Avventura nel castello

This game is probably the most important piece of Italian interactive fiction of the 20th century. It combines a very pleasant atmosphere and humour with various gameplay flaws; which element will prevail in your final judgment depends on your tastes.

The game sets you in the role of an amateur treasure hunter, determined to find the riches of the old Scottish kings. After surviving the failure of your airplane, you end up locked in an old castle. Your goal is now to escape, and maybe plunder some precious objects along the way.

Avventura nel castello goes above and beyond the standards of Italian games of the Eighties. Every room and object gets a short but well-made description, which combine very well to create the overall feeling of a mysterious and haunted place. Death is frequent and expected, but saves are unlimited and the descriptions of the various fatal outcomes are a part of the playing experience. Quoting Jason Dyer (in a different game review), “you just have to approach with the attitude that you’re collecting deaths, like Pokemon”. The benevolently sarcastic narrator will sometimes comment your good and bad ideas with some irony. I liked the little touch of showing one letter at a time during the most thrilling moments, adding to the suspence.

So much for the good points. The bad ones are mostly the result of the time and place where the game was written. The most apparent and annoying shortcoming is that the room descriptions do not list the exits, forcing you to tediously try each direction at the risk of forgetting some. On top of it, there are some not intuitive “guess the verb” occurrencies, a couple of riddles that can likely only be solved by trying everything on everything and some situations where the wrong action can softlock the game without warning.

I personally enjoyed the game a lot, even from the perspective of a modern player. But many factors greatly helped: its style of humour resonated with me, I liked the setting, did not get stuck too much and luckily managed to avoid the softlock. Bruteforcing the maze with just pen and paper also contributed to my sense of accomplishment at the end of the game.

If you are willing to tolerate the age wrinkles of this adventure, you like the “haunted castle” setting and don't mind being mildly teased by the narrating voice, this game could be for you. If you are looking for a polished experience and deep topics, maybe other titles are more suitable.