. Success required action-packed blistered thumbs (often within the real of survival horror) as well as solving item-based puzzles.

I am not suggesting that the "new" style of adventuring gaming is better or worse then the more traditional style.

Rather, the fact that King's Quest V is a great classic adventure game, may make it harder for some gamers to appreciate the game fully.

Younger games have some different expectations about what makes a great adventure game, in comparison to people that played King's Quest V (when it was first released) while in middle or high school.

The Bottom Line
King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Younder! is a great, classic adventure game, as well as a great entry in the King's Quest gaming franchise. Gamers of every generation who can appreciate the classics, should be able to love this game.

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....