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Review
This is a big Quest game entered into the 2020 Spring Thing.
It's clear that a lot of love and hard work has gone into this game, and it is very detailed and at times evocative.
However, adapting other works, especially static stories like film or books, is tricky. It can, as in this case, end up with huge worlds and confusing maps, tons of NPCs each with small parts, etc. This, plus the randomized combat, gives a feeling of an old western false-front store, designed to look big but needing a lot of work in the background.
A walkthrough would improve this immensely. On the plus side, it made me want to watch the original film, which I think is one of the author's goals.
Comments on this review
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HI MathBrush, I truly appreciate the comments.
Yes, it was a labor of love that I hoped would revive interest not only in Hawk the Slayer, but in the really early IF games. But, the spin I put on both (that I hoped you'd like) is that I avoided a "rails" type of story as much as humanly possible.
For instance, I really liked HHGTTG, but so many games like that really push you from one scene to the next. My goal was to write a full-fledged story with a clear arc that is as open-ended as possible. Therefore, most of the puzzles can be resolved more than 1 narrow way.
This non-linearity makes a walk-thru tough, because it would nudge you too much. Instead, I tried to drop clues liberally as you go. You have to "talk to" each NPC, though, and "ask _ about _" as it says in the hints. The Npc’s are not chatterbots, yet they add color, plot, clues. And of course, try things with artifacts.
The puzzles & artifacts are integrally connected to the Story; they are not merely there to provide amusing puzzles. They work together, except you can actually do them in different orders. You have to figure out what artifact might work better than another (though both might work), and who the best Npc would be to wield each one.
The combat system is actually pretty cool, but I can't take credit for that. As stated in my credits, I used The Pixie's CombatLib with a few tweaks.
I think this long game will still reward those willing to explore its intricacies. The depths are there, it's no mirage or false front...
Still, I hear what you say, and you guys have convinced me to create more Hints (a sort-of walk-thru), so I will post that list on the game's homepage in Quest. Since it's a large game, I think it's a reasonable request! I do hope you'll give it another go (or two), and see if you like it better.
