The New ‘King’s Quest’ Has Critics Impressed

With the arrival of the newest installment in the King’s Quest series, it’s a good time to be an adventure game fan. The long-running series has laid dormant since 1998, but the King’s Quest legacy returns to a new generation with a new episodic series developed by The Odd Gentleman.

The first episode of the new King’s Quest looks to set the series up as more of a re-imagining or retelling of the original King’s Quest story, rather than a sequel that continues the previously established canon. So, those of us looking to get into the game without having played any of the other eight main series games should have no problem getting into the story. Chris Carter of Destructoid commended how welcome King’s Quest was to newcomers of the series.

“To be clear, this isn’t a true continuation of the series, but rather, a ‘re-imagining’ with the same characters, and some of the same events. For the most part, this new rendition is going to tell side stories that happened between the games over the course of five episodes — A Knight to Remember is the first. There’s plenty of fanservice scattered about to keep old fans happy, but newcomers won’t be lost in the slightest in their first foray into Daventry — it’s a great balancing act.”

Meanwhile, Tim Turi of Game Informer summarized King’s Quest‘s first episode by calling it “heartfelt and entertaining return for King Graham.”

“So far, King’s Quest is remarkable in its ability to call back to the classic design of ’90s point-and-click adventures without succumbing to as many pitfalls. The combination of wacky character interactions, goofy logic puzzles, and heartfelt story beats has me eager to see what’s in store in Chapter II. The team at The Odd Gentlemen has created one of the most endearing, true-to-form adventure games I’ve played in recent years.”

Critics and users alike have taken to Twitter to rave about King’s Quest, echoing sentiments made by the reviewers above.

Haven't had time to record a QL for the new King's Quest yet, but it's really good. Funnier and sharper than I expected. A worthy successor.

— Brad Shoemaker (@bradshoemaker) July 28, 2015

Lotta positive buzz around the new King's Quest game, definitely getting curious to check it out.

— Amayirot Akago (@AmayirotAkago) July 28, 2015

Neither The Odd Gentleman or publisher Sierra have confirmed when we’ll see the next episodes of King’s Quest release, but the first is available this week across PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The developers have also talked about a possible Wii U port later on, but for now, Nintendo users will be forced to wait to get their King’s Quest fix. Also released today as part of Sony’s PLAY 2015 lineup, which kicked off last week with Journey, is the indie platformer N++.

[Image via Sierra Games]