King’s Quest Chapter 3: Once Upon a Climb Review

A return of King’s Quest on modern consoles had me giddy since day one, and Chapter 1 of this series really got things started off on the right foot. While I enjoyed Chapter 2, the constant crisscrossing of the dungeon, coupled with the lack of direction and the trail-and-error approach to puzzles put a bit of a damper on my experience. Was Chapter 3: Once Upon A Climb going to mirror the great, nostalgic tone that made Chapter 1 so great, or was it going to continue the slog that was Chapter 2? Fortunately, it was actually neither. Chapter 3 of the latest King’s Quest adventure takes the best parts of Chapter 1 and 2, and fixes a number of issues most mainstream media outlets have found with the game – pacing.

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Once Upon A Clumb actually happens a few years after the events of Chapter 2, and King Graham is looking a bit more muscular than we saw him before. However, ruling the kingdom alone has not been the adventure and thrill that Graham expected it to be, and decides he would like a partner to help him out. He hears that a princess is being held captive in a neighboring town, and he sets off to free the princess and to marry her. However, upon reaching the tall tower – where else would the princess be, right? – he sees that there is going to be a slight problem. There is not just one captive princess, but two! Throughout the rest of the chapter, you spend time interacting with both princesses, doing various tasks, and attempting to escape. At the end of the episode, your interactions and choices will determine which princess you will marry, Vee or Neese.

What really makes Once Upon A Climb so appealing is the interactions between Graham and the two princesses. Regardless of his Kingly status, Graham is still, well, Graham. He’s the same blumbering idiot who barely became King in the first place if it wasn’t for continuous bouts of bad luck for all his competitors. The humor in the writing is evident, and the fact that all the new characters are fairly deep only adds to the story. While this chapter feels slightly disconnected from the first two, it in know way detracts from the overarching story that is being told by old Graham to his granddaughter.

Puzzle wise, things are definitly dialed back a bit in this chapter, which is actually welcome in my point of view. In Chapters 1 and 2, we found ourselves constantly crisscrossing around the map, sometimes with little to no direction. Once Upon A Climb streamlines this process, keeping you tied to a few screens before you finish a puzzle, and move on to the next ‘section’ of the chapter. Although the puzzles are not as in depth as Chapter 1 and 2, they are still quality puzzles that are neither too easy or too hard. They seem to find that perfect sweet spot, although I still loath the trial and error puzzles that again pop up here.

Overall, Chapter 3 is on par if not better than the first, and a leap forward in so many ways over Chapter 2. It also appears as if a lot of the frame rate issues I encountered during Chapter 2 are gone in this chapter. Add to this the more consistent background music and beautiful scenes, and King’s Quest is again trending in the right direction. I can easily give Chapter 3 a strong 8.0/10! Get it, and get it soon! Adventure games don’t get done this well on console often.

You can get Chapter 3: Once Upon A Climb, as well as the season pass for all the chapters, on the Xbox Store and Playstation Store. You can find out more about the franchise on Sierra’s King’s Quest page.