This game features a very unique mechanic that prevents you from reading the next part of the story until you've understood what you've read so far. This made the story come to life as I could not skim the text to get the gist of it, as I often do.
This also meant no quarreling with a parser and no dead ends; just reading and re-reading until it was fully understood and the next piece became obvious. Which it did, I finished the whole game without needing any hints - although I was stumped quite a few times.
The story itself is well-written and engaging about an investigation into a dinner party where all the guests met their untimely deaths. The story manages to feel like a classic tale of mystery without being cliché.
Highly recommended.
This was one of the first text adventures I played as a kid, and it stuck with me. When I finally came back to finish it years later, it was just a good as I remembered, if not better.
The story is fun and engaging, although a bit simple. The puzzles are rather obvious, but the main puzzle is inventory management, as you cannot carry everything at once and some things are difficult to bring certain places.
I'd recommend this game to nearly everyone, even as a first text adventure game.
The story is very engaging from start to finish. Exploring and learning more about the world is its own reward, not just means to progress. There is lots to read, but with a story as good as this that's a good thing.
Most puzzles are fairly logical, but some solutions will evade you until you've explored and examined nearly everything. Keep in mind that SEARCH may reveal more than EXAMINE, something I didn't realize until day 3 and it resolved a lot of dead ends for me :p
I had a blast playing this, and I highly recommend it to anyone, but keep a notebook handy as it'll make it way easier.