The newest instalment in the long-running saga of the Kingdom of Daventry, King’s Quest 7 tells the story of Princess Rosella (last seen in King’s Quest 4 – “The Perils of Rosella”), who is lured into a magical pool and transported into a magical realm. Rosella’s mother, Queen Valanice (introduced in King’s Quest 1 – “Quest for the Crown”), leaps after her, and they find themselves lost in the enchanted land of Eldritch.
However, they are split up, and have to search for each other as well as try to find a way back to Daventry. Also in Eldritch, an evil enchantress plots to destroy all the goodness of the land. Can Rosella and Valanice thwart her pernicious plan, and restore order to the Realm of Eldritch?
Well, judging from previous King’s Quest games, we can be pretty sure they will, but its up to you to make sure. In King’s Quest 7 you will control the actions of Rosella and Valanice in alternating chapters. This is a new style for King’s Quest, and it isn’t the only change to show up.
The graphics, whilst always having been bright and cheerful, are now of cartoon quality, and look great. The action bits are interspersed with animations to keep the story going, and this works well. The characters look like they’ve just escaped from a Disney movie, full of life, movement and personality (not always nice personality!). The background scenery is lush, and thankfully it is very easy to see what everything is meant to be – no need to click everything just in case that round blob is a bowl (or a rock, or a helmet etc).
The other main change is in the interface. No more icons for looking, talking, getting and so on. Now the pointer is in the shape of a wand, and changes function according to where it is on the screen. Place it over a character for instance will produce a conversation. Clicking over an object will pick it up, or use it in some way. Whenever the wand is over a part of the screen that can be activated it flashes. I find this fairly annoying, as it leads to just moving the wand all over the screen and clicking wherever the wand flashes – not much brain power needed.
There are lots of interesting places to go in Eldritch, from a dusty desert with mystical statues and temples to a volcanic cave system inhabited by (mostly) friendly trolls. There is a town with lots of shops to browse in, and a spooky land where Halloween seems to be permanent. Amongst the many characters to come across are a crystal dragon, boogeyman, jackalope, and talking stag. All will help you in some way to achieve your aim. There are several different ways to fulfil your goal, and a few little “sideshows” which aren’t needed to win the game, but are just fun in themselves.
King’s Quest 7 requires a 386, 4MB RAM, CD-ROM drive, SVGA graphics, and Windows 3.1. It supports a range of soundcards. To have really smooth animation requires a 486 with 8MB RAM though.
I enjoyed King’s Quest 7, although I’ve always been a sucker for the series since King’s Quest 1 was the first real computer game I played – even if it was off floppies, took 30 seconds to load each screen, and in green and black at that!. It has a curious mix of difficulty, the wand makes pointing and clicking a breeze, but knowing what to do with some of the items you collect can be tricky. I must admit I had to resort to the Bulletin Boards for clues, until I finally found a walkthrough on the Internet. (I didn’t use it much – honest!).
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