Legend of Kyrandia 3:
Malcolm’s Revenge
1994 Westwood Studios
W95/W98 – 3rd person Point and Click
This is the third and final game in The Legend of Kyrandia Series. In this
game you play Malcolm (the recently released from stone statue
imprisonment due to an errant lightening strike, Malcolm) the evil court
jester from Legend of Kyrandia (first game). Now that you’re finally free
your main goal is to prove that you did not kill King William and Queen
Katherine (King Brandon’s parents) – in fact, you were framed by someone’s
mystical knife. But your first job is to get yourself out of Kyrandia
because everyone recognizes you (Zanthia and Darm from Game 2, Henry (who
is now a constable), Kallak and of course Brandon himself from Game 1) and
they all want to throw your grumpy self into jail. Which happens if you
take too much time doing stuff. But not to worry – the parole system is
easy – simply make 10 doilies and viola – you get out to explore once
more.
The game is non-linear and you can pretty much go where you want once
you’re in an area. Certain things have to be done before you should leave
a location but they can be done in any order. This game also uses a Mood
meter – much like the later Tex Murphy games. Sometimes it pays to be
nice; sometimes the only way to get what you want is to lie. You have to
determine when and where each is appropriate.
Puzzles are inventory based. You can carry 10 items with you at a time. If
you run out of space and need something else – just drop an item you don’t
need for the moment. It will remain where you dropped it and you can
return for it later. Most of the puzzles are logical – i.e.: you have a
nail and there is a “big” lock on a door – what would you do? Some are
much more difficult to figure out, but if you pay attention to the game,
the clues are there, sometimes they are extremely subtitle – but they’re
there. This game was also made before the so-called “smart cursor”. There
are no hotspots that tell you an item needs to be picked up – you have to
rely on your powers of observation. Not at all a bad thing IMHO.
Unfortunately there is a maze – at the Isle of Cats (that has been taken
over by the Dogs) – a nasty, poisonous snake infested jungle maze. And you
can die – lots. But the game allows you to either reload your last save or
gives you a second chance and puts you back to where you were before you
made the wrong decision that caused your unfortunate early demise.
Malcolm travels from Kyrandia to the Isle of Cats, to the Ends of the
Earth – gets blown to Hell (literally) and lands in Limbo – all in the
pursuit of justice (his own) and has a darn good time doing it.
My final thoughts – I started to replay this game over the weekend just
refresh my memory (I’ve gotten as far as the dreaded jungle maze on the
Isle of Cats) and had totally forgotten what a delightful game it was. I
am constantly amazed at how much game used to be packed onto one CD. I
think The Legend of Kyrandia games are on the “hard to find” list, but if
you can find it – I highly recommend you play it and I know Malcolm would
too.
I played it on a:
KMD 450
W98SE
Tnt nVidia 32 meg video card
AWE 64 Soundblaster sound card
No bugs, no crashes, no glitches.
copyright © 2002
GameBoomers
