King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause Review (Xbox One)

King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause offers a relatively classic adventure experience but also asks gamers to think about the way they want to balance self-interest with love for their friends, during a time when the situation seems bleak and even a fantasy kingdom is mostly dominated by fear.

This second installment in the revitalized series is not as impressive as the first one in terms of content, but it does offer a new perspective on the adventures of young king Graham, giving fans a chance to decide the kind of person he is and what kind of leadership he can offer to his fantasy realm.

King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause is developed by The Odd Gentlemen and published by Sierra, now a division of Activision, offered on the Xbox One and 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 and the PS3 from Sony and the PC.

Story

King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause picks up after the first chapter and shows just how complicated the task of actually ruling over a kingdom can be and how Graham’s yearning for adventure is not enough to sustain him through days that are filled with decrees and with constant interruptions from his subjects.

The developers at The Odd Gentlemen continue to use the same framing device, with an old protagonist sharing stories about his adventures with Gwendolyn, which means that it’s easy for the narrative to flow around the choices that the player makes and there’s plenty of commentary about his actions and about his failures, when they occur.

The game never deals with the time gap between the two already launched episodes, which feels a little weird for those who want a clear continuity, but maybe this is a larger mystery that will be solved before the first season ends in 2016.

The narrative of young Graham has him kidnapped by a band of goblins who are causing havoc through the entire kingdom and the newly minted king needs to once again use his wits to find a way out of their underground lair.

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The problem is that he is not the only prisoner that needs to get out and the various inhabitants of Daventry that are trapped with him have their own needs and offer separate paths to freedom.

Gamers will need to make some tough choices and King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause sometimes hints, although rather obliquely, at the burdens of leadership and the psychic toll those tough decisions take on the young ruler.

The writing delivered by The Odd Gentlemen is of generally high quality, and there are some good puns and humorous moments, but they could have worked a little more to flesh out characters and to make the world of Daventry feel more immersive.

King’s Quest has always been known for its unique take on fantasy, yet this second chapter in the new episodic series feels a little generic, possibly because the underground world of the goblins fails to impress.

The best sequence of the game is the very first one, which sees Graham overwhelmed and annoyed by his court and unable to actually deal with their constant attention and with the fact that he needs to be in charge.

Future King’s Quest chapters need to further explore this tension between his adventuring roots and his responsibilities and give us more insight into the way his experiences shape his convictions and ideas about the world of Daventry.

Gameplay

King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause is a modernized take on the classic adventure genre, with players able to move around a set of predetermined locations in order to interact with character, get clues and solve puzzles that then push the narrative forward.

The goblin base that Graham needs to explore has an interesting layout that opens up gradually and reveals that the protagonist will have to take care of a number of other characters rather than focus on his own destiny.

Familiar faces from the first episode have also ended up underground and all of them are hungry and in need of certain objects to try and escape.

If the player as Graham fails to deliver what they ask for the goblins will take them out of their cells on stretchers, suggesting that they died, which creates quite a bit of pressure to make as much progress as possible in their quests quickly.

The puzzles of King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause are a little too convoluted for their own good and involve a lot of movement through the caverns, which can quickly become annoying, but they do follow a certain dream-like, fantasy logic and should prove solvable once the player talks to every character and explores all locations.

“It’s rather hard to get the best outcome for King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause on the first try, mainly because of the food limitations, and it will be interesting to see what the repercussions are for the next chapters in the episodic series.”

The Odd Gentlemen also need to find a way to expand the mechanics in coming episodes, offering players more ways to interact with the world than through limited dialog trees and puzzles.

Graphics and audio

King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause uses the same graphic style as the first entry in the new episodic series and those who love the storybook-like art will be satisfied with the way Graham and the rest of the cast of characters are portrayed.

Unfortunately, the underground setting means that there’s little opportunity for actual spectacle and that there are plenty of brown environments to move through, even if the developers try to add a few fungi or flowers in order to brighten up the experience.

The Odd Gentlemen manage to make the player feel as if he is part of the fantasy world he is adventuring in. Yet, there are some odd choices, like the focus on making the flow of the cloak Graham is wearing as realistic as possible, or the inability to make other characters move in a way that feels anything other than artificial.

King’s Quest – Chapter 2: Rubble Without a Cause wonders

Future episodes need to offer more variety of locations and more occasions to see the world of Daventry existing around the main character rather than only acting as a backdrop for his own adventures.

The voice acting continues to be one of the highlights of the new incarnation of King’s Quest and Christopher Lloyd is as good as old Graham, combining a certain world weariness with a longing for his younger days, that I often wanted him to narrate the lines of his younger self when he talked to characters.

The orchestral score of Rubble Without a Cause is equally solid, but I found the nonsensical talk of the goblins one of the low points of the game, annoying even as it aimed to be playful.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion