Berrost's Challenge

intfiction.org
Part of a dying breed
Berrost�s Challenge is part of a dying breed. There was a time when a game with hunger and sleep daemons, instant death, limited UNDO ability, inventory weight limits, irreversible no-win paths, and tough puzzles would have been the safe choice. Nowadays, though, even the puzzle-fests steer clear of fantasy settings and magic systems. If today�s IF shows a trend, it�s toward storytelling. This tends to sacrifice what were once the traditional aspects of �text adventures� -- namely, everything that makes the game difficult for a player to complete.

This makes Berrost�s Challenge a shock to the system. This kind of game isn�t dead, but in the context of the annual competition, it seems to be more and more unusual. That�s not to say the IFComp is devoid of puzzle-fests, but much of the time those puzzles aren�t interesting, or they�re completely unsolvable, or the game is so seriously broken that the puzzles simply don�t work. Berrost�s Challenge has problems, yes -- including problems with the very concept of some of its puzzles -- but it comes really close to working just as the author hoped...
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Undo Restart Restore
Being fun to play outranks technical merits
The author tells us that Berrost's Challenge is a homage of sorts to the Enchanter series. This is all ok and while I haven't played those games myself, the game does have that old times charm. But when you make a homage to old games it doesn't mean you have to repeat the poor design...
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Super Doomed Planet
Standard-issue Extruded Fantasy Product mixed with sub-Zork silly names
Mark Hatfield�s Berrost�s Challenge agressively resisted my attempts to enjoy it...
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