King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity

Back in the day, when my 486 was blazing fast, I played a game called King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow. This was the only game that came with my new computer, and also my first ever PC game. While I myself am not a huge adventure gamer, I was entrapped by King’s Quest VI. I got into the story, found the puzzles challenging, and overall it was fun. Roberta Williams has produced some great games, such as the King’s Quest titles, Phantasmagoria, and so on. She has changed the way adventure games should be, and paved the road for many other adventure games.

But then King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity happened. Sorry, Roberta, you slipped up, and now you gotta pay up. Mask of Eternity certainly breaks new ground in adventure gaming. Perhaps the best aspect of it is the new viewpoint within the game. You can play from either a first-person perspective or the classic Tomb Raider style. You can zoom the camera in and out, and explore more than in any other King’s Quest game. Mask of Eternity supports 3D cards, but the graphics aren’t necessarily going to bowl you over.

One of the many things I hoped to find in the game was the characters from the original King’s Quest titles. But Mask of Eternity replaces the main character with some unknown person by the name of Connor, who is no relation to King Graham, or Alexander, or anyone else. Yet the story is set in Daventry, so I guess that’s close enough. The people you meet in the game have no personality; all they do is give you quests. The story in general is nothing compared to the storylines of the other King’s Quest games. Some bad man casts a spell on a mask, breaking it into several pieces. A piece of the mask lands at Connor’s feet, and just as he picks it up, a blackness falls over the land and turns everyone but Connor into stone. Expecting more? Well, that’s about all there is. Connor just sets off to find the pieces of the mask, which are guarded by some terrible monsters.

Speaking of monsters, the combat is so heavily put on the player that it rapidly gets old. The style of pointing and clicking on the bad guys (and a little more clicking on the big bad guys) until they’re dead gets very old very quickly. Then there are the puzzles: take this object to this object, go to the next level. Jump here, here, here, and here, go to the next level. Make this, do this, go to the next level. Go there, jump here, kill the bad guy, get a piece of the mask, go to the next level. Also, the depth perception is terrible. You’ll find yourself dead from just misjudging distances, then have to wait three minutes for the game to load. The near-worst aspect is the shamefully long load times; it can take anywhere from forty-five seconds to three minutes to load. Also, the controls feel very odd, at least to me, as you use the keyboard more than you do the mouse.

I’ll give Roberta Williams this: she tried something new, and this won’t necessarily ruin her career. I know she can do a lot better than this. I mean, seven out of eight isn’t too bad. But if you’re a sucker for adventure gaming, or just love Tomb Raider-style gaming, you might want to think hard about this one (but don’t strain yourself). Or, if you’re a veteran of the King’s Quest games, then PLEASE DO NOT BUY this one. You’ll only hurt yourself, because this really isn’t much of a King’s Quest game.