Publisher: Phoenix Online
Developer: Phoenix Online
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7; 1 GHz Intel or AMD CPU; 512 MB RAM (1 GB for Vista/Win 7); 256 MB DirectX 9.0c-compatible graphics card; DirectX 9.0c or higher
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

The second episode of The Silver Lining (a fan-made sequel to the King’s Quest series) was released a short while ago. Titled Two Households, it continues from where the first part left off. In this episode King Graham continues his quest to liberate his children from a curse bestowed upon them by an anonymous evil sorcerer. A couple of new locations have opened up, a number of characters are ready to converse, and some new items and puzzles have become available. Of course the game is still free and all you have to do to obtain it is register at the developer’s web site (above).

The technical aspects of the game, which I talked about in my Episode 1 review remain the same. There is one notable, and very welcome, improvement, however. At the ripe old age of approximately 55, King Graham has finally learned how to run. Although the animation is somewhat funny and the character’s motions are more suggestive of tripping and falling than they are of running, when it comes to getting from point A to point B, it gets the job done. It’s always pleasant to see developers listen to their audience and make improvements on the fly.

And that is roughly it for good news, I’m afraid. The substance of the game, most notably the puzzles, are sadly very much sub-par. Most of them are simply an excuse to introduce more inventory items. Whenever they do make sense, they are simple to the point of providing no challenge at all. Whenever they give you pause, they make no sense whatsoever. I don’t normally believe in including spoilers in reviews, but I’ll make an exception this time to illustrate a concept. Keep in mind, this is just one of many such examples. If you would rather not know, please skip the next paragraph.

At one point you need to prompt a magnetic creature into action. Despite having a perfectly good fishing pole with what looks like a steel hook (which in itself could conceivably be used to solve the larger puzzle) you are expected to lure him in with gold coins. Gold? Surely any first grader knows that gold can’t be picked up by magnets! So, unless King Alexander has joined the ranks of counterfeiter kings and is cheating his subjects by including large quantities of iron in his currency, this puzzle is illogical and thus unsolvable other than by the dreaded “use everything on everything” method.

Some of the characters, dialogue, and voice acting are starkly out of place as well. Who would allow a murderous spider to run the town’s newspaper? Why is it not possible to ask the friendly sea nymphs who “know everything” about any of the important plot-lines? In addition to that, I found a game-stopping bug, recovering from which, ironically, proved to be the most challenging and interesting puzzle in the game.

The narrator, about whom I complained the last time, is even worse this time around. It is annoying to the point of being infuriating, and consistently made me not want to continue playing. Its attempts of humor fail miserably, its comments are ridiculously out of place most of the time, and its moralizing on more than one occasion is intolerable. I cannot think of another game that had such an atrocious narrator implementation. As much as I hate saying this, my overall opinion is that now, after the euphoria from getting Activision to allow this game has worn off, I cannot think of a reason for anyone (including the die-hard fans of the originals) to waste time on it.

Our Score:

Our Recommendation: