Ratings and Reviews by tggdan3

This is one of the older IF games, dating back to about 1983 or so.

You are a normal guy in London on vacation. You enter an antique shop, and the next thing you know you're in a fantastic forest watching a huge ogre walk by.

This game has some fantastic writing. Each scene seems alive. It also has more NPCs than many of its competetors of the time. (Combat is not necessary, NPCs should be bartered with or talked to). The puzzles are fairly simple, and most of the game involves discovering what the story is and how to help the person in need.

The game is very old, offers no hints, and has a terrible parser. It can be unfair at times (one character may randomly take an item from you if you say something the game doesn't understand to him) and it predates the z-machine. (So some commands like "i" for inventory don't work, use "inv" instead). NPCs will assume you're speaking to them when you type something (so typing I instead of INV may get an NPC response) and the save the game system relies on one of the 9 pre-generated save files.

Still, it's a classic bit of gaming. It's fun speaking with the well-developed (for the time) characters, and solving the puzzles. Just remember to examine everything "CAREFULLY" or you'll miss vital clues.

By today standards, it can be very annoying, since it doesn't hold to any of the standard commands, but the writing and scenario makes up for it. It's abandonware, and when you find it, it's in a dos executable file. (Try underdogs site).

Definately worth a play.

I love enchanter. I really love sorcerer. I was really looking forward to playing spellbreaker.

It's the third in the trilogy. Magic is failing, and you, now the guildmaster, must do something about it. What's more, a myserious figure turned all the other head mages into reptiles (with some kind of yonked cleesh spell, I presume).

Where this breaks from the last two games, is the fact that you're basically teleporting from random location to random location. The game is fun, but at times the difficulty seems almost unfair. (Such as the final puzzle).

The plot during the game leaves much to be desired. Without any clear reason why, you are just going around collecting magic white cubes so you can teleport to the next area. The areas seem fairly random, almost as if they took all the puzzles they had left over from the other games and loosely strung them together.

The system is good, and some of the puzzles are fun, but sometimes you're left wondering why you're even doing what you're doing, and the inventory becomes cumbersome, what with 12 cubes you have to name seperately to keep track of them.

If you like enchanter and sorcerer, you'll like this one, just make sure you have the invisiclues handy, because the game is pretty much unbeatable without it.

You are locked in a vault while putting something in it for your wizard master, and you must find a way to escape.

Now I'm not the biggest fan of "escape the room" games, with so many on flash, I'd hate to see IF dedicated to it also, but this game more than makes up for it.

First of all, the game includes easter eggs to find, adding to replay value.

Second, the entire game is about figuring out magic words, and the syntax in which to use them, which is a great puzzle in itself. The puzzles are fair, they make sense, and they're great fun to play with.

That leads to number three. Once you figure out what's going on, there is plenty of fun screwing with everything, and anything you can see can be messed with. On top of that, the game understands so many nonsense commands with funny responses. This game will keep you entertained long after you actually completed it. (And FYI, completing the game does not give you the best score. Playing beforehand does!)

First of all, I love the premise of this game. You are already finished with an adventure in the underground, bundled up with light to avoid (grues) and there's a troll guarding the exit. To defeat him, you must turn out all the lights so the grues will eat him.

Sounds great, right? Problem is that the puzzles have seemingly random solutions. I like games like this, but when I was forced to look at the hints and say "Um... what?" I knew the game had problems.

For example, you have to target pieces of items that are not adequetely described. The size of items is not described and is relevant. One puzzle didn't make sense even after I solved it. (It makes sense, but I still don't see how I was supposed to guess it.) And guessing is the key to solving the puzzles.

I like the concept, and the writing is solid, but keep in mind, you'll be finding yourself typing "put all in [x]" just to see what fits where. And don't be surprised if things that should work just don't.