King's Quest II: Romancing The Throne

"The logic train's been held up"

I like King's Quest. Please understand that as you read this. But I agree with the guys who did a revamp of it a year or two ago that the second installment in the game needed a serious facelift. I'll get to why in a minute.

King Graham has spent a lonely year on the throne of Daventry, but one day the magic mirror in the throne room shows him a picture of a beautiful maiden trapped in a tower in a far off realm. With no thought for his own safety, but with thought for his legacy, he quickly travels to the land of Kolyma in order to find and rescue the damsel.

Nothing wrong so far. King's Quest was all about the joys of love and family. And people weren't sick of the old save the emperiled princess plot back then. But everything sort of happens just because the story says it does in this game.

Like, why would the old lady in the antique store want the nightingale? How did grandma get that cloak and ring? Why didn't the almighty ruler of the oceans keep a better eye on his magic trident? What's up with all the jewelry hidden inside hollow logs? If Graham can swim, why does he have to be told to? Why does a five-foot fall kill you in some places but merely daze you in others? Even if you like this version, you really should try the updated one.

But if you're going to play the original, be prepared not to be able to beat it without a walkthrough. A fair amount of the puzzles just aren't intuitive by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, like in many early adventure games, the path to victory usually consists of going everywhere and trying everything you can possibly imagine until you get it right.

Call me cynical but I prefer being able to play a game and go something like, "This guy wants a pearl...I bet I'd find one if I went back to the beach!" or something like that, you see? This as opposed to "I'm supposed to what? Throw a bridle at the snake? Who the heck would think of that?"

That's just me. There are obviously plenty of others who didn't mind that kind of thing, and that's great, really. But I think the point of a game like King's Quest is to try to beat it all by yourself, and the logic of King's Quest II just did not make that a very viable option most of the time. I love what the series became, but it was a while before the puzzles started to make sense.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/04, Updated 06/15/04