Pros: Top notch production values, graphics, sound, and acting are just a few highlights.
Cons: For some reason, this game was a sleeper hit by Zork standards.
The Bottom Line: Those like myself who thought Grand Inquisitor was too silly for even Zork, or who want a fun game to play and replay will thoroughly enjoy Infocom's last great game.
Spanning more than a dozen games and three decades, Zork was one of the first and one of the best. However, RTZ marked a major first in that it wasn't interactive fiction. But while I could simply sit and rant about the game, it might be more prudent to tell a little bit about the HISTORY of the game, both in and out of Zork.
Around 1977-1979, the gaming world was still in its infancy. Few had seen games of any sort on personal computers, and the Atari 2600 reigned supreme in the console industry. The most popular game of that time was a strange little DOS-based book where you could type in commands and the program would react to those commands. This game, known as a text adventure (or, in these post-Infocom days, Interactive Fiction), was simply titled Dungeon. However, its popularity on campuses and in those few homes lucky enough to own a computer, sparked off an entire library of games.
One of the most significant of these was a game known as Zork. In this game, you travelled from a small white house into Hades and massive caverns with nothing but a lantern and an olde rusty sword. The sword and lantern later make an appearance in the monastery's museum in Zork: Nemesis, but for now, one has to picture it in their minds, which is precisely what everyone did.
The popularity of Zork, which was somewhat open-ended, sparked off two more games, forming a most hallowed trilogy which no true gamer has passed up in all this time. Another trilogy and Wishbringer appeared as spinoffs. Zork Zero set the stage for the Zork trilogy and featured puzzles that boggled the mind in their simple complexity (such as surviving the Inquisition). Later, the first major breakthrough in Zork history occurred: a game with graphics!
This game, known as Beyond Zork, was an independant story where you were charged with retrieving the legendary Coconut Of Quendor and was set at the same time period as one of the other games in the series. Indeed, it is a very rare occurrance when two games intersect in such a way even now. The game sported customizable colours, an actual RPG system, and even simple graphical maps! The next step would be even more extraordinary...
Up until this time, the events in the games took place over a course of a few hundred years. However, Infocom's final hit before being dissolved completely by Activision (their new owner) was NOT your average Zorkan game. Zork fans were both exstatic and insulted by the lush graphics and existance of non-magical technology. People knew that magic had been banished after the previous games by the destruction of the Cube, which held the power of all creation in it. But now, we saw signs of technology we knew. There was a truck, a trailer home, and even a television! In fact, Zork looked like something out of Lassie or other recent B/W series.
But as we played, we learned about the Great Diffusion, which banished all magic from the world after a brief resurgence. We also learned that you can never banish magic without repercussions...
You are the lucky winner of a sweepstakes. Or so you are tolde as you open the mailbox of one of the most infamous pieces of real estate in all of Zork around the second milenneum GUE. You're instantly transported to the Valley Of Sparrows. Unfortunately, this was either someone's idea of a joke, or something terrible's happened. Indeed, entire towns are vanishing as a dark magical force is slowly weaving a web destined to bring destruction. It's up to you to stop him.
The soundtrack in this game is brilliant, capturing the feel of the planet's magical heritage as well as having a quirky side that reminds us off the parallels between our two worlds. Indeed, many (myself included) consider the soundtrack to contain the definitive theme song to Zork. This was accented with something rare in that time: actual actors!
That's right, this game sported live actors who's quirky behavior turned off many anti-Zork critics but fit in seamlessly with the realm. Among them are the mayor who loves telling jokes, an absent-minded lighthous keeper, and a school teacher who has noone left to teach. Mavis Peepers, the teacher, went on to later become a well-respected literary, and your aid in her first major book is pivital not only in history, but also in solving some of the puzzles. Picture it as an automatic secretary for all those clues you'd otherwise have to write down by hand.
Technology aside, this game is a major challenge, and one which only an experienced adventurer will want to talk on without external help. Additionally, there ARE several instances where common sense (in this world) have no application, so pay attention to important details such as the benefits of a nice glass of milk. It could just save your life. Meanwhile, enjoy the beautiful scenery, bad jokes, the commercial on the hotel's TV, and even the recipe for gespacho soup (which Dwarfers fans will be familiar with). And above all...
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