King's Quest 1-3

This part will cover the first three games. I'll start off by saying that I knew nothing of the first three games. Without diving too deep into the Text Parcer, I took a chance with AGD remakes to some level of success. A man playing through all of the King's Quest series (and other adventure games) helped me with some of the differences between the originals and the remakes. He also had a lot of information regarding what was contained in the manuals and what he personally recalls from playing them long ago.

King's Quest 1 "Quest for the Crown" (Estimated Playtime 2 hours)
Original/Remake: Arguably the only game of the series worthwhile, King's Quest 1 was short and to the point. I think I saw someone finish a speedrun in under 10 minutes. The original gradually got an extended story about how the kingdom got so bad. It explained how the king reacted to each encounter in his life. Eventually they included the insides of the castle to explore. The redux includes the portion of searching for the treasures (the plot of the game) but does not include how he lost them (backstory). The redux included a "no dead-end" scenario for a more enjoyable experience. You can still succeed by finding the three treasures but you will obtain more points for finding "better" solutions to puzzles and finding additional treasures. I personally used this checklist to discover what things I missed. A lot of the game's puzzles took a lot of effort to solve without any hints The original provided more details in the narration and less "noise" to highlight key items. The newer version was well-designed but made it less clear where to go next.

Plug: Funny, Homestarrunner's (turn down volume before clicking) Peasant's Quest is parody of this exact game.

Infamous puzzle: The game is infamously known for Guessing the Gnome's Name puzzle. It is referenced in "Rubble Without a Cause" as an impossible riddle for it requires lateral thinking to what appears to be a simple challenge. To get the most points, you must guess his name on the first try. This means to reverse the alphabet, reverse the letters in his name, and switch two letters.

King's Quest 2 "Romancing the Throne" (Playtime Estimated 6 hours)
Original/Remake: The second game is all over the place. I honestly can't say whether or not I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game. Some parts I liked while others I didn't . The original manuscript adds a little extra detail that helps the story move along. The redux adds a whole new level. The original had nearly everything open to you. The redux decided to add... a whole lot of story. There was more walking, more listening, more waiting around. There were gates to keep you from getting too far in the game and minigames to add a bit of action. In some areas it worked. Overall, it felt like it was, well, a fanfiction. In fact, the point system gets a bit crazy. I think there are 10 books you must read at the library at specific times of the game. This means running north from the core area of the game to the town and back again. There are also several areas where you venture through a dozen nearly identical backdrops before reaching your destination (probably to simulate the vast size of the area). On the other hand, the story does help explain things left unresolved in the original. Another thing you must be wary of is the redux is a jumpshoot of the original. So in the original if you found a diamond ring under the pillow in the east room, you may get a "oh that's silly, who would keep something under their pillow" in the remake while the diamond ring is in the west room inside a drawer.

Infamous puzzle: The infamous puzzle in this game is finding a way past a snake. The original had you rub the lamp three times to get a bridle, place it on the snake, and it then transforms into a pegasus. The modern take isn't any better. You have to trade for a stone to hypnotize the snake, whip up an emerald using a worktable behind the snake and use it, and then put the bridle on.

King's Quest 3 "To Heir is Human" (Playtime Estimated 6 hours)
Original/Remake: I don't recommend this game. While the first two games might have you adventuring in a fantasy realm, the third game keeps you busy with a grocery list. The redux tries its best to include an actual list of the items required with you at all times but falls flat in making it any more interesting. I'm not kidding. I think you have to gather maybe 3 dozen items and then carefully (and exactly) mix them together on a workbench before moving to the next island. Although the redux does an awesome job in modernizing the game (by removing a ton of restraints and adding visual clues), the core aspects just don't make it interesting.

6-4-2016