The Crisis of Dersenia

SynTax
Dersenia is h-u-g-e in terms of number of locations (I'm up to 191, and there's more!) - and therein lies its downfall. Bigger in this case doesn't mean better, it means more irritating; and Dersenia just hasn't got the plot, puzzles or characters to fill such a vast geographical area. Most of the scenery can only be trudged through grumpily and dutifully mapped; and although the room descriptions aren't too bad there's nothing about the game that holds your rapidly dwindling attention. Every item you need (or don't need, which is more often the case) is just lying around in full view, waiting to be picked up. Puzzles are of the What to Throw at the Ogre, or What Can I Attach the Rope to variety; and there are no less than four mazes <groan> to be mapped by the usual drop-an-item method, and one maddening maze that owes more than a passing nod to the famous "baseball diamond" puzzle / maze in Zork 2.
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