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Kings Quest 5: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder is the fifth game in the Kings Quest series (hence the name) and a worthy successor to the games that came before it. With challenging puzzles and an interesting, if whimsical, plot, it can be a blast to play--just make sure to turn the sound off. In Kings Quest 5, you once again play King Graham, who has not been the main character since Kings Quest 2. One day, Graham decides to go on a stroll through the countryside around his castle. Unfortunately for him, while he is prancing through the woods, an evil sorcerer named Mordack shrinks the Castle of Daventry (including Graham's family) and steals it away. As Graham finishes his walk, he is horrified to see that where his magnificent castle once stood, an empty plot of real estate now sits. Fortunately for Graham, a talking owl saw everything that happened. He volunteers to take Graham to his employer, an ancient magician named Crispen, who he believes will be able to help save Graham's family. And so, the owl, named Cedrick, flies Graham off to a mystical land. Once there, Graham quests over the countryside, doing good deeds and destroying evil creatures in the quest for his family. As I was playing the game, I was somewhat confused. Why did the evil sorcerer Mordack want Graham's family? Unfortunately, the answer is not given until the last movie in the game. Though the overall plot is somewhat corny, the main theme (rescue Graham's family) nicely blends with the other features. For this, I give the plot a B. Most of the puzzles in Kings Quest 5 are the Sierra standard--collect as much inventory as is possible and attempt to use it on everything. This works well with the Kings Quest formula as Graham collects many different objects, uses them to solve puzzles, and trades them with other people for new objects. Unfortunately, this causes some problems in the game. There are several things that must be collected in the beginning of the game and used at the end. If you forget them, you can't win and must go back to the very beginning. Also, Kings Quest 5 has not one, not two, but three labyrinth puzzles. The first two, a trek through a desert and a sailing expedition, can be solved easily enough with a pencil and some paper by making a map, but the third, a wild romp through a cellar, is by far the most annoying puzzle in all of the Kings Quest games. The main problem is that as Graham travels through the different screens in the cellar, the view stays behind his head. If, in one screen, Graham walks to the right, the next screen will show Graham's back, staring forward. This makes mapping the cellar all but impossible. For all of these reasons, I give the puzzles a B. Kings Quest 5, to the best of my knowledge, was the first game to use the console system that was used in the Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, and other Sierra games. The console commands are look, walk, take, walk, and inventory. This makes the game easy to play, and I give the gameplay an A. For an example of how revolutionary the graphics in Kings Quest 5 were, play Ultima VI and then Kings Quest 5. They were both released about the same time, but KQ5's 256-color VGA art and hand-drawn backgrounds are far superior to any other games released in 1990. Though it is nine years old and, compared to today's standards, is a pixel-fest, the graphics and lip-synching portraits are great for its age, so I give the graphics an A. The sound is where Kings Quest 5 rears its ugly head. Simply said--the sound sucks. The music is all digitized MIDI, and the only decent song is the ending theme. But that's not the worst of it. Sierra, instead of hiring professional voice actors for the game, used its own staff for the voices. No offense to Josh Mandel, but his voice doesn't really fit the part of King Graham. The final insult of the voice-acting--in the Windows mode, there is no way to turn off the sound and display text. For this, I give the sound a D-. Kings Quest 5 is, overall, a good game. It was groundbreaking when it was initially released, but it has lost its state-of-the-art appeal over nine years. A word of advice for people with normal hearing, though--turn your sound off. Final Grade: B+ System Requirements:
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