Darker In Tone, Still Fun To Own – King’s Quest Chapter 2: Rubble Without A Cause Review

<p><em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest Episode 1&colon; A Knight to Remember<&sol;em> lived up to the name and exceeded my expectations&period; The environments are bright&comma; the writing is superb&comma; the puzzles are sheer brilliance&comma; the characters have so much personality&comma; and the music is truly magical&period; I could go on&comma; but for <em>Episode 2&colon; Rubble Without A Cause<&sol;em>&comma; it seems like all those wonderful aspects of the first episode were sapped away into something less magical&period; It does not have the spark that it once had&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now as King Graham&comma; the game takes an extremely dark turn as you and your friends from the Kingdom of Daventry are now locked up in prison by the goblins&period; You are stuck in the dark dreary caves&comma; trying to find a way to free your friends from their prison&comma; but there&&num;8217&semi;s one element I was shocked by&period; Without spoiling the ending&comma; there is a choice system that seemingly determines who lives and dies in the story&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s incredibly dark&comma; and with the light and humorous nature of the first episode in mind&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s so depressing to see them go through this horrible situation&period; It contrasts horribly with the intent of the original episode&comma; and I wish that they went in a similar direction with the story that made the first episode so great&period; It ends in a merry fashion&comma; but the journey is dark in tone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;97193" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-97193" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-97193 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;04093637&sol;Kings-Quest-Goblins&period;png" alt&equals;"King's Quest Goblins" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-97193" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">I never would have expected such a dire moment in this game series&period; &lpar;<em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest<&sol;em>&comma; Sierra&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; the puzzles aren&&num;8217&semi;t as varied either&period; In Episode 1&comma; The Odd Gentlemen were able to keep your mind active with conversation&comma; event&comma; and location based puzzles&period; However&comma; in Episode 2&comma; it is predominantly location based puzzles&comma; and don&&num;8217&semi;t get me wrong&comma; they are still brilliant and are still satisfying to solve&comma; but they weren&&num;8217&semi;t as fun and varied as the first episode&period; One puzzle I loved in Episode 2 involves keeping a flower from dying&period; The a-ha moment during this puzzle gave me a wave of exhilaration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Odd Gentlemen&comma; once again&comma; brought back the personality of the original game&&num;8217&semi;s graphical style&period; King Graham&comma; while hungry&comma; stumbles as he runs&comma; the goblins are animated in a wacky way&comma; and sections of the cave such as the garden look stunning in this unique art style&period; I do miss the colorful locations of the first episode&comma; however&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The humor&comma; in parts&comma; is still there too&period; The goblins have a funny obsession that I will not spoil and the knights are still funny during the beginning&comma; but the comedy between the main characters faded away with the choices mechanic&period; Once again&comma; I wish they went in a different direction and did not include this unfitting mechanic&period; I can see where they were going with the story arc of Graham understanding his role as King&comma; but it was too hamfisted into the narrative to the point of me wondering why he would recount this story to his granddaughter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;97198" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-97198" style&equals;"width&colon; 1156px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-97198" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;12&sol;04093534&sol;Kings-Quest-Knights&period;png" alt&equals;"King's Quest Knights" width&equals;"1156" height&equals;"650" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-97198" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The knights are still hilarious&period; &lpar;<em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest<&sol;em>&comma; Sierra&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Despite the unfitting story&comma; the voice acting is still top notch&period; Christopher Lloyd is back as the elderly King Graham and brings a wonderful performance&comma; Josh Keaton perfectly portrays a stumbling but noble knight turned King&comma; and the rest of the cast give a believably to the boisterous world of <em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest<&sol;em>&period; The music&comma; although more downplayed than the first episode&comma; still sounds magical and fits the overall tone of the episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest Episode 2&colon; Rubble Without A Cause<&sol;em> continues the excellent point-and-click style gameplay&comma; the outstanding voice performances&comma; and the magical feel from the art style&comma; but the dreary and out-of-place narrative and mechanics dampen the experience that the first episode had&period; Please return to a more energetic&comma; comedic&comma; and colorful adventure for the third episode&comma; The Odd Gentlemen&excl; If you want to find out more about the first episode&comma; you can check the review <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;worthy-crown-kings-quest-chapter-1-knight-remember-review&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">here&period;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 copy of King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest Chapter 2&colon;  Rubble Without A Cause was provided by Sierra for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;