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Welcome back to the ADVENTure Game Calendar, where we count the days to Christmas by talking about a game from the adventure genre every day. Sadly, I fell ill yesterday and ended up going to bed early and was unable to write/post an entry. However, that means today we are going to double up and do two days in one. So, for days 14 and 15 of the adventure calendar, we are going to take a bit of a fairy tale theme. Today we are talking about two great adventure titles:
The first title I want to discuss is The Wolf Among Us. While this has only seen one episode released thus far, it is stacking up to be one of my favorite TellTale adventure games, right up there with The Walking Dead. The story is based in the modern day, where fairy tale creatures like Cinderella and Snow White live amongst us normal people. Managed by an inept Ichabod Crane, the little community of fairy tales is turned upside down as murders break out throughout the community and the sheriff Bigby Wolf (the misunderstood wolf from Red Riding Hood) has to track down and stop the killer.
I was not familiar with the comic book series on which the game is based (Fables), but I really enjoy the story and the characters so far and am really looking forward to episode two. I received the game from Jack Gardner as a collection of Steam games I won from this year’s Extra-Life event (thanks Jack!). I sat down and only intended to play a couple of minutes and go to bed…that didn’t end up working out and I played through the first chapter twice before I finally stepped away. I found each scene and the overall story to be interesting and it sucked me right in until the shocking conclusion of the episode that I did not see coming.
Like The Walking Dead,The Wolf Among Us is a modern-era point and click adventure that pulls in quick time events for action centered scenes. The difference here, however, is just how amazing those action scenes really are. The fight early on between Bigby Wolf and the Lumberjack is downright amazing and over the top. But the story is not overshadowed by these quick-paced set pieces. I am really looking forward to see how the story changes based on the choices I made in the first episode.
For those uninitiated into the point and click adventure universe because a lot of the titles are older, I strongly recommend this or The Walking Dead as titles in which to get your feet wet in the genre.
Now, we move from one of the newest games in the adventure genre to one of the longest running adventure titles in history. In fact, it is probably the longest running series ever: King’s Quest. I remember playing the original King’s Quest on one of the old two color machines of the old days. The first title in the series was released back in 1984 and the most recent release (King’s Quest VIII) was released in 1998. This series made Sierra a household name and stands as the cornerstone everything Sierra released afterwards. In fact, this series is why many adventure gamers consider Sierra a better maker of adventure games than even LucasArts.
The series follows the adventure (and misadventures) of the royal family of the Daventry Kingdom as well as some of their friends who aid them during their time on the throne. The stories draw heavily from various fairy tales including the use of magical mirrors, the seven dwarves, and Dracula. As with most other Sierra titles, humorous spins are placed on just about everything that goes on in the game and one of the fun parts is to see the many ways in which the main character can die.
Protagonist deaths aside, most of the King’s Quest series is decidedly non-violent except for a few minor exceptions. Most of the titles give the players multiple options to defeat a villain or complete an objective. In every instance I know of, the results of using a non-violent method are either required or will provide the player with far better rewards, a concept few other adventure games use. In most other adventure games puzzles have a required series of events or items needed to complete objectives and failure to have any of the required items makes it impossible to complete that particular portion of the game. The concept of taking everything in sight you possibly can or finding out how to take it if the game says it isn’t possible is key in any Sierra adventure title and in most of the earlier adventure games.
I still have a couple of King’s Quest titles to get to, namely entries six through eight. Those missing games aside, I love King’s Quest. I started playing this once I found the DOS file saved deep in the heart of my computer classes directories (see, in the old days we had to know how to search a directory rather than just click buttons, props to those who know what I am saying when I say “C:/dir”). I used to finish my computer class assignments in a matter of minutes as I grew up with computers as a second language with my dad having a degree in computer engineering and teaching it at the local community college in his spare time outside of his nine to five job on the base. Once I was done with my work, I would secretly pull up the game file and started to play the first King’s Quest. I made it through the game before the semester was over and ended up sneaking in a disk with the second game on it to fill in my time during the second semester. While not strictly by the rules at the time, I still got an A in the class and the key (little children, ignore the next part of this sentence) is to not get caught. Besides, it was already installed, so it was ok…right?
There you have it, two great titles for two days closer to Christmas. I apologize for not getting out yesterday’s on time. Regardless, I sincerely hope you go out and find these games, get them and play them.
“Graham gives the wand a good shake, but it only fizzles and dies.” – King’s Quest Narrator
Check out the prior entries in the ADVENTure Game Calendar below:
Day 7 - Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist
Day 9 - The Adventures of Willy Beamish
Day 11 - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis