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The Tower of the Elephant

by Tor Andersson

2006

(based on 17 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

An adaptation of the classic sword & sorcery tale by Robert E. Howard, first published in 1933.


Game Details

Language: English (en)
Current Version: 1
License: Freeware
Development System: Inform
Baf's Guide ID: 2955
IFID: A6F3F4FC-01C5-4B8A-9486-5CE3BCE52088
TUID: a6pcygzm8y4czmgr

Awards

15th Place - 12th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2006)

Editorial Reviews

Textsplaining
Text Games That Time Forgot: The Tower of the Elephant
It does justice to the source material while allowing the player agency to take a different direction than Conan did in the original story.
See the full review

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Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 2
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Vivid, but Under-Implemented, April 26, 2015

This short adaptation of one of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories features engaging prose and good characterization, which is odd, because I remember Howard's prose and characterization as clunky and overblown. I suppose all Howard needed was a good editor.

The game itself, however, is under-implemented. Nouns, plurals, and synonyms are missing, making it tough for the player to communicate with the parser. There's even a guess-the-preposition puzzle here, which forced me to consult the walk-through. And, instead of providing clues in the descriptions, the author makes suggestions directly to the player.

Still, this game has interesting stuff in it. One of the game's branches creates a small role-reversal for the player-character. Instead of an NPC following the PC, you follow another character. Fun, but taking this path bypasses the game's best puzzle. There's also a vivid, and effective, action sequence here, a rarity in IF.

I'd say it's worth fighting the parser a bit for a few good puzzles and the excellent writing this game offers.


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A Conan the Barbarian story adapted to IF, June 11, 2016

I really enjoyed the story of this game, which makes sense, because it was adapted from a famous Conan the Barbarian story. The author has done a good job adapting it.

The game could use more synonyms; you often climb by going east instead of going up, and up doesn't work.

The action sort of slows down in the main conversation part of the game.

This game is fairly short.


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