This is an entry for the A to Z Challenge (see the sidebar for more information). These are just some of my initial impressions on the Steam, GOG, and other online games throughout the month. It is not as much of a review as it is a summary of my feelings on the game.
Kingdom: the Far Reaches (hereafter referred to as KtFR) is an adventure game made available on GOG. The game is actually a re-make of an older adventure game called “Thayer’s Quest.”
In KtFR, you play a young boy tasked with finding three artifacts. As you progress through the story, you will face a variety of characters.
When I originally bought this game, I thought it was going to be a twitchy adventure film game like Space Ace or Dragon Slayer. Once I got into it, though, I realized that it was structure much more like a proper Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. you have a lot more choices to work from and you actually maintain an inventory; a better analogy might be the Lone Wolf stories.
I don’t see this game having much replay value after it is figured out. Similar to Zork, this one appears to have one path of events that leads you to the end. There isn’t much room for deviation, and I don’t see any indication that there could be alternate endings. So, like many “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories, there may be multiple ways to lose, but there is only one “good” ending.
That said, it seems like this game is only the first part of a larger story. I feel inclined to wait until I have the second game (Kingdom 2: Shadoan) before trying to finish this one.