Classic Zork-style adventure
If you fire this one up and feel like it's somewhat familiar, then don't worry for this series of text adventures was inspired by the classic Zork and shares much of what made that franchise so good. It's not quite up to the same standard but it does a pretty good job and is well worth playing if you're an interactive fiction fan. The player takes on the role of the usual bold adventurer, who in this case is actually visiting an amazing museum which holds the most incredible treasures from history. However, after a wicked wizard took advantage of a rather unfortunate situation which left the protective spells damaged and ran off with all the goods, it now falls to you to venture forth and get it back before he spends all the loot. That's just the first adventure here, and the story continues with two further installments. In gameplay terms, this very much follows in the template laid down by Zork, with many challenging puzzles to solve, most of which are inventory-based, while movement is conducted in a similar way, with commands entered into the pleasingly intelligent parser system. Also like Zork, you really need to keep wits about you as it is all to easy to die to some of the fiendish traps which litter the caves and it is possible to render the game unwinnable through certain moves. When you add in some RPG elements, like becoming hungry and thirsty, as well as the requirement to consider your air and lamp power, the whole thing becomes highly challenging. However, thanks to the combination of generally clever puzzles and well-written, atmospheric descriptions, it's rarely less than absorbing stuff so if you are a genre fan, this is a hidden gem which is well worth digging out.
