KING'S QUEST V: ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GO YONDER
(CD)
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YEAR: 1991
SIZE: 63.6 MB
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+ Gorgeous graphics
+ Lovely, atmospheric music
+ First King’s Quest game to introduce the Point & Click interface
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- Many, MANY dead ends
- Horrendous maze at Mordack’s castle
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STORY
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It’s a beautiful day in Daventry. King Graham is enjoying a leisurely
stroll in the forest, taking in all the sights and sounds, and just
thinking how good life is.
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But his good mood doesn’t last for long.
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He arrives home, to find his castle… gone! Just… vanished! Into thin
air! With his family still inside! All that’s left, is an empty space where
the castle once stood. But how? How did this happen? Who would
want to kidnap his family? How can an entire castle just disappear like
that? Graham cant believe it… he stares in utter shock. WHERE IS HIS
FAMILY?
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Luckily, Graham is not alone. A talking owl comes to his aid. The owl
tells Graham his name is Cedric, and he saw what happened.
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Apparently, an evil wizard by the name of Mordack came to Daventry
and whisked the castle away (along with Graham’s family inside),
inside a mystical whirlwind. As to WHY Mordack did that… Cedric can’t
say, but maybe Cedric’s master could help. Cedric is from the land of
Serenia, and his master is a good wizard call Crispin. Naturally, King
Graham is desperate to save his family and get his castle back, so he
agrees to go with Cedric, back to Serenia.
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But as Graham and Cedric dig deeper to unravel the mystery…
Mordack’s true intentions become frightingly clear.
　
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GAMEPLAY
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King’s Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder continues the
adventures of Daventry’s royal family. Games were SIGNIFICANTLY
improved with the introduction of the Point & Click interface. Gone
was the text parser and typing in phrases, to be replaced with icons
that you can click on to interact with Graham’s world. What’s more,
those icons are safely tucked away at the top of the screen, so it
doesn’t get in the way of what’s happening on-screen. To access
them, just move your mouse cursor up there.
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The icons are: Walk, Look, Interact, and Talk. The icons have been
improved over the floppy version, in that they are now fully coloured.
The whole panel has been streamlined, and now only has one Walk
icon. Your inventory is stored in a handy bag, also accessible from the
menu at top of the screen. You could use the Eye icon to get a more
detailed description of any of your items. Your score has moved to
the Save\Load\Restart Menu. You are able to adjust Speed, Volume
and detail according to your preference. We take these things for
granted today, but back it 1990, it was all very new and exciting.
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I found the Warning popups before each cut-scene rather annoying.
The whole purpose of cut-scenes is to enrich the game, but these
warnings just interrupted the flow of the game.
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The King’s Quest games are known for their dead ends, but Part V is
the worst offender. You could be happily playing the game, and finally
realise you’re in a no-win situation because you didn’t pick up that
item 2 hours ago, and there’s no way to get back now to pick it up. The
game even lets you give some items to the wrong person, hence you
won’t have that item when you need it. And in one instance, you see a
cat chasing a rat - if you don’t act quickly and save the rat… then that
rat won’t be able to help you in the future. Now, more than ever,
Saving frequently into different slots, is so important! It’s also rather
easy to die in the game, and I found the death messages very
amusing (heehee).
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As annoying as these dead ends are, King’s Quest V is technically one
of the most important games of the King’s Quest series - just as
important as King’s Quest I, back in the day. King’s Quest I introduced
us to MOVING PICTURES on our monitors, playing out actions as we
typed them… that was mind-blowing stuff! King’s Quest V gave us the
icon-based interface, allowing us to use icons instead of typing out
sentences.
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The game has references to Manannan, which was the antagonist
from King’s Quest III. That was some lovely continuity, and a lovely
throwback to previous KQ games.
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GRAPHICS
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Graphics are another improvement over the previous King’s Quest
games, showing that Sierra strived to make each game better than
the last. The graphics are simply gorgeous, making use of the 256
colour palette. The game begins with a 10-minute cartoon
(skippable), showing us Graham strolling through the woods, Mordack
spiriting the castle away, and Graham travelling to the land of Serenia
to rescue his kidnapped family - all with such stunning, hand-painted
backgrounds.
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Conversations are shown in nice text boxes, along with the bust of
whoever’s talking. Lips move as the characters talk, making them
seem more real. The Ant King and The Bee Queen are wonderfully
animated when they talk to you, waving their legs\arms around. If you
enter a building, the interior is shown as a nicely-framed overlay,
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Inventory items are shown as icons, so you can easily see what you’re
carrying. Clicking the Eye icon on an inventory item gives you more
details about it. The inventory box automatically expands as Graham
collects more things. Hiding your score in the Inventory box was rather
strange, I though, but there you go.
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Even NPCs are beautifully animated, and get on with their own lives
regardless of whether King Graham is there or not. For example, the
toymaker’s daughter playing with her doll, or the gnome’s son playing
with his marionette, or shop customers talking to each other. I found
Cedric rather sweet, in his monocle and waistcoat.
　
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SOUND AND MUSIC
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King’s Quest V is the first game in the series to boast a full sound-
track. And we are treated to some really beautiful music throughout
the game. Everything from spooky music, to sad heart-wrenching
music, to ‘Be Careful You Don’t Get Caught’ music, to daring music, to
everything in between. It’s a pure pleasure to listen to. Even as the
game starts up, we here the familiar Sierra fanfare we know and love
today.
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Sound effects are equally impressive. I simply love the ox mooing as it
is tied up outside the gypsy caravan. And the gypsy banging his
tambourine is a nice touch, as is the cat screeching (poor cat). The
satisfying ‘tinkle’ as Graham picks up a new item is always fun to
listen out for.
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This CD version is fully voiced. The characters were voiced by Sierra
staff, and on the whole, they did a pretty good job. However, Cedric
the owl was the exception - his voice was very grating, and hard to
listen to. But he can be forgiven, since this was the early days of
voice acting. Unfortunately, no subtitles are available.
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