Review of A Tale of Two Kingdoms - Free Quest

[Scythe]

1984 proved a decisive year in the history of adventure games. It saw the release of the first 'Quest' game, King's Quest. While King's Quest wasn't actually the first in the series (there was an earlier game called 'Wizard and the Princess' that has been labeled a prequel), it was the first one to implement an animated main character moving on a game screen that did away with the text section (though it would pop up often enough). Before this, adventure games typically either had the entire screen devoted to text (this has now been dubbed 'interactive fiction'), or had a small static graphics window to showcase locations. Some had limited animation of creatures that you met, but King's Quest was the first to no longer have any section of the screen devoted to text at all times.

Adventure games traditionally used a parser, that is a vocabulary of verbs and nouns that it would recognize, and you had to type these to have your character perform actions. Some games had these commands embedded in a menu rather than having you guess at the correct verbs. Not so King's Quest, it still retained a command line for you to type in your actions. As Sierra's Quest series of games developed, they eventually also got rid of the text parser and replaced it with an icon command system, where icons replaced typical text commands such as 'look', 'use' or 'talk'. There were many different kinds of Quest games, but through them all, King's Quest remained, spawning sequel upon sequel in its initially simple fantasy setting. Eventually the simplistic fairy tale style gave way to more convoluted plots and epic stories.

2007. Many years have passed and many a graphic adventure game has come and gone. In what feels like a return to the King's Quest roots, A Tale of Two Kingdoms (AToTK) is released, built using AGS. Upon starting, you will be presented with a cast of interesting and likable characters. They are returning to the neighbouring kingdom that they prevented from invading their own nation years before. Now they are to help the kingdom against an impending invasion of warlike goblins. Soon, the story is complicated by an assassination with the player character being the main suspect. Behind the scenes, an evil sorcerer manipulates them all for his own sinister reasons. Further enriching the plot is the presence of the hidden realm of light and dark faeries that you will have to interact with to solve the mysteries of the land.

AToTK is conceptually around the time of King's Quest V, where Sierra did away with the text parser. Everything is controlled with basic icons (the 'look', 'use', 'talk' kind) as you make your way around the rich fantasy world. In true Quest game fashion, it is very possible to meet with an untimely death, so saving your game regularly is recommended. Storywise, it is much more complex than most Quest games, with numerous layers to the story and all manner of subplots going on among the larger main story. All characters that you meet have an agenda of some sort and a personality that for the most part needs more than one line to sum it up. This really helps to draw you into the game and care about its outcome.

While you could say that the inspiration for the game is 'fairy tales', it does go a little deeper than that. Specifically, AToTK builds upon Celtic mythology, though of course you also get more generic themes, such as Grimm brothers fairy tale analogies. The Celtic references have been taken further though, by borrowing famous names and imparting character personalities inspired by those references. This further serves to add layers to the game and the story.

Even though you could say that the story is the most important part of the gaming experience, an adventure game is obviosuly only as good as its puzzles. Thankfully, AToTK shines in this department. At any given time you may be faced either with an immediate objective that requires you to pass certain tasks, or you may be in a free roaming environment with many puzzles scattered about. As such there is a very fine change in pace throughout the game, with urgent situations and more leisurely play time. Many of the locations also contain multiple puzzles depending on your progress in the game. Even though you will soon have a large inventory of items, the puzzles are rarely so hard that you resolve to just clicking through everything in the inventory. To further add to the game, there are several optional side quests that net you extra points and different endings, and there are multiple solutions to many of the puzzles.

Scoring in AToTK is handled in two ways: You have a Wisdom score that is directly related to puzzle solving, but also an Honor score that can be likened to doing the right thing. So while you may solve puzzles the 'easy' way, that is often the more selfish and thus less scoring way. In order to reach the best of the five different endings you need a perfect score in both Wisdom and Honor. This is by no means an easy task.

Graphically, the game is not as impressive as its inspirations. Characters are a bit washed out, and even though they are greatly helped by having large sized portraits when they speak, they are not very detailed and are often a bit 'off' to look at. Still, the amount of graphics and many little touches, such as animated wildlife and leaves falling to the ground, make up for any imperfections. Musically, the game is wonderful. There's more than an hour's worth of recorded music that is both atmospheric and of very high quality, fitting the game perfectly.

Completing the game with the best ending opens up an additional developer's commentary during your next game, that is both entertaining and informative. This little touch truly helps make the game feel like the 'complete package', like the developers wanted to put in that little extra touch for you.

AToTK is truly a wonderful graphic adventure game. If you ever lost yourself in a King's Quest game, you are sure to appreciate this gem, and getting it for free is truly a treat. I myself consider this the best of freeware adventure games out there.

Playability 6 / 6
Idea 4 / 6
Technical Implementation 6 / 6
Game Graphics 4 / 6
Game Musics 6 / 6
Game Extras 5 / 6
Overall Rating 6 / 6