The King's Quest series is well worth your time. These games actually require thought! Continue the adventure with KQ5.

User Rating: 8.9 | King's Quest V NES
By RainbowBrite | Review Date:
King’s Quest 5: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder was, like its predecessors, a revolutionary game at its release in 1990. It was one of the first games to be released on a CD-ROM, it was Sierra’s first game that cost over a million dollars to produce with an unprecedented team of animators, artists, writers, and other staff, and it shattered all known computer game records. (Source: Sierra documents.) KQ5 was released in 256-color VGA and the graphics were stunning then. And there was no more typing in commands; instead, you used the mouse to interact, choosing from icons letting you Look, Walk, Touch, or Talk.

A year has passed since Princess Rosella’s adventure in Tamir in King’s Quest 4, so the story tells us, and King Graham’s health is restored. Mordack, a wizard more powerful than Manannan of KQ3, shrinks Castle Daventry and all those within and places it in a glass jar. Fortunately, King Graham was not at home, but Queen Valanice and the twins, Princess Rosella and Prince Alexander, are gone. An owl named Cedric speaks to Graham and tells him what has happened to his family, and leads him to Crispin, his wizard master, in the land of Serenia. Wary of trusting a wizard given his circumstances, he remembers Prince Alexander telling him that the only way to defeat a wizard is by using magic. He begins his quest to save his family, and Cedric reluctantly joins him, as Crispin wants him to.

The number one complaint about King’s Quest 5, the first KQ game to feature voices, is Cedric’s voice. It is somewhat high-pitched and can grate on the nerves; in this case, I’d recommend turning on the text in the options and muting your sound. He is also not very useful for most of the game, providing little more than warnings of danger and a little bit of information. Some also complain about Graham’s voice, but I enjoyed it. I think it fits his character quite well.

The number two complaint is the maze puzzle. There is a deviously hard maze in this castle that almost all people need a walkthrough for, and even then it may take a few tries. The problem is that when you turn in the maze, North is no longer always up. Instead, whatever direction you are facing is at the top of the screen, complicating the puzzle immensely. In this case, you should not only save early and often, but keep a second saved game at the beginning of the maze, before you leave the first maze room.
Another thing to keep in mind even more so in this game than in the earlier KQ games is that an object often has more than one use. Perhaps there are two items in your inventory to solve your current dilemma, but what if you use the one that you end up needing later on? Just another reason to save early and save often.

Despite the “evil” maze, the game is a wonderful story and the many traditions of the King’s Quest series continue. You will encounter the Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman, among the mythological references, and as an Easter egg, you might just run into a certain desert bird who says “meep meep!” This 5th game of the series is no less great than the previous games, and how often can one say that of a sequel? Enjoy KQ5 today.
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