New England Gothic

by Simba

1991
Haunted House, Historical, Mystery
AGT


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Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Beautifully Frustrating Adventure, October 20, 2018

I'm really conflicted about this game, so I've decided to defer rating it at this time. I first discovered this game as a young teen back in the mid 90's. On one hand, the writing is quite evocative and creates an amazing atmosphere that has stuck with me for over 20 years, but on the other hand, the implementation is so horrendously bad that it inspired me at the age of 15 to create my own game completely from scratch (which currently holds a higher rating than this game, incidentally). I've always wanted to complete this game but I can't say that I've ever gotten very far with it due to its lack of playability. In the spirit of Zork, this game is enormous and a nightmare to map. There are several locations where you will be insta-killed simply by going in a certain direction. When you die in this game, you don't just die; you get completely kicked out of the program, as if to say "You suck! Go home!". Not the strongest design decision. I feel like this could be a 3 star or even a 4 star game if it were to be ported to a modern development system, properly implemented, and redesigned with a bit of conventional wisdom. I feel like there might be a lot of value buried here, but I've yet to find a way to tap into it fully.

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