Adventure King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! 1

King Graham, whom we remember from King's Quest I and King's Quest II, returns from a stroll to find his castle and his family completely missing. He is confronted by an owl who witnessed the entire thing.

The owl, Cedric, witnessed the evil wizard Mordack materialize out of thin air, and conjure a storm that made the castle dissappear. Cedric offers to transport Graham to the land of Seneria, in order to consult his master Crispin. Crispin might be able to help figure out what Mordack wants.

Graham agrees, and offers Graham his old wand, as well as the ability to communicate with animals, which comes in handy as Graham ends up rescuing several critters in troluble.

After consulting a fortuneteller, Graham learns that Mordack is the brother of the wizard Manannan, who was turned into a cat by Graham's son Alexander in King's Quest III.

Graham has to figure out a way to make it to Modrack's castle and save his family, before the evil wizard will feed his family to Manannan!




King's Quest V was the first of the Sierra games to use the SCI1 engine, featuring full VGA graphics. It also introduced the point-and-click interface which was a break from the traditional typing of commands.

In 1992, an updated version was released on CD-ROM, which while essentially the same game, featured voice acting (though this was done by Sierra employees themselves, rather than professional actors). Additionally, some of the characters got portraits or additional lines in the process. Personally, the low quality of the voice acting seemed to distract from the overall game experience and immersion, but that is of course very subjective.


Like in most Roberta Williams games, dying can happen at any moment, so remember the old advice: "Save early, save often".