1998. The single greatest year of gaming. The business was booming with a huge amount of original and superb titles on every platform. There was no limit to the incredible titles that were released in that golden year. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Starcraft, Pokemon. The list goes on. Though, unfortunately, just like every year since '95, there was little mention of adventure games among the titanic list. With, of course, the exception of Grim Fandango. But, GF wasn't the only good adventure to come out in this year. One of Sierra's last adventures, Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire received reasonably good reviews and was fun to play. However, it wasn't a huge commercial success and didn't stand out.

But, there was another adventure that was to hit stores in 1998. It received huge attention from adventure gamers early after its announcement. It was to revive the most important series in PC gaming history, which had been dormant since 1994. However, when more was revealed about the new installment, adventurers found themselves in a mixed state. It did seem to have quite a few action features rather than a solid amount of adventure elements. It had a health bar, healing and enhancement items, you can level up, and there were weapons. This didn't stop seasoned veterans from buying it, though. As it was a chance for gamers to see a magical series revive.

The game was King's Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity. It was hated.

In the eighth and final installment of King's Quest. You play as Connor. Connor is a simple good ol' boy from the great Kingdom of Daventry. Not part of the royal family that were the stars of the show in all the previous games (One of the reasons why it was hated). We join him as he is subtly trying get him a little from his girlfriend, Sarah (I can't remember if that's her name or not, but I'm going with it). Mysteriously, the sky above our beloved Daventry falls black and Sarah, with a blink of an eye, turns to stone. "Dude... qtf" says Connor aloud. As he explores the dark abyss that has became Daventry, he finds that everyone has been turned to stone. "Why not him?" is Connor's question. He also finds that the Kingdom is now crawling with strange ogres that attack him on site. "What evil has befallen before Daventry?" is Connor's question. He finally meets a local wizard, who has fought off the spell and only 3/4 of his body was turned to stone. The wizard informs him of the evil that has shattered the Mask of Eternity, the very thing that sustains all existence. He then tells Connor that he is the chosen one and must restore the mask, hence why he was not stoned. Connor now must travel to the far corners of the earth to find the shards of the Mask and restore it in its rightful place to maintain order and peace. But, the journey is fraught with peril. He must fight off the evil creatures that were spawned when the mask shattered. He will need to arm himself with the best armor, weapons, and skill to survive his holy mission. Connor understandably responds with an "Uh... k." Go team.

Shallow? Yes. Besides the wizard's information, you really have no idea what the hell you're supposed to do or who the villain is. There is a lack of depth and storytelling that the original games were loved for, and no one is going to give a **** about this Connor guy. It was never really clear why you were playing as this peasant boy and not a member of the royal family. Though, it is understandable that the character they were going for is a tough guy and thought that anyone from the previous games weren't right for the job... sort of. KQ8 is much darker than the rest of the games and that is obvious. When you kill a monster, you have to gut it, impale it, slice it in half, etc. The worlds you visit, such as the Dimension of Death and the Swamp, are not things you're likely to see in the previous titles. Other than that, there isn't a lot of storytelling and thus there is not a lot to lighten the game up. Also, one thing that kind of bugged me is that the characters all speak in Middle-English. This was a tad odd considering that none of the other games did this much. But, it's not much of a problem, since there's not a ton of dialog in the game.

I can forgive it for having a shallow story. Adventure games are supposed to have great stories, and this is not an adventure...

The biggest feature of the game would be the jump to 3D graphics. KQ8 has reasonably solid graphics for its time. Though, there are a few quirks that should be mentioned. The areas themselves are next to empty and, for a game that did little than bragged about its graphics; there is a painfully slim amount of interactivity within the game. Character models are well done with realistic movements. Another thing worth mentioning is the pretty cool monster design. Especially bosses. All of the worlds are maze-like and can get pretty frustrating to navigate through. You are equipped with a map, but you have to explore the worlds to uncover the map path and because most of the worlds are pretty big, you’ll have a lot of ground to cover. The camera is set up as a third-person action game, which is what it is, so I can’t fault it for that.



There's not much to say in terms of audio, but the best feature of KQ8 is easily the sound. The voice acting is hit and miss, most of it though, being pretty average. The sound effects are decent and realistic. But, the highlight is the soundtrack. Some really good music in areas, such as the Dimension of Death and inside buildings, are the most redeeming qualities to this game.

Now, before I'll move on to the gameply, I want to say this one thing. I will not take this time to say how KQ8 ruined the series. I will not take this time to rant over how this game has little to no adventure aspects. I will not take this time to say that this game sucks. Instead, I will ask a question. So, riddle me this: When did anybody at Sierra say this was going to be an adventure? No, this is not an adventure game. Anyone with eyes can see that. Does that mean that this is a bad game? No. But, does that means it's a good game? Well, I wouldn't go as far as to say that KQ8 is terrible. But, I wouldn't say that this is a good game, sadly. But, I would like to rate KQ8 as an action game, if I may.

