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This is without a doubt one of the best fanmade adventure games ever made.
It brings Sierra's classic to the new century by not only recreating the original
game in VGA, but also adds plenty of new plots and puzzles that will delight longtime
fans. Not content with simply upgrading the original King's Quest II to VGA graphics
and a point-and-click interface the way they have done with King's Quest I VGA,
Tierra has gone an extra mile and then some with King's Quest II. Roughly half the
game is new: there are new areas, new puzzles, and new plot elements added mainly to
flesh out existing characters and make the game world much richer. For example, there
is now the Kolyma town center, which houses a library, in which you can read a book
that describes the town's history. All the new characters and plot elements are
integrated seamlessly with the original game. As a nice "icing on the cake," the game
now represents a passage of time from day to night, with appropriate graphic change.
The way Tierra enhances the plot deserves special mention, because the end result not
only makes KQ2 a "deeper" game in terms of storyline, but also ties seemlessly to KQ3,
the next game in the series. For example, the wicked witch in the cave is now a major
character, with her own backstory that includes an interesting relationship with
Manannan, the evil wizard who would later appear in KQ3. In this way, characters in
KQ2 are no longer merely there as puzzle mechanisms, but are much "deeper" people with
fascinating background and agenda. Tierra obviously paid a lot of attention to ensure
that no puzzle or plot thread in the game would seem out of place. For example, a
minister named Gervain who speaks at length to King Graham in the introduction scene
is mentioned in the original King's Quest II manual. Talk about a labor of love :)
In addition to fleshing out the plot, Tierra also enhances the puzzles in the original
game in a similar way, to tie them closer to the plot and make them appear much less
far-fetched and less shallow than in the original game. For example, obviously
valuable items such as Neptune's trident no longer lie in the open, but must be
discovered or earned. Instead of picking up a stake from the ground, you will pick up
a piece of fallen fence that "looks like a stake." With plenty of fascinating plot
elements, the right degree of faithfulness to the original game, and commercial-quality
graphics, It is hard not to recommend this outstanding fanmade game that will set the
standard for all fanmade sequels/remakes that follow. A must-have. |