One of the games I was most looking forward to seeing at E3 this year was King’s Quest. I was a huge fan of Sierra Adventure games when I was in high school from King’s Quest to Quest for Glory and Space Quest. Pretty much all of their Quest titled games. And Conquest of Camelot which to be fair has quest in the name if only part of another word. Anyway, when I heard that a new iteration of King’s Quest was coming out I was both excited and nervous. On the one hand a new version of a great game from a great series would be awesome if it were done correctly but on the other hand it would be heartbreaking if it were just some kind of a cheap cash in. I am happy to report that my fears were quieted after just a few minutes of Odd Gentlemen founder Matt Korba’s E3 presentation.

The game it made up of five chapters that are different stories told by King Graham to his granddaughter detailing past adventures. This allows the narrative to shift throughout different time periods to detail Graham’s life. This allows the game to shift focus a bit from chapter to chapter and explore different gameplay experiences all within the same framework. In addition to this flexibility, the game also has branching stories based on the choice of advice that the player gives to the granddaughter. In addition to that there are multiple ways to attack puzzles and the narrative references what you are doing including the consequences for what you did.

The game is mostly inspired by the first two King’s Quest games and places you in an open world in which you can do things in whatever order you want. The branching puzzles allow for different play styles which is nice as often in the original series puzzles had one solution. This new system allows for an expansion to the series gameplay while retaining the original feel.

One worry I still had about the game was how it would control given that the series controls, particularly in early installments, were based on written commands and pointing and clicking. Later games in the series moved to a point and click interface but still that can be difficult to convey with a controller. I did not get a chance to get hands on with the game (it was available in the Xbox booth but I didn’t have time to play it) but from the gameplay shown in the presentation it looks like the system is simplified but elegantly so. There is one action button that changes in context to what is going on and items can be selected to be used on objects and characters. In order to compensate for the simplified controls, Odd Gentlemen have added complexity to the puzzles themselves.

Visually the game looks basically like a cell shaded version of the classic King’s Quest graphics. Obviously the characters and locations are inspired by the original series and it looks fantastic. Korba revealed that all the of the art in the game is hand drawn by making 3D matches and then hand painting over them. It looks kind of like a Telltale adventure game which makes sense as those games probably wouldn’t exist without the Sierra games of old. Telltale actually had the rights and plans to do the King’s Quest series themselves at one point so it is a bit of a Mobius strip of inspiration here.

All of this would be well and good but to my mind all it would be for nothing if the game didn’t feel like King’s Quest and this is another thing that Odd Gentlemen seem to have nailed. Roberta and Ken Williams consulted on the game and were very supportive of the new effort. Their ‘triangle of gameplay’ principle helped guide the game design and it seems to have worked.

The tone and humor of the game was spot on in the segments we were shown and watching them felt like going to see old friends just a bit. Sierra has always had a particular sense of humor and this iteration of King’s Quest looks to be maintaining that very well. One thing I really loved about some of the earlier text based versions of the games was how much was taken into account when writing text for the game. If you typed in an off the wall action the game would come back at you with something alarmingly specific to what random thing you said. I once had to wait a few hours for the day/night cycle to switch over before I could sleep to heal myself at a magic tree in Quest For Glory and out of adolescent frustration and impatience I typed in ‘piss on tree.’ The game came back at me with ‘The waiting kind of gets to you doesn’t it?’ I was pretty floored by this and I noticed touches like this all throughout the various games and it made exploring much more fun because you could do all sorts of things and the games would acknowledge it in a fun and funny way. This is not something that has been lost on the Odd Gentlemen and we were shown several examples of the game’s snarky wit including the unreliability of the narration if you die or fall down a hill or something like that. This piece is what really sold me that this series is in the right hands and made my fear all but go away.

As if all that wasn’t enough this new version of King’s Quest is fully voiced with a pretty awesome cast. Right out of the gates I recognized Doc Brown himself Christopher Lloyd as the old Graham. His narration was pretty much perfect in the segments we saw. Add to that Wallace Shawn, Tom Kenny, Richard White, Zelda Williams, Fred Tatasciore and Michael Gough among others and you have a great sounding entry. Add to that some great original music and you have the icing on the cake.

Sometimes at E3 when everything is shiny and exciting and developers are putting their best foot forward it is easy to stumble into hyperbole and heap undo praise on demos but in this case I am confident that the finished product will very much be a reflection of what I saw last week. This was one of the games I was most excited to see at the show and I did not leave disappointed. Odd Gentlemen is eying a late July release on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC so unlike a lot of games I got excited for at this show, this is not one we have to wait too long for. I can’t wait.