Zork I

by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling

Episode 1 of Zork
Zorkian, Cave crawl
1980

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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
addicting and fun, even for the young generation of IF players., June 26, 2010
by lagran-G-an (Tel-Aviv, Israel)
Related reviews: Zork,

I enjoyed Zork very much, I thought it was brilliant. It is important to me to emphasize that Zork isn't only good for the sense of nostalgia.

When Zork was at its glory commercial days I was still in diapers, so I cannot be blamed for having special feelings for the game. I have played it on a modern laptop using gargoyle, and have never seen it on flickering green commodore screen. Still, I enjoyed it very much.

after I got the point, the game-play was addicting. Zork has no story, but none is needed. The game has a huge world full of puzzles, that are very interesting and lots of fun. Thats all there is to it. The game can be played for a long time. I still haven't gotten all the points available. ((Spoiler - click to show) weird egg that keeps on breaking.)

Of course, it took me awhile to get used to some strange things that I had not encountered in more "modern IF" such as a limit in inventory, a limited light source, mazes and a thief. The vocabulary was not as good as I had usually seen in polished games, and the descriptions were minimal. But, after I got used to the thief and the limits these seemed strong points to me, that added to the depth of the game-play.Also, I didn't feel like anything was missing from the descriptions.

I must also say some parts of the game can be frustrating since it is easy to make the game un-winnable, and you'll probably have to play it a few times through ( (Spoiler - click to show) once for example, the thief stole my matches and i couldn't find them in any room, so I couldn't banish the demons or complete the puzzle with the gas room ).

Even though it has flaws, and needs getting used to (to players of more modern IF). After a short while it's flaws are barely noticeable, and the game flows. It has addicting gameplay and fun puzzles. A definite must-play In my humble opinion... even if you are from the younger generation of If players, like me.

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Xervosh, September 8, 2010 - Reply
How to retrieve the Clockwork Canary from the Jeweled Egg is indeed one of the more frustrating puzzles. (Spoiler - click to show)You have to let the Thief steal it from you, and then retrieve it from his lair, in the midst of the Maze, where he will have used his lock-picking skills & tools to have successfully removed the delicate Clockwork Canary. I don't recall for certain, but I think it may also be possible to simply deposit the Jeweled Egg in the Thief's lair, and to come back later in order to discover he's performed the necessary operation. Anything the Thief steals from you will show up in his lair, in the middle of that infernal Maze, by the way.
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