The first two installments in Roberta Williams' ground-breaking "King's Quest" adventure game series were all about freedom. Sure, you had to figure out what tasks needed to be accomplished, but there also existed that freeing aspect where you could seemingly just wander around forever exploring your environment. Unfortunately, Williams went away from that formula in King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human and the overall gameplay experience pays the price.
Though the point-and-click, inventory-based gaming engine will be quite familiar to fans of the KQ series, the radical departure in this iteration is the concept of game-time. Basically, you play as young servant Gwydion (don't worry, the Royal Family of Daventry are not too far away!), who strives (via collection items and concocting spells) to free himself from the servitude of the magician Mannanan. The problem, though, is that one never quite knows when the dark-cloaked figure will pop up and thwart your efforts (start you over at a set location, take all your inventory, etc.). This new "innovation", thought to be exciting and innovating in its randomness aspect, only serves to cramp what truly makes the King's Quest series great...the ability to explore and figure things out for yourself. I don't want to have to worry about saving my game every five seconds or counting game-time minutes.
Even if you just try to play this game using an online walkthrough, you'll end up pulling out your air in frustration due to all the random elements. I compare the overall experience very similarly with playing "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask" on the Nintendo '64. "LOZ: Ocarina of Time" was perhaps the greatest adventure game ever created (at least for that system), but the "Mask" sequel introduced a time element ("save the town before the Moon falls!") and turned another possibly epic journey into a race against the clock.
If you are playing your way through the old King's Quest games, I suggest watching the opening scenes of this one, putzing around for a little bit to see why it is so frustrating, then viewing the ending on YouTube and moving on to part four.
