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Solid, but not mind-blowing, October 11, 2022The main thing I enjoyed about Sorcerer was simply that there was nothing to hate about it. It is a solid game, in the best Meretzky style: clear progress from start to end, many simple puzzles, with some interesting mildly-complex ones, and a clear and satisfying ending. In fact, this is a very strongly average game in every aspect I can think of (which is definitely not a bad thing for 1984 --- the norm was way worse).
I feel that this was maybe the easiest Infocom game I've played so far (maybe easier than Wishbringer and Hollywood Hijinx; it's just very well-written and consistently reasonable). Actually, one thing that bothered me a bit was that many puzzles were just too simple. For example: You find a scroll with a spell that affects dogs, you find a dog, you cast the spell on the dog, and that's it (not an actual in-game example). With the exception of one solution ((Spoiler - click to show)Throwing guano inside the cannon), which took me a few days and some brute forcing, everything else was pretty straightforward. Even the infamous early-game thing that blocked many people seemed ok to me; it's all heavily hinted and there is even an in-game hint system, so to speak ((Spoiler - click to show)the vezza spell).
All in all, I heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to actually feel good about finishing an Infocom game without a walkthrough and without banging your head against the wall. This is probably one of your best shots!