AGD Interactive, the indie adventure gaming heroes with a love for the retro glories of Sierra and the group formerly known as Tierra Entertainment, have recently announced their latest game: King's Quest III: Redux. Then again, you probably knew this already, and that's why I thought you might care for a slightly more extended post. News reporting has after all never been the strongest aspect of the humble Gnome's Lair.
So, King's Quest III: Redux it is then or to give it its full title King's Quest III: Redux - To Heir is Human. Well, as you should have guessed it's another spectacular remake of a classic Sierra game; namely and unsurprisingly King's Quest III, which according to this (admittedly incredibly cuddly) gnome is the second best installment in the King's Quest series, second only to the Jane Jensen co-designed KQ VI. It's the tale of Gwydion, a boy that has been kidnapped by the evil wizard Manannan and must escape the land of Llewdor and return to save Daventry. Impressively it is as interesting a fantasy fairy tale as it sounds, though also one that sported some bastard hard puzzles.
The KQ III: Redux remake will not only add amazing VGA graphics, full voice-over and a new soundtrack to this classic game, but also a handy point-and-click interface. What's more this will not be a mere straightforward remake. AGD, having already proven their sometimes even radical remake skills with their previous efforts, have decided to keep the main plot, puzzles and characters, while polishing and livening everything up, hopefully giving us their best Sierra re-imagining ever. The thing has after all been in development for the past eight years and will sadly be the final AGD production.
Oh, and here's something exclusive and (hopefully) terribly exciting for you precious reader. Two lovely pics created by artist Eriq Chang, that showcase his ideas and absolutely beautiful work on the game's interface. Eriq did after all push for a completely revamped and heavily themed interface.
King's Quest III: Redux will be released for the PC and Mac this February. It will happily be a freeware production, though admittedly one you'd probably have no problem paying for. It will surely be worth it. The download will become available here. Oh, and Gnome's Lair will definitely be reviewing the thing as soon as possible.
Related @ Gnome's Lair:
I can't see I'm the biggest AGS game fan, but that looks very interesting. I look forward to reading your review. It may even convince me to check it out!
ReplyDeleteI really hope it does, as I sincerely believe the team to be very talented.
ReplyDeleteThe original KQIII always gets overshadowed by KQVI. Let's hope that the remake will bring the original more recognition as a game (and not only for its first puzzle challenge which was, admittedly, a freaking torture if you didn't know the sequence that you needed to complete).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure AGDI will manage to deliver an excellent game, that does away with the overtly tedious bits, such as the typing of spells... And KQVI, what a game eh?
ReplyDelete