The Pawn

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Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 26 Write a review

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- mjw1007, January 15, 2018

A juvenile and large early text adventure with graphics, June 5, 2017
This game can be summarized pretty easily by a couple of early facts:

-you are wearing a shirt with a marijuana leaf;

-if you go to the southern edge of the world, there is a sign saying that this is the 'boundary of the adventure';

-one of the first people you meet won't stop laughing at how dumb you look.

I didn't really enjoy this game; it's about the size of Zork, with some pictures. It's pretty hard, and the parser claims to be advanced, but actually has major problems.

I don't really recommend this game at all.

- IFforL2 (Chiayi, Taiwan), January 10, 2017

- Denk, August 5, 2016

- necromancer, July 8, 2016

A very sophisticated first try for Magnetic Scrolls, June 27, 2016
The Pawn's most distinguishing feature, at the time of its release, was (as far as I remember it) the use of graphics for some of the locations. While a few non-animated graphics can hardly impress players nowadays, the images, vaguely reminiscent of "ligne claire" comics, offer a different view on the locations and add to the atmosphere of the game without distracting from the text.

The text itself is well written, with some irony and a small dose of British (black) humor. It tells a rather traditional fantasy story, which still manages to surprise once or twice and kept me entertained till the end. The parser is powerful and has a big vocabulary. I stumbled over a few oddities, but this might also be caused by English not being my maternal language.

The puzzles are interesting and well interweaved with the story. At least for a beginner like me some were quite difficult and I had to consult a walkthrough a few times. I did not encounter a single bug.

All in all a polished and entertaining experience.

- shornet (Bucharest), March 20, 2015

Crash

"Getting quite a way into the adventure there are some areas which suggest some largess on the part of the instructions. I have already mentioned the occasional relapse by the program when it chooses to ignore the second part of a complex sentence. The examine command (where, like most words, EXAMINE must be spelled out fully, along with long words such as floorboards) can be helpful, as in EXAMINE GRAVEL, 'The gravel is small pieces of black stone', can miss entirely as with 'What black stones?', or give a reply which may or may not be comical, 'The arms are quite long for the time of year.' It's worth noting here that EXAMINE and LOOK IN are subtly different commands, bringing about fundamental changes in your fortunes should you learn how to use them properly. On another occasion you are told how you cannot see a tree when you are in a forest while, despite the instructions boasting many weird and wonderful adjective recognitions, the program does not comprehend LOOSE in the command EXAMINE LOOSE FLOORBOARD. Let's stay with this one to lead me into one or two misgivings I have with the plot. EXAMINE FLOORBOARD replies 'large and very solid' yet levering the board with the hoe achieves nothing but doing something a lot simpler gets the result. However, more worrying in terms of a credible plot is the pouch which doesn't seem to exist until you have fetched the guru his water, an act totally unconcerned with the appearance of the pouch. Such inconsistencies pull the plot into an ever tightening feel of linearity."

- Gucek, January 17, 2013

- kala (Finland), October 15, 2012

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), May 6, 2012

- RWAP (Stoke-on-Trent, UK), January 29, 2012

- amciek (Opole), December 30, 2011

- LaFey (Porto, Portugal), July 15, 2011

- André St-Aubin (Laval, Québec), May 31, 2011

- JohnW (Brno, Czech Republic), March 16, 2011

- Wade Clarke (Sydney, Australia), December 8, 2010

- o0pyromancer0o, April 23, 2010

- Mastodon, March 26, 2009

- John D, March 14, 2009

- Zagrebo (Glasgow, Scotland), January 26, 2009

- Linnau (Tel-Aviv, Israel), October 31, 2008

- bolucpap, March 19, 2008

- Miron (Berlin, Germany), December 11, 2007

- Matt Kimmel (Cambridge, MA), November 29, 2007

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