Positive things about Series 8
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I thought the miremen were a good addition too, a nice alternative to trolls and goblins.
They seemed very at home in the mireworld, and they had a suitably grotesque appearance. I certainly wouldn't want to be on the business end of one of their tridents!
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I suppose there is a fine balance in Knightmare when it comes to artwork and CGI graphics. You don't want too much CGI (See KmVR!) And too much artwork (although good in its time) simply gets too boring after a few years. Suggesting why they probably expanded their horizon in Series 4
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Wha i really liked, is that some of the deah sequences were very good, the red dragon scene was excellenet as was the corridor of blades death. The ante chamber was great, as was Lord Fears new home very grand!!
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I suppose there is a fine balance in Knightmare when it comes to artwork and CGI graphics. You don't want too much CGI (See KmVR!) And too much artwork (although good in its time) simply gets too boring after a few years. Suggesting why they probably expanded their horizon in Series 4
The trouble with the colour-modified photographs is it never felt 'real' to me, somehow, and I preferred both the [somewhat dodgy due to it being mid-90s] CGI and the artwork to it.
[Warning - The next paragraph contains information gleaned from watching Doctor Who Confidential. Please don't laugh at any inaccuracies or screwing up of terms. Also take any terms I use with a pinch of salt, I'm trying to convey the information, and corrections are welcome for those who know more about the topic than I do]
I'd actually argue, personally, that the ideal would be to use what I believe is referred to be some as 2.5d Matte Paintings. Go with Matte Paintings (i.e. hand drawn 2d art, basically the sort of stuff S1-3 used, only presumably drawn somewhat differently due to not being static), and project them onto a simple 3d geometry, essentially giving you 3d hand paintings that you can position camera angles anyway you desire, and move the camera around them live. You then use whatever effect will generate the best stuff for whatever you happen to be doing within that environment.
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The Reach wand seems to be overly-maligned to me, since it gives a new way of doing puzzles in a less unwieldy way than stamping around the floor.
Though the main problem with that wand was that where the cursor showed up had nothing whatsoever to do with where the dungeoneer was pointing it...
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Though the main problem with that wand was that where the cursor showed up had nothing whatsoever to do with where the dungeoneer was pointing it...
I wonder what would have happened if the cursor moved entirely off screen into infinite!
They'd never get the flaming thing back! -
The Reach wand seems to be overly-maligned to me, since it gives a new way of doing puzzles in a less unwieldy way than stamping around the floor.
Though the main problem with that wand was that where the cursor showed up had nothing whatsoever to do with where the dungeoneer was pointing it...
It's one of those things that would work better these days, being easier to do. A laser pointer and a computer picking up the spot should work fairly well, as long as you can stop the dungeoneer pointing it in peoples' eyes. Mind you, Lord Fear sometimes looked like someone was already doing that to him...
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S8 was an interesting series for me. It certainly had a distinct feel from any other series.
I like the way that it generally returned to the dungeon concept of the early series.
The rooms looked good, altho there wasn't a vast amount of variation from one quest to another. Despite the fact that these rooms looked good, they still didn't generally have the atmosphere of the rooms in S1-3, which says so much about the excellence of David Rowe's original artwork.
The new characters were generally ok. Stiletta was a great addition, such a shame that she only appeared in this final series.
I wasn't sure about Snapper-Jack at first, but gradually took to him. It was a real shame he didn't get to nap anybody. (Altho i thought a couple of teams were gonna fail his challenge.)
Bartram was ok, presumably a distant relative of Scaramonger.
Maldame didn't really impress me tho. Like Aesandre in S5, she didn't really have any impact. I preferred Iona Kennedy's performance as Greystagg in S6&7.
There was a welcome return for Motley, as well as a finale for Hordriss.
The eye-shield sequences were only occasional and kept thankfully short.
Level 1 (and to some extent level 2) had been shortened. At least level 1 was now a little more competitive again, after effectively being a danger-free practice session in S4-7. The pace of the quests was lively.
The teams were a mixed bunch. In S6&7 the standard had been very high, but this time several teams were rather mediocre.
It was good to see the chaos of cards return, altho the selection of cards looked identical to S7, which made it too easy for any teams who had watched S7. Sadly the trial by spikes didn't return tho.
A pity that S8 was comparatively short, with only 10 episodes rather than 15 or 16.
The new ante-room was rather disappointing. Just as well nobody wanted to sit down during a quest.
The reach wand didn't appeal to me and as for those pointless "seeing" potions/spells....grrrr
Finally: that life force logo. The second one wasn't great, this one was just plain awful.
Overall, S8 was enjoyable enough and looking back it is hard to believe that the program didn't survive beyond it. There still seemed to be plenty of life left in the theme....
Even so, it was great to have the eight series that we did and the measure of Knightmare's overall brilliance is that we still visit this fan forum to discuss it over 25 years later.
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