Episodic King's Quest The Odd Gentlemen.

[Baggins]

As for most the KS stuff, I haven't been too impressed so far. Several of the Sierra revival games/remakes have burned me... It was something I risk even with a bigger budget Sierra revival game as well. One of the reason I'm giving the new KQ some benefit of the doubt is that its an original experience, and not a mediocre retelling of a story I've already heard (other than questionable retelling of the KQ1 hunt for the Magic Mirror prologue). Many of those 'remakes' just feel 'stale', and I have more fun playing the original versions instead.

Dreamfall Chapters is about the best KS game I've played so far though. The Broken Sword 5 was descent. But since it was an original experience, and not just a rehash remake of a previous game, it kept me entertained for the most part. Although some sections felt a bit slow.

I haven't gotten around to the Tex Murphy revival yet, but I hear its pretty good too.  Truth be told the only reason I haven't gotten around to playing it is I still need to finish the previous games in the series. I'm up to the Overseer game currently.

[Lambonius]

I'm pleasantly surprised with all the subtle differences I'm noticing on a second playthrough.  Not just the major choices, but even seemingly minor dialog choices with certain characters have lasting effects on how those characters address you through the rest of the game.  It's a nice touch.

[Baggins]

Yes it is, and its cool how it affects the Gwendolyn interludes. This game is packed with lots of little 'backstories' to you can only access if you take certain routes. It makes the world seem more 'alive' and thought out.

[Kaldire]

As for most the KS stuff, I haven't been too impressed so far. Several of the Sierra revival games/remakes have burned me... It was something I risk even with a bigger budget Sierra revival game as well. One of the reason I'm giving the new KQ some benefit of the doubt is that its an original experience, and not a mediocre retelling of a story I've already heard (other than questionable retelling of the KQ1 hunt for the Magic Mirror prologue). Many of those 'remakes' just feel 'stale', and I have more fun playing the original versions instead.

Dreamfall Chapters is about the best KS game I've played so far though. The Broken Sword 5 was descent. But since it was an original experience, and not just a rehash remake of a previous game, it kept me entertained for the most part. Although some sections felt a bit slow.

I haven't gotten around to the Tex Murphy revival yet, but I hear its pretty good too.  Truth be told the only reason I haven't gotten around to playing it is I still need to finish the previous games in the series. I'm up to the Overseer game currently.

you havent played ... the newest tex? AHHHHhhhhh
if only he had waiting for unreal to become free, that game woulda been in unreal vs unity
but that game friggen rocks

just they have many hours of cut footage, and more puzzles they wanted to add in a new ks but not sure that will happen

hey lambo, you wont prolly notice to many diffs until like ep 3-4
but yea you can see where its gearing out to go. again the telltale method, or life is strange
(again i recommend life is strange for those who like serious gaming vs haha)

[Baggins]

Well I bought the new Tex to support the team. I hadn't played the entire series before. I'm working my way through them in order. They are absolutely awesome. It's a shame I missed them back in the day, when I actually had more time to play these kind of games!

I hope they can get at least another game out!

[Lambonius]

hey lambo, you wont prolly notice to many diffs until like ep 3-4
but yea you can see where its gearing out to go. again the telltale method, or life is strange
(again i recommend life is strange for those who like serious gaming vs haha)

No, I'm not talking about overarching choices that affect future episodes.  I honestly don't care whether or not the series has any of those.  I'm talking about little details and choices that have noticeable divergent paths within this episode itself.  You definitely won't see everything on the first or even second playthrough.  It looks like it's a 3 playthrough minimum game if you want to see it all.

[Baggins]

hey lambo, you wont prolly notice to many diffs until like ep 3-4
but yea you can see where its gearing out to go. again the telltale method, or life is strange
(again i recommend life is strange for those who like serious gaming vs haha)

In the short term some of the choices might influence the next episode. I have a feeling Merchant of Miracles for example will be seen throughout the series, and there is a major choice you can make with him in the middle of the game.

And the general bravery, wisdom, and compassion paths will likely continue to influence the actions of Gwendolyn in every interlude event. We  are sure to get more Gwendolyn side story in each episode.

Obviously if you were heavy on one of the three paths, characters are likely to still be influenced by that in the next episode, and call you by a related title, or have an opinion of you. As for return of other characters, directly tied into some of the bigger choices? Who knows (other than what they have told us in previews about that Dragon being a possible returning threat, or 'friend' depending on your choices, and who knows when that event will happen).

