Forbidden Lore

(based on the IFComp 2024 version)

You’re in your grandfather’s library, looking to bring his studies into the arcane to an end, and carry out the implied task that reveals itself through the research.

When entering the library, I had expected it to be the starting point of an oldschool quest to the Illuvian Empire. It soon became clear that, aside from a few short magic-teleportations, the bulk of the game is the library.

Instead of grand halls, twisty little passages and ever-winding corridors to navigate, you must make your way through the shelves and heaps and stacks of books and tomes. Instead of using a compass-rose to traverse a map, you must sift through layers of implementation during your search for the necessary bits of information and, to prepare you for what may come, for sources of magic to enhance your powers and protection.

This design makes Forbidden Lore a bit of a textual hidden-object game. Most libraries in IF-games have a few books mentioned by title, signalling that those are the important ones. Here, the books named in the first layer of description, upon X BOOKS, comprise but a small fragment of the total of books you need. You’ll need to examine separate sections of shelves, individual thematic categories in the bookcases, parts of parts of parts of the library.
There’s at least one game-critical non-book object in the room that is hidden in a similar manner. I only stumbled across it buried in an object-description while fastidiously examining all the nouns. ((Spoiler - click to show)The armchair is standing on a rug.)

Now, I enjoyed this. Digging through layers of description and finding new books to read, and then trying to infer what to do with the information I learned was fun for me. However, I would have liked it if the nouns were a bit more distinguishable: in place of expecting the player to X BOOKS ON DESK, it would have been easier to find the right command if, instead of another pile of books, there had been only rolls of parchment on the desk, enabling X ROLLS.

The few trips outside the library are welcome intermezzos, they open up the space of the game and cut through the catacomb-like feel of that single book-filled room. The final such outside trip leads to the endgame, and it was there that I felt let down.

The player’s expected to enter a bunch of commands that were not foreshadowed enough or introduced in some sort of training-wheel circumstances. After checking the walkthrough, I did think : “Oh, yes, that was mentioned in one of those tomes I ploughed through in the beginning.” The amount of references and information in the books makes it difficult for that one particular piece of knowledge to stick though, especially without a chance to practice beforehand.

I also noticed more disambiguation failures (“Did you mean the (Spoiler - click to show)shrine or the (Spoiler - click to show)druidic shrine?”) in the endgame, which makes me suspect this game was finished while Mr D.E. Adline was looking over the author’s shoulder.

I really liked the detailed library search, the hints and glimpses of ancient history, exotic cultures, powerful spells in the myriad of tomes. Player-friendliness could be improved by clearing up unintuitive commands and more obviously distinguishable nouns.

Good game.

This TADS game had many delightful elements to it. You are in a library filled with, well, Forbidden Lore. It belongs to a powerful wizard, a family member, and is essentially a one-room game with enormous amounts of detail, including several NPCs.

Many things are richly implemented, including a large number of bookshelves, a desk, and special gadgets, as well as magic and conversation.

However, much of the game is not spelled out, almost to an extreme. You aren't told what to do. You aren't told how many of certain objects are present. You aren't told how to phrase certain important commands. You aren't told what certain devices are capable of. You aren't guided on what conversation topics work with which NPCs.

This non-spelling out can in some games increase the fun as you delve, but in this game it's so extreme that I think it goes too far. It'd be like introducing a player to chess but not explaining how the pieces move or that the goal is to threaten the king.

I liked the lore, the characters seemed fun, and the whole thing reminded me in a positive way of Andrew Plotkin's room in Cragne Manor.

Even with the lack of information, I still found a lot to do. I managed to find a goal and complete it, and once that was done I really had no clue what to do next. To complete that first goal, I had to look at the walkthrough twice and both times I found that I had the right idea but gotten a misleading response from the game. For instance, before achieving one major goal, I [spoiler]tried PUSH STATUE, but it was fixed in place. The real command was PUSH STATUE INTO CHASM.[/spoiler]

So this game is a hit and a miss for me. Great worldbuilding, fun ideas, but spotty implementation and player motivation. Would definitely play more by this author.