5th November 2014, 6:11 PM
Mask of Eternity seems to be Sierra's attempt to emulate a Zelda style game. "Editorial Mandate" surrounded the whole project. There's a lot to dislike here, from the tone of the game being way too "dark" (including literal toilet humor) to the badly executed gameplay mechanics to the dumbing down and near-absence of puzzles.
There are a few things I can say in it's defense though. The music, particularly the title screen music, is very well done. Nice and bombastic adventurin' music on the title screen. The basic concept of the story, a stray villager needing to save all the lands from the curse of a broken mask, isn't a bad one. Heck, King's Quest 3 didn't connect to the royal family until the very end. With a tonal change to a more lighthearted fairy-tale vibe (maybe on balance something closer to Majora's Mask considering the dire situation) and a larger focus on puzzles and puzzle-like enemy combat, it could have been pretty good. Great if they really redid entire zones to be just a bit more populated and grounded in character interactions, cutting down the endless march through waves upon waves of skeletons or whatnot. As it stands, I wouldn't mind a complete remake akin to the fan remake of King's Quest 2.
There are a few things I can say in it's defense though. The music, particularly the title screen music, is very well done. Nice and bombastic adventurin' music on the title screen. The basic concept of the story, a stray villager needing to save all the lands from the curse of a broken mask, isn't a bad one. Heck, King's Quest 3 didn't connect to the royal family until the very end. With a tonal change to a more lighthearted fairy-tale vibe (maybe on balance something closer to Majora's Mask considering the dire situation) and a larger focus on puzzles and puzzle-like enemy combat, it could have been pretty good. Great if they really redid entire zones to be just a bit more populated and grounded in character interactions, cutting down the endless march through waves upon waves of skeletons or whatnot. As it stands, I wouldn't mind a complete remake akin to the fan remake of King's Quest 2.
"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)