King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne

The original version of this game was OK for 1985, but it is seriously dated now in 2004. The plot was very simple and quite frustrating at times, and this sequel was little more than a fast and dirty rehash of Quest for the crown with new background screens. The plot elements were contrived and taken from various fairy tales rather then being original creations invented by the author. However, I recently had the pleasure of playing through the AGDI remake of King's Quest 2 which contains new graphics, music, and even a tidied up story line. Characters and events have more of a purpose and place in the AGDI remake release. These guys have done a marvelous job at bringing Kings Quest 2 up to the same level as King's Quest 6. Could swear it was something released by Sierra in their heyday. It's free, much better than the 1984 original, and will keep you entertained for weeks. You can't get better value than that.

"King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne" is another classic adventure game from Sierra, the masters of excellent gaming. It follows up to the first, and you are once again Graham of Daventry. Your Quest is to find Princess Rosella, who is missing.

In this game you control Graham with the pointer keys, and have to type commands manually. Yet, even though it's tough work, it's real fun. The only really irritating part is when you type something in that the computer's vocabulary doesn't hold and then says for instance: "What is a smart?" That sucks. The game is a huge improvement over the original. Great fun, very interesting and magically wrote. Although crude to today's graphic adventures, I rate this one seven out of ten.

The original version of this game was OK for 1985, but it is seriously dated now in 2004. The plot was very simple and quite frustrating at times, and this sequel was little more than a fast and dirty rehash of Quest for the crown with new background screens. The plot elements were contrived and taken from various fairy tales rather then being original creations invented by the author. However, I recently had the pleasure of playing through the AGDI remake of King's Quest 2 which contains new graphics, music, and even a tidied up story line. Characters and events have more of a purpose and place in the AGDI remake release. These guys have done a marvelous job at bringing Kings Quest 2 up to the same level as King's Quest 6. Could swear it was something released by Sierra in their heyday. I recommend everyone give it a try.

With the first game in the "King's Quest" series having established the premise of adventure gaming, Roberta Williams and Co. quickly released a sequel the following year (1985) to capitalize on their newly developed market. Though perhaps lacking a bit of the originality and overall fun of the first effort (a lot of the challenges in this one are a bit of a chore instead of exciting), it is still a decent effort in the continuation of one of the most important series in PC gaming history.

In this chapter, the newly-minted King Graham has quickly become bored with the royal lifestyle and pines for a wife. No sooner has the thought crossed his mind than the magical mirror (which played such a large role in the first game) whisks Graham away to the island of Kolyma, where he must rescue the "damsel in distress" while fending off a host of challenges including witches, vampires, and even mystical dwarfs! Once again, most of the puzzles in the game are loosely based on literature/fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Dracula, and The Little Mermaid immediately spring to mind) and thus can be interesting for the entire family to enjoy, not just the gamer of the bunch.

However, unlike the first game, which is most definitely enhanced by the AGD Interactive 4.0 version, I can't make the same endorsement of this edition. For "Romancing The Throne", AGD not only updated the graphics and user interface, but also fleshed out certain story lines that seemed to go lacking in the original version. Though this would seem like an improvement, about all it amounts to is a heap of boring scenes filled with countless dialogue boxes that really serve to bog the game down. Thus, I would recommend the "VGA" version of this game, as it will allow you to use the point-and-click interface while at the same time keeping the plot of the original.

Overall, although KQ2 was a bit of a step down from its lofty predecessor, it isn't terrible by any means, and served to keep the franchise moving in the direction of greatness. Play with confidence knowing that the continued saga of Daventry and its Royal Family keeps on growing!

King's Quest II can basically be seen as King's Quest I revisited. It uses the same game engine almost exactly. King's Quest I was a revolution in adventure games for the computer. Most earlier games, like Zork and Adventure, were solely text-based. Early CGA graphics and basic computer sound combined to bring these characters to 2-D. The play of King's Quest II is quite simple. You are the King Graham of Daventry, and you are looking for your bride-to-be. You move the King around the screen with the arrow keys and have to manually type in commands like "pick up book" and "throw knife at dog" to make things happen. A fun game, but it shows just how far Sierra has come when you look at King's Quest V and up.