Spoiler (hover to show)

and goblins are apparently going to be back in the next episode, it might be set more in Daventry again, and explain more about why they are stealing the beds... and Manny is somehow connected to them... Manny... Mannanan?

[Baggins]

It looks like it's a 3 playthrough minimum game if you want to see it all.

There are some options that would take you six or seven playthroughts to see the effects... For example who you steal a 'wheel' from, and who you tip. For example do you tip the same person you steal a wheel from, do you 'not tip' anyone and just steal a wheel. Do you tip someone other than the person you steal a wheel from. So there are at least three options of tipping the same person you steel a wheel from, or 3 options of tipping someone different than who you steal from, and finally option of not tipping anyone, and keeping your money with you (this will also possibly affect the number of puzzles you can complete at state two, assuming that Merchant doesn't steal all your money but 1). But all those choices will certainly affect your relationship with various characters in the shops. And take you further or closer to their primary alignment.

Spoiler (hover to show)

It's possible to anger the shop keepers for example, and have them lock the doors to stop 'thieves'. Depending on what you say to the character after that, will either have them keep the door locked (if you lie, or avoid answering their questions), or unlock it for you (honesty, which also sets you closer to their alignment, and extra support).

Who knows what happens if you take a balanced approach, and try to align yourself with all three paths.

BTW does anyone know how to extract the subtitles out of Unreal game? Is it possible with this game?

[Kaldire]

again mate this is NOT a new method lambo

i hate to bring them up again.. but
telltale games, abd even the great Life is Strange method play, more n more games are using this now.

you have to play at least 3 times to see each route, and thats per episode,
prolly about 10-12 plays to get all paths and see all scenes in each game of TTG's with the illusion of choice ideal going on

same with kq,
you will notice things in the current ep, but will be really noticed more in the next few

as for the middle path, this is what i was thinking is a secret 4th path, vs the baker the magic shop or the blacksmith routes  or kindness, cunning, or fighting, each scene only follows those 3 paths
true statement

Spoiler (hover to show)

case n point the dragon intro aka epilogue,  shoot bell? shoot dragon? shoot chain?
all lead to the same path of, baker  want a pie? curio  want bombs? or blacksmith want a dagger end.
these are the three paths, and if you choose to tell your grandaughter in the start how to succeed in the match, if you say.. choose kindness and only pick the blacksmith wheel, and dagger, and do mean stuff like knock the trees vs use the picker, etc
then u will get the incorrect chosen path and the game will set it right in the end

so i chose cunning, to tell the girl, and in the end game, she said wait! you said cunning, and wit! but you used kindness! its better to do as i do not as i say  .. says  old graham.
so it might seem like there is a diff, but end ep 1 it pulls it back to 1 path, the one you chose in the game not at the start

my question is, wonder what happens if you can match them all
secret 4th path mmmm?

[Baggins]

KQ6 actually had 'choices' as well, depending on what alternate methods you take. KQ1, and kQ2 also had it to lesser degrees (alternate solutions that would change how characters reacted). KQ7 had only one or two alternate choices.

The real question will it lead to completely different endings by the end, or even paths that only accessible if you made a decision in an early chapter. Real choices with real consequences, or 'just illusions'.

Honestly the first game that I know of that really did something similar was Indiana Jones and Last Crusade, and the Fate of Atlantis with its various routes.

Spoiler (hover to show)

choose kindness and only pick the blacksmith wheel, and dagger, and do mean stuff like knock the trees vs use the picker, etc

I think the mean stuff like knock fruit from the tree, vs picker is only for the Charity achievement, and not a major change in the story. His dialogue barely changes from what he says if you used the picker (other than giving you an extra option to ask what happened to his face), he doesn't figure out it was you who dropped the bees nest on the picnic. It if you are playing compassion route already, it doesn't make him chastise you for making a mistake. Likewise messing up with the Wolves and not getting the Wedzel Patch won't affect the pathing with the brave path either, although she will say 'no patch for you', and finally you an use the sleep leaf instead of giving it to the Hobblepots. If you did the right thing with all of these you get an achievement/trophy.

In addition you also would get the Wolf Patch bonus, and the hypnosis powder which can be used on Pillare. But also giving away the sleep leaf on Pillare might prevent you from getting the color change potion as well, which would make the final Duel Wits game a tad harder, and probably force you to have to use the cheat method to make your chances 50/50

[Klytos]

Nah Lambo, I wanted to play it before I made a judgement on it and had to eat my own words like some people!

[Lambonius]

Nah Lambo, I wanted to play it before I made a judgement on it and had to eat my own words like some people!

