After almost two years of development, "King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride" has finally appeared on our screens. Some changes in size have been made to this extraordinary saga created by Roberta Williams in 1984.
One of the principal novelties is the fact that this game was developed for CD-ROM with the idea in mind to use the essential asset of this type of support: the large storage capacity. "King's Quest VII" has an impressive size and is by far the largest episode produced to this day with magnificent animations, more than 100 original musical compositions and characters's voices. Sierra generously used the talents of more than 120 artists to create the most dignified cartoon animations. Each character you meet in the game has his own characteristic voice, even the ones that are not human, for example, the Jackalope and the Kangaroo Rat. The other big change is the choice of using Windows instead of the traditional DOS. Certain users will regret this choice, taking into account how slow Windows is, but the use of the new graphic library WinG, recently released by Microsoft, should strongly accelerate the graphic animations under Windows.
As for the scenario of the game, it remains traditional to the spirit of the other King's Quest titles in the series, that of a world where magic is omnipresent with its powers and ravages. The story, separated in 7 chapters, starts with an irreproachable graphic quality introduction of at least 3 minutes in length.
Rosella, the daughter of King Graham and heroine of King's Quest IV, is attracted to a magical pool which is in reality a door to a magic realm. Queen Valanice, Rosella's mother, noticing the disappearance of her daughter, jumps into the pool in search for her. Unfortunately, in the whirlpool that is carrying both of them off, a hand grabs Rosella who disappears again right before her mother's eyes. Finding themselves separated one from the other in different worlds, each has to fight to survive in the magical world (which you will soon discover is threatened by an evil enchantress who plots to destroy it).
Thus, Rosella and Valanice discover a series of magical regions where they meet strange creatures like the Three Fates, the Headless Horseman and many others. In total, almost 70 different characters were created and drawn, each having hundreds of animations.
The game interface was also reworked and simplified, rendering the game accessible to both experienced players and beginners such as young children.
During the whole game, the mouse pointer (shaped like a magical wand) will highlight if there is something to interact with. Each new object you find will be immediately placed in your inventory if you click on it with the cursor. Using the mouse, you can drag any object from your inventory and click on the eye to examine the item.
Sierra On-Line Ltd.
GRAPHICS ------ 91% 4 Brewery Court, The OLd Brewery,
SOUND ------ 92% Theale, Reading,
MUSIC ------ 95% Berkshire, RG7 5AJ, England.
GAMEPLAY ------ 90% Tel: +44-(0)1734-303-322
INTEREST ------ 94%
Sierra On-Line
P.O. Box 85007
OVERALL ------ 92% Bellevue, WA 98015-8507
Tel: 800-743-7725
