15th May 2010, 4:37 PM
I read magazine reviews back then, and a large number of them suffered a similar problem. It's review decay, and it lasts to this day. I still don't read IGN's reviews because they tell me basically nothing I actually want to know about a game.
Old PC game magazines in particular churned out so many reviews chastising any game that wasn't gory and violent like Doom. That is, they critized King's Quest 7, not for having somewhat easier puzzles due to the new interface as the fans were doing, but for the art style looking cartoonish (sound familiar? Same thing happened with Wind Waker, and just like Wind Waker years later they pretend like they loved it's style all along). Sierra, who's game designers were starting to feel the effects of their own internal decay in the form of the marketing department making demands, "responded" with the really "dark gritty" Mask of Eternity, adding violence and blood and an art style all "realistic" when none of the fans asked for it. It's the only game in the series that lacks any references to classic fairy tales in it's story. Also, the "action" is simplistic and unnecesary overall. A change in direction that looked like an attempt to cash in on that Ocarina of Time market failed miserably by failing to have either engaging combat or puzzles. The overall setting and story isn't that bad, but terrible execution.
And in the end, the reviewers gave a short pithy review of it that also called it bad, but then again, they DID more or less ASK for it.
Actually I wouldn't mind a good remake of Mask of Eternity, or more a total reimagining keeping more of the lighthearted tone of the normal King's Quest series, maybe having a feel like Twilight Princess. That's probably never going to happen though. The current owners of Sierra seem content to just hold onto those liscenses, only "using" them to push out really lazy "modern rereleases" of the games, never bothering to actually add to them with a new KQ or Quest for Glory, and that's probably for the best. I have no idea which developer they'd stick with that task. I kinda hope that fan group does succeed in buying out that liscense, but only if they decide from there to open it up for everyone. I'd hate for fanfic writers to end up completley in charge and run it into the ground by doing what they all do, give deep tragic backstories to completely whimsical characters. Does Bump on a Log on the Isle of Wonder really need to explore his feelings of rejection?
Old PC game magazines in particular churned out so many reviews chastising any game that wasn't gory and violent like Doom. That is, they critized King's Quest 7, not for having somewhat easier puzzles due to the new interface as the fans were doing, but for the art style looking cartoonish (sound familiar? Same thing happened with Wind Waker, and just like Wind Waker years later they pretend like they loved it's style all along). Sierra, who's game designers were starting to feel the effects of their own internal decay in the form of the marketing department making demands, "responded" with the really "dark gritty" Mask of Eternity, adding violence and blood and an art style all "realistic" when none of the fans asked for it. It's the only game in the series that lacks any references to classic fairy tales in it's story. Also, the "action" is simplistic and unnecesary overall. A change in direction that looked like an attempt to cash in on that Ocarina of Time market failed miserably by failing to have either engaging combat or puzzles. The overall setting and story isn't that bad, but terrible execution.
And in the end, the reviewers gave a short pithy review of it that also called it bad, but then again, they DID more or less ASK for it.
Actually I wouldn't mind a good remake of Mask of Eternity, or more a total reimagining keeping more of the lighthearted tone of the normal King's Quest series, maybe having a feel like Twilight Princess. That's probably never going to happen though. The current owners of Sierra seem content to just hold onto those liscenses, only "using" them to push out really lazy "modern rereleases" of the games, never bothering to actually add to them with a new KQ or Quest for Glory, and that's probably for the best. I have no idea which developer they'd stick with that task. I kinda hope that fan group does succeed in buying out that liscense, but only if they decide from there to open it up for everyone. I'd hate for fanfic writers to end up completley in charge and run it into the ground by doing what they all do, give deep tragic backstories to completely whimsical characters. Does Bump on a Log on the Isle of Wonder really need to explore his feelings of rejection?
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)