King’s Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder is a voice-acted point-and-click adventure from Sierra, sending Graham across the kingdom after his family is carried off into the sky. The complete campaign was finished in a single stream, with all two hundred and sixty points earned.
The voice acting is the marvel, an unexpected production for 1990 with a cast that includes the designer herself as a rat and a harpy. The talking-animal charm runs throughout, with the white-snake spell letting Graham chat with a bee queen, ant royalty and the eagle.
The ant musical number is the standout, coming out of nowhere and earning a smile from ear to ear. The set pieces land, from the brass bottle’s genie to the yeti slain with a custard pie in a cartoon moment.
The barter economy is elegant, trading a spinning wheel for a marionette, a golden needle for a cloak and elf’s shoes for a cobbler’s hammer. The finale is a delight, with the shapeshifter duel and the restoration spell closing the adventure warmly.
The storytelling closes well, with the family reunited and the castle home once more. The narrator’s sass is enjoyed, adding a sarcastic edge to the fairy-tale tone.
The soft-lock design is harsh, with nearly every item in the game mandatory to finish. The desert thirst is opaque with no feedback, the skip-warning popups break the cut-scene flow, and the falls persist with a single misclick sending Graham off an edge.
Overall, the voice acting, the musical number and the barter economy make this a very fun Sierra adventure. The soft-lock item demands and the desert thirst are the caveats.