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There was a time when PC adventure games ruled the gaming landscape from on high, and Sierra Entertainment's games were at the very top of that summit. Gamers sank thousands of hours into exploration, puzzle-solving, and fetch quests in series like King's Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, and even a few that didn't have "Quest" in the title.
Eventually tastes changed, the industry moved on to the next big thing, and the adventure game became largely a relic of a bygone age. Later this year, three decades after the first King's Quest was released, Ken and Roberta Williams' classic fantasy series will return, riding a wave of renewed interest in adventure games.
The new King's Quest is leading the charge for Activision's revived Sierra Entertainment banner, and hopefully will lead to further installments of other beloved Sierra series that have long been dormant. Developed by The Odd Gentlemen, this latest King's Quest is described as a "reimagining," with an aged King Graham recounting tales of his life's adventures to his granddaughter, Gwendolyn. Now a new video has revealed a King's Quest cast packed with familiar faces...and voices.
The biggest bragging point comes in the form of Back to the Future icon Christopher Lloyd, who will be voicing the elderly King Graham. He's a great choice with a great voice, perfectly suited to spinning tales of wonder and magic. Of course, much of the game will take place in the past, in the form of flashbacks that play out Graham's tales. (Some of these flashbacks will cover territory and adventures explored in the earlier games, but with their own news twists.)
Bringing the younger Graham to life in these flashbacks will be Josh Keaton, a veteran voice actor who has worked on projects such as Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Young actress Maggie Elizabeth Jones (We Bought a Zoo) will voice Gwendowlyn. Also along for this new adventure into the Kingdom of Daventry is The Legend of Korra's Zelda Williams, daughter of the late comic legend Robin Williams. Legendary character actor Wallace Shawn, best known for playing the villainous Vizzini in The Princess Bride, will be playing a character known as "Manny."
The full voice cast also includes Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Michael Benyaer (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), Loretta Devine (Crash), Gideon Emery (Teen Wolf), Jean Gilpin (Frozen), Andy Pessoa (Transformers Prime), Kevin Michael Richardson (The Cleveland Show), Kath Soucie (Rugrats), Michael-Leon Wooley (The Princess and the Frog), Fred Tatasciore (Marvel's Avengers Assemble), and Michael Gough (Batman: Arkham Origins -- also Alfred from Tim Burton's Batman films).
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Following the template established by modern adventure game pioneers Telltale Games (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones), Sierra's new King's Quest will be released as a series of downloadable episodes. The first will retread ground made famous by the original King's Quest game, with a young Graham in search of the Three Treasures of Daventry. The flashbacks will be bookended by a storyline set in the "present," with Gwendolyn engaged in a tournament against her cousin to prove who is most worthy to rule the kingdom.
King's Quest doesn't yet have an official release date, but the episodes are expected to begin arriving later this year.