King's Quest 8: Mask of Eternity

List Price: $14.99 Discount Price: $9.06

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Enjoyable and Hard [Posted on 2007-01-30]
I just wanted to say that I've played this game from start to finish with my son who is now 7, and my sister, and we loved it. It took us a couple months of playing it, but we all enjoyed it. It was a fun game to watch and kept us on the edge of our seats cause ya never knew what was going to happen next. It's both challenging and fun, and it's a game that you'll need TIME for, because it's intence. Save your game often, because when your character dies, you's start all over. The puzzles are hard/tricky at time, but don't give up! The walk through is rather fun to use when you get stuck. I used it and I'd like to go through and play the game again with it just to watch the story unfold! I loved this game and my son wants to play it now with me, again. The music is great and adds so much, as well as the sound affects. Some of it is rather creepy sounding. The ending was a little dissapointing because it was too short, but still it was good. I love to see a 9th one! :)

A very mixed uneven game. [Posted on 2007-03-05]
This game is the last Kings Quest game to ever be released and it recieved alot of bad reviews from game fans.

This game has both ups and downs.

Ups - Great Graphics! stunning Nintendo 64 quality graphics.
- Alot of fun action in the game with alot of violence and enemies to kill.
- A new take up the realm of daventry.

Downs - Really has no relation to the royal family at all.
- Dosen't seem like a Kings Quest adventure game at all either.
- It appears that this game has really no story thats any good to speak of.
- The fighting isnt really a Kings Quest style game.

So all in all its a very fun game, and a very good game for what's inside of it.

But its a terrible Kings Quest game.

really is a classic [Posted on 2007-06-12]
This game was so much fun to play. I played it a good year or two before deciding to sell it. I was surprised at the great quality of the graphics considering when this game was made. Also, this game doesn't require very high computer specifications, so pretty much any computer can run this game, including my old compaq. What is better than the graphics is the game play. The worlds are HUGE, and there's just so much to explore, many unique creatures as well as items. The story line is very complex, and sometimes online walkthroughs can be handy to get through the quests. It's basically like you're a real person in the game, you really get pulled into it.
The only downfall is that the story doesn't exactly remind me of a "king's quest" game; maybe a different title would serve it better. Anywho, if you enjoy RPG's like the diablo series, WoW, or Nox, you will love this game. I'm surprised more people don't know about it. Many hours of great game play.

KQ fans, skip this game [Posted on 2007-09-17]
I bought this game when it first came out, excited that there was another game to the King's Quest series. I've played all the games except 2 and 3, and love the story of King Graham and his family.

So this game introduced a new character. That's fine. But other than a brief appearance by King Graham in the intro and a flash of him in the finale, and the fact that the first "chapter" of the game takes place in Daventry, this bears no resemblance to the series I loved.

Ambiance - a large percentage of this game takes place in a dark, hard on the eyes environment.

Animation - People say this is good animation, but compared to the easily flowing cartoon quality of KQ7 and the animation used in Quest for Glory 5, this is pathetic. Most of the time your character is half walking in a wall. Yes, I downloaded the patch. But still when you walked alongside a wall or mountain, your foot or shoulder would go through it.

Controls - clunky and hard to manage. You have to use your arrow keys. Manipulating the character's movements is difficult. Then to fight, you have to use the mouse. Also the character doesn't seem to have any automatic avoidance of obstacles, particularly corners and protruding walls. To pick up an item, you have to put your weapon away. Then you have to take it out. To get things out of urns and barrels, you have to smash it with a weapon, put the weapon away, take the item, and then take the weapon back out. Also, gone are the shortcut keys to save as well as autosaving.

Interaction - what interaction? Half the fun of the earlier KQ games (especially 6 and 7) was interacting with other characters to find out hints and clues. Here you mostly wander around mazes to find the right rooms to find the right items. Even the monsters are limited. Kill them from one area, and you don't get any new ones next time you pass that way. In the first 2 levels there is minimal interaction - 3rd level you start to get some more.

Humor - except for some comments by some characters near the end, none. This is basically a dark story.

Plot - minimal. The basic concept - Daventry (and the world) is plunged into dark times by the destruction of the mask of eternity. Connor has to battle through several levels to find the pieces of the mask and return them to their proper place. That's it. The first 7 games could be turned into novels with rich stories. Until levels 5/6, you're really not interacting, not doing anything but fighting and finding what you need.

Music - it's OK. That's it. Nothing spectacular. Nothing memorable.

Sound Effects - annoying. Every time Connor pulled out the war hammer, there was a loud "oof". The same noise came every time he ran into a corner, a wall, or protruding item.

Overall - if you like the kind of game where you run through a maze, shoot baddies, and find objects, this is your game. If you're looking for a sequel to the rich history of the King's Quest series, skip this.

Personally, as I played this I kept comparing the game to Quest for Glory 5 and found that KQ8 paled in comparison. They tried to copy many of the game elements and failed miserably.

*What* were they thinking? [Posted on 2008-01-03]
"Mask of Eternity" has thoroughly exemplified how _not_ to do a King's Quest. Sierra has left the beaten track to which we have become accustomed and have strayed into a jungle, in which they have hopelessly lost their way.

When did KQ become Lara Croft?? Though Roberta Williams did not call this #8 in the series in an attempt to not betray the fans, it has become known as such, but it doesn't matter. KQ is definitely ended here and with good reason. It is a weak, straggling story, badly constructed and throwing away many a good chance. The entire premise is too thin, the puzzles too slight, the construction and animation too crude, the music too dull and uninspired (though it has a couple nice tracks).

For years we were taught to solve puzzles through non-violent solutions, and resort to violence only when necessary. This game flies in the face of the established vogue and is a total disappointment. It's really a shame that what became the last of the series was the last because it wasn't true to form. The puzzles consist mostly of "look at the object and then figure out how to manipulate". The hero instantly resorts to theivery, justifies it and doesn't develop at all. He doesn't even have an ending; when the story is over, there is no ending where everything gets tied up and we talk about what it meant. It just ...ends, like an antique video game. As if the programmers didn't give this any thought. What becomes of Connor? Of Sarah? Of anyone? We don't know.

But by the end, we don't care anymore. This game should not have been released under the guise of a "King's Quest".

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