Where's the fun in that?

[Klytos]

No fun, just self respect!

[Lambonius]

I posted this everywhere else, so I might as well put it here for posterity.  My full and honest review.

Alright, I've had enough time after finishing the episode and starting two new playthroughs that I feel like I'm in a good place to share a more thorough review.


First thing's first:

I like it.  The game has won me over, despite my initial misgivings and my distaste for some of the on-rails "modern" sequences (more on that later.)

The most important element of this game is whether or not it successfully does what it sets out to do, which is to blend classic adventure gameplay with "modern" (God, I hate the way that word is used to talk about dumbed down gameplay) sensibilities.  I would go so far as to say that the result is the best mainstream modern adventure game out there right now.  Granted, the only competition is Telltale, so go figure.

Telltale really did a number on adventure games.  It's no secret that I utterly loathe Telltale's game design philosophy.  Perhaps more than just the fact that their games are not my cup of tea, I hate the way they've had this serious impact on what the world at large thinks contemporary adventure games should look and play like, and the way they should be structured and released (episodically.)  The fact that The Odd Gentlemen deliberately tried to deviate from this arguably safer approach and has successfully blended old and new deserves much praise, in my opinion.

Okay, now to specifics:


Story:

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I think the way The Odd Gentlemen is handling the narrative is the best possible way to revive the series.  The framing narrative that allows the game to seamlessly combine prequel, sequel, and reboot is brilliant.  The writing is charming, the characters fun and memorable, and the humor is both witty and kid-friendly (though your mileage may vary.)

That said, I stand by my criticism that this game gets the tonal balance wrong.  Despite the disparities between individual entries in the classical King's Quest series, there was a consistent tone (up until 7, but that's one of the reasons why I hate 7,) and while this game doesn't miss the mark completely, it is different enough that I found it very distracting and off-putting at first.  It is objectively sillier and more cartoonish in both its humor and world logic than any previous KQ game, but I think that's okay.  I can accept taking the series in a fresh tonal direction, even if it does feel somewhat derivative of other, better adventure games (Curse of Monkey Island, for example.)


Audio/Visual:

No surprises here.  The game looks and sounds great.  Your mileage may vary on the art direction, but at least it's consistent, and they absolutely own the visual style.  It fits with the more cartoonish tone, and looks vivid and beautiful on a big screen.  People have already discussed the great voice acting at length, so I won't go over it again here.  It's great.  The music is evocative and perfectly suits every scene where it appears.  The classic KQ melodic hints are great, and I hope we get more of that kind of thing in future episodes.  The classic point chime is a nice touch, but I wish it was used more frequently when you actually accomplish tasks, as opposed to just picking up inventory items.  Still, it was an effective nostalgia device, certainly.


Gameplay:

Here we come to the heart of the matter, and the area where I certainly find the most faults.  I've already said that I think this game manages a perfect blend of old and new, and once it opens up and allows for freedom of exploration and some non-linear puzzling, it becomes a really good time.

That said, they opened the game in just about the worst way possible.  It's not JUST the on-rails sequence in the well, but really the first 2 hours of the game are extremely linear, find the single hotspot, and push A to proceed.  This was a terrible decision if they were trying to draw old school adventure game fans into this game.  I've read a number of posts on different forums of people who basically gave up on the game because SO much of the first portion was straight, linear, and overly simplistic.  I can only hope that this is just a feature of this first episode, to try and gradually introduce new players to adventure game mechanics, but if future episodes maintain this pacing and those long linear stretches of gameplay, I'll be sorely disappointed.

Again, once you get to the tournament and the game opens up, the experience really starts to feel like a classic adventure, albeit a simple and easy one.

The controls work well and feel a lot like Grim Fandango on PC, but with more fluid animation and movement.  I think all the people lamenting the lack of fast travel are lazy crybaby morons, but I suppose the addition a sprint button wouldn't be a bad compromise.  A sprint button could also add some depth to the action sequences, too, if you had control not only over direction, but also speed.

My one big gripe about the controls is the lack of a dedicated Look function.  I have never bought the apologist argument that better graphics removes the need for a Look function.  There were plenty of instances in my first playthrough where I found myself really missing the ability to right-click and get a description of the item, instead of just pressing a button to do the one single available interaction.  When you have to choose between wheel substitutes, for example, it's very obvious that choosing one is going to lead you down a specific path, but you only have the option to interact with it; I'd have loved to be able to get an actual narrated description, maybe with Graham offering some thoughts about the implications of choosing that object, BEFORE I decided to pick it up.

