Developer: The Odd Gentlemen
Publisher: Sierra
Platform: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tested on: PC
King’s Quest Chapter 4: Snow Place Like Home – Review
As the fourth instalment of the revived King’s Quest series finally arrived after much anticipation, we again get the chance to peek into the life of King Graham. This time around the relationship between Gwendolyn and Gart seems to hit a new low. In order to help mend this, their grandfather finally tells his granddaughter a puzzle-filled story about her father she had yet to hear.
Story
We witnessed Graham become a king and a husband in earlier chapters. As things go in life, children can quickly follow love and this is no different for the king of Daventry. Now the proud and caring father of twins, Graham must prove he’s man enough to handle two babies at once as the queen mother continues her well-deserved sleep.
As the scenery accumulates into a loving lullaby, the takes a dark twist. Manannan, a wicked sorcerer, breaks into the castle and kidnaps baby Alexander. It’s a very grim scene that unfortunately gets broken by the exposition that follows. Unable to keep his plans for himself, Manannan quickly spills the beans, claiming he’ll raise the child as a slave and later overthrow the rule of Daventry through him. Players of the King’s Quest series will notice a departure from original tale here. In the latter, the wizard killed his slaves at the age of 18 to ensure they would not turn against him later. This difference, while making for a lighter story, diminishes the drama a bit. Nevertheless, this event heartbreakingly tears the royal family apart and plunges the kingdom in darkness.
Nearly eighteen years later, prince Alexander manages to escape Manannan’s clutches. His return couldn’t have come at any better time for Graham. The old king had all but given up on adventuring. With his boy now back where he belongs, that smouldering love for travel and (slight) danger finally reignites.
It doesn’t take long before the family decides to go on a vacation to get to know each other better. When they arrive at their destination however, the location is covered in an eerie icy layer. Once inside what Graham suspects to be their hotel, it soon becomes clear they have stumbled into a trap. Suddenly isolated from the rest of the family, Alexander and his father now need to work together to solve the puzzles of the chilling Icebella to get out alive. But will they stay calm enough to look past each other’s differences?
The basic plot is straightforward. Most twists can be seen from a mile away either due to what happened in previous chapters or due to unneeded exposition. The actual strength of the storytelling in Snow Place Like Home lies in the way the game beautifully manages to brings across feelings of expectation, disappointment, relief, acceptation, grief and pride within an endangered father-son relation.
Graphics
As expected, this chapter more than delivers. The locations, characters and wardrobes still look astonishing. Especially the designs of Alexander and the Sphinx are incredible additions. The former takes the looks and colours of the Alexander from the original series and makes it work on a more modern looking moody teenager. This all while the design of the latter just screams for screen time. The slender form, movements and details on the Sphinx truly make the creature a beast to admire.
Of course, since most of the game takes place in an ice castle, the general colour pallet isn’t as wide as the previous chapter. Nevertheless, they perfectly setup the needed atmosphere throughout the game. The cut scenes are also still on point and enable players to embrace more in depth aspects of the story. Mainly due to this, back-seat gamers will enjoy the story just as much as the person who’s in control of greying Graham.
Sound
The sound in this chapter is of course again nothing less than incredible. This time the Sphinx’ sophisticated accent drew our attention to the pure genius of King’s Quest’s voice acting. With such amazing talents working on the title, characters come alive in more ways than graphics alone could ever do.
Gameplay
Snow Place Like Home is the fourth chapter of the episodic puzzle adventure game King’s Quest.The gameplay for this installment hasn’t actually changed or improved since the last chapter. There are of course a lot of puzzles to go through in order to advance the plot while the WASD-keys help you to move Graham around and Tab lets you take a look into your inventory. However, we found that the latter was heavily underused this time. This unfortunately resulted in less challenging content compared to chapters 1 and 2. Nevertheless, two puzzles still stand out. One seemingly tests you as a person, while the other literally ties the family closer together in a much needed grand finale. With dialogues that manage to hold interest and a satisfying complexity, these two trials show what King’s Quest really needs to build upon in the final chapter.
Conclusion
King’s Quest Chapter 4: Snow Place Like Home ties in nicely with the overall plot advancement. Like its predecessors it is a beautiful synergy between great graphical content and a delightful soundtrack. Story wise the chapter could have done with less exhibition, but overall the narrative is very enjoyable. The puzzles hold their ground, though could have done with a little more complexity this time around. Nonetheless, Snow Place Like Home delivers as yet another must-play installment.
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