The interface is simple enough, very similar to Quest for Glory V. You have a tool bar at the bottom of your screen, displaying your health and enhancment items, your weapon, your health and level bar, etc. At the top, you have your inventory items that are used to solve very simple puzzles.

Puzzles range from shoot-switch-with-bow-to-open-door to throw-rock-on-floor-switch-to-open-door. Not to mention endless backtracking. Very simple, very boring. Typical for this kind of game, I suppose. But, I don't expect anyone to buy it for the puzzles after reading countless negative reviews from multiple sites. No, the only reason I'd expect adventure fans to buy this game would be that King's Quest name on the box. But I digress. The combat is the real bulk of the game, and that's nothing special. All you do is mash the left mouse button until they die, heal, repeat. Though, in all honesty, when I took a monster down, it was satisfying, especially against bosses. And speaking of boss batlles, they're actually pretty cool. Some require you to find a way to get a clean kill without being seen, enabling you to use your brain. Most, though, just give you a weapon and say "go get 'em" The real joy of the game, though, was collecting new weapons and armor. It's really cool to see your new armor on Connor and seeing him ripping his foes apart with your new weapon. Most of these things are obtained when you complete an important quest. Some of them you have to buy from merchants using the gold you collect throughout your adventure.

So, King's Quest? No. It's far from an adventure, and frankly, it's a mediocre action game. It's quite sad to see the series end like this, but I don't see it that way. As far as I'm concerned, the true King's Quest stopped at KQ7.

5.9/10

[samIamsad]

I would have given it a solid 7 in 1998. There's no need to play it today, though. Oh, and good review, my little emo pussy!

Thanks?

[Randdom]

Nice review! Sad but true, this last KQ entry was simply a light-RPG. Odd that you say that it has reasonably graphics for the time, I recall that even in for 1998 it was really ugly looking. I even remember an interview with Roberta Williams apologizing for it by justifying that they used a flight simulator 3D engine for it to run smoothly large outdoor areas.

[Aurebesh]

Was it ever officialy declared as King's Quest 8? Cause in the game itself, the number 8 never appears. And don't forget, the PQ and LSL series suffered the same fate as the KQ series, but people usually don't consider LSL: MCL as LSL8 or PQ: SWAT as PQ5, so why consider KQ: MoE as KQ8? It's an action game set in the KQ world, but other than that it has nothing to do with the KQ adventure series.

Originally Posted by Randdom

Nice review! Sad but true, this last KQ entry was simply a light-RPG. Odd that you say that it has reasonably graphics for the time, I recall that even in for 1998 it was really ugly looking. I even remember an interview with Roberta Williams apologizing for it by justifying that they used a flight simulator 3D engine for it to run smoothly large outdoor areas.

Is that right? Well, I guess I was wrong. It's hard for me to imagine how good graphics to a game that I didn't play until late were.

[Fairygdmther]

Very good review SNM! Good writing skills! I've never played any of this series, but you made it sound very interesting. I want to see more reviews from you, new games, old games, whatever - you're really good at it.

Lynsie

[Dasilva]

Kings Quest 7 was just as bad, the animations had hardly any colour, I hated this 'Disney feel' they wanted, KQ was never regarded as cartoony. The interface was just horrible, hardly any interaction, and the fact you play as a 80 year old woman in the first chapter, it was rather pathetic. The series ended with KQ6 for me. KQ7 & 8 aren't the best in the series for sure. This is my opinion of course, maybe Im too blunt.

[UPtimist]

Even though all the people say how bad it is and so on, to me it's just fond memories. I hadn't really been gamin' that much (I think... I wasn't a newbie either though... Hmm...) and I remember playing it with my dad and brother. It had such an incredible atmosphere, in the beginning especially ('cause I hadn't really experienced anything like that before) and the scenery was just so mystical...

Of course I hadn't (and still haven't actually) played any of the previous parts of the series so I couldn't say if it had drifted away from its roots.

[Dasilva]

Originally Posted by UPtimist

Even though all the people say how bad it is and so on, to me it's just fond memories. I hadn't really been gamin' that much (I think... I wasn't a newbie either though... Hmm...) and I remember playing it with my dad and brother. It had such an incredible atmosphere, in the beginning especially ('cause I hadn't really experienced anything like that before) and the scenery was just so mystical...

Of course I hadn't (and still haven't actually) played any of the previous parts of the series so I couldn't say if it had drifted away from its roots.

Same thing for me, its all the memories. I remeber I used to play Space Quest 2 all the time with my father, and a few other games but we used to play Space Quest often because it wasent violent but that was when I was 6 or so. :p

Later on QFG become one of the most loved games, SQ too. (too me anyway)

[Burge]

Wow, 98 was a great year for gaming.