This initial episode in
the Knights in Shining Armor series begins with a knight named
Rupert lying on a hammock in what appears to be a ship. After docking, he
goes into a tavern/inn. We then discover him in the middle of a
conversation with an unidentified person wearing a medieval costume. The
discussion wanders over assorted topics, during which Rupert declares that
he is royalty, and claims that his status has the salutary benefit of
allowing him to marry whomever he wishes, without even bothering to
discover his prospective wife's name. (He'll just go on calling her
"sweetheart.")
By the end of the dialog, we've established that the
costumed fellow possesses a great deal of common sense (he refuses to have
anything to do with Rupert). We've also established that our knight in
shining armor is arrogant and likes lacing his conversation with crude
language.
Rupert then proceeds to have another long
conversation with a blonde woman sitting at another table, and later with
the innkeeper. He whistles to a guitar-playing bard as one would to a dog.
There's a bit of dancing (the music and dancing are the best part of the
game). In terms of gameplay, Rupert has a handful of inventory items to
pick up, one item combination, and a slider puzzle to solve.
Then the credits roll.
It Doesn't get any Shorter than This
This is the shortest adventure game I've ever played.
It's also the shortest episode I've ever played.
You play from a third person perspective using a
point-and-click interface. The inventory is easy to use. The game has a
"save" button, but it merely activates the autosave function, so you can't
go back to previously saved games.
Animations are stiff and repetitive. Faces remain
deadpan during conversations. The dialog topics are haphazard and absurd
and you can't click through them. I suspect that the dialogs are meant to
be funny. The voiceovers are competent, though the woman's voiceover has
an odd quality, almost as though it was recorded in an echo chamber.
Ambient sounds consist of ocean waves, bird chirps,
and loud thumps. At first, I thought that the thumps were from some
construction going on, but after watching Rupert walk around, I realized
that his footfalls usually (though not always) coincided with the thumps.
Rupert's utter obnoxiousness piqued my interest. In
later episodes, will he meet his much needed comeuppance? (It's going to
take a lot of work before Rupert's personality, along with his armor,
begins to shine.) I also confess a certain curiosity as to how Rupert will
use the lacy panties he's carrying in inventory. However, I don't know if
I want to listen to more random comments about porker ladies, capital dots
and lemony water in order to find out.
Quick List for Knights in Shining Armor: our
king's tale episode one
You play a royal knight looking for a bride in this
medieval fantasy. In addition to a bit of inventory collection and
combination, there's one puzzle -- a slider. Long dialogs. The guitar
music is rather nice.
Third person perspective, point-and-click interface.
Autosave only. No dying. No glitches.
Aimed at gamers who like medieval adventures and who
don't mind that the gameplay is brief. Those who enjoy laughing at the
dialogs in absurdist "B" movies will also find it appealing.
Final Grade: C
What I played it on:
Dell Studio XPS 8000
Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core i5-750 processor
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
1024MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220
Soundblaster X-Fi
Knights in Shining Armor: our king's tale episode one can
be purchased via download at the
Corbomite website or on
Gamers Gate.
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
May 2011
design copyright©
2011
GameBoomers
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