|
Have you played this game?You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in. |
Playlists and Wishlists |
RSS FeedsNew member reviewsUpdates to external links All updates to this page |
About the Story"As "Curses" opens, you're hunting about in the attic of your family home, looking for a tatty old map of Paris (you're going on holiday tomorrow) and generally trying to avoid all the packing. Aunt Jemima is potting daisies and sulking; the attics are full of endless distractions and secrets; Greek myths, horoscopes, sixth-century politics, a less than altogether helpful demon, a mysterious bomb plot, photography, ritual, poetry and a dream or two all get in your way; and somehow you keep being reminded of your family through the ages, and all its Curses... ...could it be that even you are Cursed?" Game Details
Language: English (en)
First Publication Date: May 9, 1993 Current Version: 16 License: Freeware Development System: Inform 5 Forgiveness Rating: Cruel Baf's Guide ID: 55
|
Gaming Enthusiast
The game is huge, well-written and thoroughly enjoyable, even though some puzzles prove to be a hard nut to crack.
See the full review
SPAG
How would you react when a seemingly simple situation in your attic transformed into ancient magic, past and present places and times, a mental tour of your own history, a "chance" to control the fundamental basis upon which the universe is founded, the discovery of ancient powers utilized by Merlin himself, Heaven, Hell, robot mice, and of course curses? I don't know about you, but I reacted by becoming glued to my terminal for about 50 hours straight. (Molley the Mage)
Curses is a classic, and it must be treated as such. Nelson has studied the great Interactive Fiction tradition from as far back as ADVENT and collected the elements that define the medium. He then blended and used them in a skillful way to create a masterpiece. (Nick Patavalis)
See the full review
SynTax
All in all, an engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable text adventure. I'd rate it up there with the Unnkulians and that's a quite a compliment coming from me. It's tricky but not impossible and I very much enjoyed the author's sense of humour. (Marion Taylor)
See the full review
Xyzzy News
"Curses" well qualifies for the title of "interactive fiction" as compared to the "adventure game" which strings together puzzles with little relation to the storyline. Apart from the descriptions, which are generally well written with an eye to atmospherics, you'll find bits and pieces of family lore that weave back and forth across a historical canvas, sewn together by your efforts. When (if) you finish the game, it should all make sense... more or less. (Conrad Wong)
See the full review
50 Years of Text Games, by Aaron A. Reed
Along with his compiler, Nelson also announced—by the way—a new full-length game in the style of Infocom that he’d written to test it. [...] It would soon become all anyone on the newsgroups was talking about, and remain that way for most of the next two years.
[...]
Curses is scavenger hunt meets Dante’s Inferno, “an allegorical rite of passage,” adventure game by way of historical footnote. It certainly owes a great debt to Infocom, recreating the company’s signature style even while literally resurrecting its technical bones.
[...]
Nelson, in the midst of his PhD, had found himself too embarked on a quixotic quest that bore little relation to his supposedly more pressing duties. The attics and basements of the Z-machine’s virtual architecture, and the ever-expanding house he was building within it, might have seemed a pleasant place to take refuge.
See the full review