Order of the Thorne: The King’s Challenge (PC) Review

The King of the Faerie Kingdom has gathered various heroes from the land to find his Queen. No, no, don't worry; she hasn't been kidnapped or anything, this is just a simple game of hide-and-seek, whose award will be a wish from the King (as long as it is within his power to grant), as well as the title of "Champion of the Faerie Realm." Amongst the strong warriors and magicians stands the unlikely hero of this fairytale: Finn the bard, an ordinary citizen with family ties with the legendary Order of the Thorne.

The task is a fairly simple one, and it follows the typical point-and-click adventure formula: talk, explore, collect, and, of course, solve puzzles… leading to the first flaw, which is how stupefyingly easy Order of the Thorne: The King's Challenge is, since, many times, solutions are given away through "hints" that are way too obvious to be regarded as such - and as for the use of a lute to play songs, it's nothing more than a forgettable gimmick that only works as a tribute to the good 'ol Loom.

Does the fact that the whole adventure can be completed in about two hours (even by those not familiar with the genre's mechanics) make things even worse? It depends. Similar titles like King's Quest, Lure of the Temptress, or even Leisure Suit Larry, were small both in terms of map size and overall duration, yet they surpassed that problem, first, by being challenging, and, second, by offering a captivating universe to explore - albeit a tiny one.

Unfortunately, the game world at hand is a very bland one. Why bland? It's not because there is no character development, it's not because nothing feels threatening, and, no, it's not even because of an overuse of the most basic of fantasy tropes. The main reason is the total lack of character, with nothing really standing out. What differentiates the tavern wench from the potion maker? What's different between the monk, the librarian, and the shopkeeper? The answer is: nothing. No humour, no interesting back-story, no unique character traits - nothing.

The heavy influence from King's Quest can explain the sleep-inducing bright and harmless atmosphere of The King's Challenge, but, as mentioned before, the problem mostly lies in how colourless everything is. Take the main hero, for example: he stands amongst famous knights, magicians, and wise priests, and yet, his role as the underdog is never emphasised enough. He is kind-hearted, yes, but does this make him an interesting and distinctive character? At least the protagonist of Quest for Infamy was quite unique, in his filthy, anti-hero way.

Most will find its fairytale locales beautiful, especially if they don't mind a trip to the 256-coloured past of the DOS era; and they truly are beautiful… but, similar to everything else, they are also a borefest, with a generic forest, a generic swamp, and a generic cast of characters that have that certain generic secondary NPC look. Music and sound effects are a lot better, although the same cannot be said about the voice acting, which can be quite cringe-worthy at times, especially when it comes to the narrator - who, luckily, can be disabled.

Some may think that there's nothing really wrong with something that's not threatening, funny, innovative, lengthy, or even challenging, and that mainly wants to "present arms" to the golden age of Sierra Entertainment and LucasArts. Some may go even further and say that that this can be viewed as a simplistic representative of the genre that focuses on the youngest of gamers. The thing is, though, that this was not advertised as one, and, therefore, it shouldn't be so small, so easy, and so… dull.