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Review
After learning about text adventures (through Aaron Reed's excellent book), the one I've looked forward to playing the most is Plundered Hearts. Boy was I right to be excited about this title! Despite technical limitations of the time, it just about manages to tell a very intriguing story about a time where individuals with a history of getting tangled up in each others' businesses were... well, tangled up in each other's businesses once more.
Had I reviewed this game back in 1990, I would easily have given it five stars for its bold narrative, well-integrated, practical puzzles, atmosphere, and environments.
I love the variety of environments: ship, jungle, luxurious house, etc. – it's got it all, without being particularly large. I loved the logical structure to the environments that did not necessitate drawing a map. I love the variety of the order in which one can approach puzzles (although I didn't realise it on my first playthrough.) I love that despite accidentally locking myself out of the "Happy Forever After" ending, I was allowed to get to a reasonable ending anyway – one which turned out to be my favourite anyway. I loved replaying the game while taking a slightly different approach to see the "Happy Forever After" ending – a second play session that lasted maybe 30 minutes at most!
The one major flaw of this game are the multitude of timed puzzles. They add to the atmosphere, but they are also mechanically annoying when one gets stuck in a move-move-restore-move-move-restore loop. Another remark is about the the technical limitations that prevented growing the size and depth of the game beyond the shallow. Oh and I disliked the presence of a puzzle that cannot reasonably be solved without first having studied the physical feelies that came with the game originally.
Although these sound like many complaints, they are all artifacts of the age of the game – they were necessary choices at the time. They are not the authors' fault, but they are still worth considering before picking the game up. As tempted as I am to give this game five stars, I'm deducting one star for those reasons.
