King's Quest 2 - Romancing the Throne

Hint Book - 7.4 MB - The Official Hint Book for King's Quest 2 (PDF).

Welcome back to the land of Daventry. King Graham has done it, he completed his quest and became King, but as well all know everything good King deserves a great Queen. This is where King's Quest 2 comes in, as King Graham gets a vision from the previous King telling him to get married. King Graham decides, as all good King's do, to hold a Ball with all the maidens in the land. Unfortunately none of the maidens were good enough for Graham, and so, like any good King would do, turns to his magic mirror on the wall and asks, who is the fairest one of all? Luckily for him the mirror shows him a beautiful woman with the name of Valanice, who just happens to be trapped inside of a magical tower in the land of Kolyma. So, our hero, King Graham, sets out on another adventure, this time to save Valanice, in hopes that she will become his Queen.

This game, much like the first, was built using Sierra's AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) gaming engine. Like all other games made with this engine, you use the arrow keys to move, and type in simple words and commands into the text parser in hopes that it recognizes what you are telling it. The graphics are much like the games of the time, and not much improvement over the first game. The music and sound effects are sparsely used throughout the game, even though they are beeps, I think we could have used a few more of these.

In the end, looking back at King's Quest 2, the game doesn't quite hold up to being a classic. Although for nostalgic reasons, and possibly some mild curiosity, I would recommend any fan of the land of Daventry, or even general adventure gamers to at least play through this game once.

By: Faeran