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A King's Quest that looks like Tomb Raider and utilizes 3d hardware? More combat in the first town than in the previous 7 games? Are you scared yet? It sounds frightening to people who were raised on King's Quest games.

The series has followed my systems, from their humble beginnings at first, played at a stunning 4.77mhz on my Commodore PC-10 II (Count 'em, TWO 5-1/4" drives!), to a Pentium 2 350 with a Matrox G200 with better than 8 times the RAM of my old PC. It's been a long trip. Fortunately, Sierra and Roberta Williams have made it a worthwhile trip.

Admittedly, I had lost some interest in the adventure genre; strange given that I played everything Infocom ever offered and most of the Police Quests, King's Quests, and even the Leisure Suit Larry games. Somewhere along the line, my tastes changed. I suspect other people's have as well, as adventure games have changed too. I've played both Phantasmagorias -- one just wasn't punishment enough, it seems.

I had my doubts about King's Quest 8. When the first three were released, I couldn't buy them soon enough. Who needed to read reviews? This was King's Quest! Sure, as time went on, the game evolved somewhat. That leap from CGA to EGA was a stunner for me, and then there was 256 colour VGA. It was enough to make you blink. This is not to mention the amazing addition of actual sounds and music.

But this, the eighth outing for the series, is a dramatic change of the fundamental game mechanics. Others have tried to to cross market their games. I think there was an Ultima that did that? Which one, that jumping mario one, 8 I think. It's hard to remember, but then again, it took years of therapy to TRY and forget that one. It had a good story, waylaid by a bad attempt to enliven the series. Et tu, Sierra?

King's Quest is, in my estimation, the crown jewel in the Sierra collection. Anytime people decide to update a classic, you have to be wary. Remember "new" Coke? Rarely, however, do they pull it off this well.

The story is classic King's Quest - a lone hero must save the kingdom. Things are going well in Daventry until the magic mirror glimmers and alas, too late, tells of impending danger. Well, maybe that isn't too bad, it wouldn't be much of a game if they could stave off the disaster. Soon, the fell machinations of an evil wizard leave the people of Daventry looking like so many statues and our would-be hero almost alone in the world. Talking to the local wizard will explain most of the story; a magic storm has washed over the land and the inhabitants are left encased in stone. Fortunately, a piece of the fabled Mask of Eternity in your possession has saved you from the storm, but now you must save yourself and your land. This is where Mask of Eternity takes a turn while most games like Tomb Raider and Quake would barrel on straight ahead. There are people to interact with and puzzles to be solved. The two elements that made the previous games so great have survived, and quite admirably. It simply isn't enough to be able to use a sword and crossbow; the hero must use his wits as well.

That's not to say that a talent for killing anything that gets in your way will go to waste. You see, strangely enough, while the good people of Daventry are doing a fine impression of a rock garden, the bad are doing just fine. And there seems to be a lot of them. Nothing brings out the worst in society than the terrible doings of an evil wizard's masterful schemes. Combat can be set to three levels of difficulty; at the easiest, as long as you can click on your enemy, you can win - so long as you pace yourself, which the game even popped up and notified me of. When I decided to check out a local cemetery, it mentioned that at level one with a dagger, I may as well kill myself now, rather than let the ghouls inside do it. This is certainly a nice touch. Further exploration allowed me to arm myself with both a missile weapon and a better hand to hand weapon. Neither was sitting out in the open. The axe took a small amount of thought to grab, and the crossbow was liberated from a fellow who thought I would make a better pincushion than hero.

However, moving on to the puzzles. It always been about outsmarting the game, hasn't it? It didn't matter if you were a young lass named Rosella or a King named Graham whose kingdom, well, disappeared. If you could think and were observant, you could win. And you still can! Puzzles range from the simple to the more complex; there's something for everyone here. You'll find people (and creatures) in need of aid, and obstacles that you need to overcome to complete the task at hand.

That said, is the technological overhaul justified? Fallout is hardly a marvel of technology, yet it is the best thing to happen to the RPG market for a long time. Heart of Darkness would run on a 486 - remember those? And it's just, well, fun to play. Imagine that! Kudos to Sierra for taking a real chance here with a flagship title. It's paid off.

The engine runs smoothly on a higher-end Pentium machine with a Voodoo based card. Better machines with lesser cards will work just as well. Graphically, the game really is something to watch. Birds sail past, leaves blow in the wind, and your enemies hop and prance about you waving weapons. Sound wasn't forgotten either; the wind moans, doors creak and birds sing a woeful tune. The music is pleasant and suits the game well. This is all going on while you move, fight and explore. The camera angle is controlled easily and efficiently with the mouse, and character movement is done by keyboard. Controls are simple to grasp and easily configured to your whims.