The interactivity in the game also leaves a lot to be desired.  From the standpoint of a fan of classic adventure games, this game world feels very sparse in comparison to the old games.  There is a lot of great dialog here, and the multiple interaction responses for repeatedly clicking on certain objects are a lot of fun, but I can't help but feel like all that extra voice acting could have been better used if they had spread it around over MORE HOTSPOTS.  There were a lot of beautiful screens that are visually dense that would have really benefited from the ability to examine non-essential objects and scenery to add some more narrative flavor to the world.  The town square is a good example.  The only extra object, other than the three shop doors, is the tree in the middle, but there's SO MUCH stuff in that scene.  As is, in most cases, the only interactive objects are the items that are directly needed to progress the game.  There are some exceptions, but I think a better balance could have been reached here, and it would have gone a long way to making the game feel more like a classic King's Quest game.

The puzzles themselves, while easy, are actually quite well done, I think.  They do a nice job of getting gradually more complicated as the story goes on, which I think serves new players well.  I would have liked to have seen a few more difficult or complex multi-stage puzzles, perhaps optional, so that more hardore adventure gamers would have had some stuff they could really sink their teeth into, but the sheer fact that there actually are this many puzzles in a mainstream adventure game made in 2015 in the shadow of Telltale (fucking Telltale) is something worthy of admiration.  Thank you, Odd Gentlemen, for actually giving me something to DO in your adventure game.


Bugs:

The game runs nicely on my somewhat outdated laptop, which was a pleasant surprise.  That said, I have encountered a number of minor bugs in my playthroughs.  Nothing gamebreaking, but certainly some immersion breaking stuff.  Graham's cape has a tendency to glitch out and stretch across the screen for a split second when changing scenes and in some closeups.  I also had a few instances where the audio for dialog failed to play, and the mouths failed to move on characters, even though the characters themselves were clearly supposed to be speaking--they were gesturing and moving their heads, but no audio and no moving mouths.  Weird.  In any case, the game runs very smoothly, even on older hardware.  I've got a shitty integrated Intel graphics card and only 4 GB ram, and I had very few issues and a smooth frame rate even on highest graphics settings.


Replayability:

This was another pleasant surprise.  There is a LOT of optional dialog and content here.  The game is obviously set up to be played at least 3 times to see the full extent of the different story choices and scenes, but what I was really impressed by was the amount of small changes from playthrough to play through.  Little insignificant dialog choices seemed to have a lasting impact on the way certain characters approached you and interacted with you.  The interactions with the bridge troll for example, seem to change quite a bit depending on a few different factors.  I expect that some of the choices will have repercussions in future episodes, but it was nice to see so many little divergences within THIS episode itself.  Another step up from Telltale, I'd say.

My one major gripe about the different choices is that the main divergent path choices are far too obviously sign-posted.  Choice works best in games when you don't realize it's happening until you've already headed down a specific path.  The sense of discovery is better when you can find the different paths out for yourself, as opposed to the game clearly telling you that you were at a crossroads and then giving you a big "Are you sure?" Yes or No prompt to confirm your choice.  That kind of ruined it for me a bit.  The Odd Gentlemen should take a page from The Witcher games and make the choices a little more subtle in future episodes, please.


Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this first episode a lot more than I thought I would, to be completely honest.  The gameplay formula that The Odd Gentlemen have created here is fun and engaging, and is a successful blend of classic and "modern" design.  That said, I think a lot of what I like about this episode is the POTENTIAL that it has to become a great adventure game series, if they increase the gameplay complexity a bit in future episodes, and tone down the narrative silliness.  The emotional beats in this game's story are really nice, and I hope that future episodes will give us some heavier moments of pathos.

As it stands, I'd give it a solid B-, maybe a B.  Its adventure game heart is in the right place, but it feels a bit too much like it's pandering to the worst aspects of modern gamers--the lazy, GIVE IT TO ME NOW, ADHD attitude.  Lose the on-rails action moments and the linear corridor runs, add a few more interactive hotspots to add more descriptive meat to the world, and give me a few more taxing puzzles, and this game could go from decent to great very quickly.  All of the pieces are there.

[Kaldire]

No fun, just self respect!

does this mean you like the game ?
faults and all?

it needs a proper patch i found about (no joke 20+ bugs) nothing game breaking, mostly animation issues
but again the game is beautiful but its NOT a KQ game in my eyes

just wanna make sure I got you right, eat your own words because you thought it would be bad but was decent or vice versa?

im thinking you mean you do like the game so far but im unclear