It's been ages since I brought up Sierra Entertainment when talking about PC gaming. To my surprise, Sierra has recently reborn itself as an indie publisher & developer, bringing the acclaimed Velocity 2X to digital markets.
Sierra completes its re-entry to PC with a return to a beloved adventure franchise, King’s Quest. King’s Quest introduces the series to newcomers with a modern presentation and some tweaks to its mechanics, but it ties in the story, the puzzle-solving, and the King’s Quest personality to make it as close of a true successor as fans have seen from 1998-onwards.
In this article, we focus on chapter 1 of the new King’s Quest title but also wrap-up with some comments about other Sierra games including Shiftlings and Velocity 2X – launching for Xbox One and Steam.
King’s Quest
The King’s Quest series dates all the way back to 1984 – before a lot of today's gamers were born – and spans eight games in its core series. During the 1980s and into the mid-90s, adventure point-and-click titles like King’s Quest, Myst, Secret of Monkey Island, and Grim Fandango were a thriving genre that put players in an interactive choose-your-adventure experience.
The new King’s Quest, King’s Quest, returns to non-combat-driven storytelling but upgrades its series formula to modernize with newer adventure titles, while remaining strongly rooted in its successes. KQ will contain five playable chapters, or episodes, similar to what we’ve seen in Telltale Games’ series like The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands. Its similarities from those titles differ in that its story progresses as a result of the characters’ physical actions less on dialogue decisions – though still prevalent in the game. Players will complete each chapter by interacting within several scenes to solve puzzles and acquire critical inventory items. Developers The Odd Gentlemen will release King's Quest on PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One later this fall.
Developers The Odd Gentlemen found it important to involve the original series creators, Sierra founders Roberta and Ken Williams, with whom the new game's developers discussed story and progression. As a result, KQ deeply integrates with the King’s Quest Universe, beginning with the story. It jumps around chronologically, but centers on a now-elderly Graham – the series protagonist – recounting his tales to his granddaughter Gwendolyn. Players will relive Graham’s adventures as he recalls how he escaped a dragon and became a knight, among other tales.
Series veterans will initially notice how KQ's mechanics deviate a little from the series formula. It uses free-moving third-person controls instead of point-and-click, and there is no on-screen cursor for the console version. The level design functions as a fully 3d environment with climbing, platforming, and hiding & stealth – although those are triggered without pressing a button. The environments offer some scale so that players can complete certain sections of the game in whichever order they like.
Pulling levers, looking for items and using those from one’s inventory, and solving lever and/or platform-based contraptions make up many of the game’s puzzles. Because the game does not move linearly – a player sometimes has to acquire items later to solve earlier puzzles – the order that a player explores pieces of an environment varies between playthroughs and can possibly produce different outcomes. And, fortunately, there are no “dead-ends” in the game for not picking up an item earlier.
Graham and Gwendolyn’s actions-and-dialogue-based decisions often present a few options, and the choice the player makes strengthens either Compassion, Bravery, or Wisdom. Even larger puzzle-laden experiences, like overcoming the dragon in episode 1, have a final choice that translates to one of the three attributes increasing and influencing how the story plays out later. Additionally, the new game is the first King's Quest game to feature dialogue trees.
The Odd Gentlemen have created a storybook-like universe with Unreal Engine 3. The build Creative Director Matt Korba played was pre-alpha, and some of the textures looked unfinished, but there were some impressive moments of lush foliage and vibrant backdrops. As Korba noted, the initial illustrations were created and printed, and then artists hand-painted them with watercolors.
The resulting art style is part of a whimsical, but polished presentation that has a welcoming identity and plenty of quirks. Graham narrates his story while the player controls the younger version of him, creating an interactive storybook that gets the player excited to stumble upon whatever’s next. Supporting characters embellish the roles of the traveling nomad sidekick and the playfully condescending knights. Even the lively soundtrack queues up with the characters’ actions – the story always moves with the player.
We’ll have further news on King’s Quest, including chapter 1’s release date and the revealed game’s cast, in the coming weeks…though I must commend Korba’s placeholder recordings as Graham. Korba only gave us a few scenes of the game’s first chapter, but as he skipped around the programming menu, I noticed a plethora of scenes, so I get the impression the first chapter will be a hearty welcome home for longtime fans.
Shiftlings
My next stop on my Sierra visit brought me to Rock Pocket Games and their dynamic-duo sidescrolling platformer, Shiftlings. The premise is that two conjoined custodian aliens – called Zorks – have been put into level after level of challenging obstacles and puzzles – but they don’t know they’re being broadcast to an intergalactic audience as part of a reality show called Shiftlings.
Players take control of the Zorks and navigate each of the game’s 50 levels level through a variety of platforming elements and puzzle solving. With the Zorks conjoined, the mechanics take a twist. There’s constantly a large air pocket passing between the two of them, causing one character to inflate and, consequently, lose the ability to navigate tight spaces. That said, that Zork can anchor his friend, and his friend can jump on top of him to reach greater heights. Players can also “swap sizes” so that the other character inflates. The show’s host also drops hints throughout the game, packaging them in a tongue-in-cheek humor reminiscent of the Ratchet and Clank series – and inside a Little Big Planet-esque package.
Shiftlings is now available as a $15 digital download through Steam, Playstation Network, and Xbox Live. It functions as a single-player game – the player holds down a button to move both Zorks – and as an online & local cooperative experience.
Velocity 2X
My final stop at camp Sierra brought me to a hands-on demo of the 2d scrolling shooter Velocity 2X. It combines vertical-scrolling spaceship shooting (i.e. Galaga, Aero Fighters, Ikaruga) with on-foot sidescrolling shooting & platforming (i.e. Metroid) in a visually sharp, tight presentation. Sierra decided to bring V2X to GDC 2015 because the game’s expanding its availability on PS4 and Vita to Xbox One and Steam this summer.
To sum up the game, players progress through various levels in two ways. First, they command a ship through an enemy and obstacle-ridden level by firing at whatever comes their way. Second, they dash, teleport, and jump through sidescrolling levels as a space marine. Players unlock new levels by earning enough points that can be accumulated by the number of crystals collected, particular objectives completed, and total time it takes to complete a level.
Sierra may not be putting AAA-size budgets into their games anymore, but they are investing in talented studios & IP, as well as genres that we don’t often see on the big stage – like the vertical-scrolling madness of Velocity 2X or the local co-op platform like Shiftlings. Hopefully we’ll have more Sierra titles to look forward to in the near future.
- Nick "stuBEEF" Pinkerton.