In Chapter 1 of King’s Quest, The Odd Gentlemen set the scene for an impressive reinvention of the classic series and delivered a lengthy, challenging and enjoyable romp that sounded amazing and looked just as good. As a result, the six-month wait for this second chapter has felt like a lifetime to me.
Whilst Chapter 2 retains the same humour and excellent dialogue of the first outing, as well as a number of ingenious and amusing puzzles that are every bit as challenging to overcome, it has some big weaknesses too. Without giving away any spoilers, the tale this time takes place entirely in a single, extremely limited environment, and, with the exception of the very last scene, it fails to move the plot as a whole forward.
To elaborate a little on both the positive and the negative, Chapter 2 is still a clever little game in its own right and crams a ton of varied puzzles into the relatively small location in which it takes place. The situation Graham finds himself in is the real puzzle, however, and the player will be forced to make multiple, deeply consequential choices.
Aside from the lack of meaningful plot and the lack of variety in location, it is actually the player choices that present the final negative for King’s Quest Chapter 2. There’s no way I can actually describe this particular issue without major spoilers, but let me just say this: I deleted my saved games and replayed this episode three times. When I finally completed it, I was pretty sure I needn’t have bothered because the game backs out of the most far-reaching decisions. For a chapter themed specifically around consequence, this felt like a real cop out.
In conclusion, Kings Quest Chapter 2 is actually a fairly decent episode in its own right, being longer and more puzzle packed than most of its peers and still featuring a brilliant voice cast and funny dialogue, but sadly, it doesn’t live up to the lofty success of Chapter 1.
To find reviews of other episodes (as they become available), check out the King’s Quest review hub.
King’s Quest: Rubble Without a Cause was developed on Xbox One and Xbox 360 by The Odd Gentlemen and published by Sierra. It was released December 16, 2015 for $9.99 and a copy was provided by Sierra for review purposes.
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