The Beast of Torrack Moor - 30th Anniversary Edition

Proud investigative reporter you may be, but there’s been a bit of a lull in the area of exciting news-stories lately. Perhaps this letter all the way from the town of Puddlecombe will change that. Apparently a dangerous beast is prowling the moors and attacking the sheep. Or maybe it’s just a bit of small town rumour about someone’s runaway cat that got blown way out of proportion…

Time to get the tools of your trade and investigate:

(When I X PENCIL and X NOTEPAD, I discover that yes, every object you investigate has a little pixel-drawing. It doesn’t add anything to the gameplay, but it’s a fine touch that makes the game feel friendly.)

Now don’t even think of rushing off into the moors unprepared. For one thing, it’s just plain dangerous, you need something more sturdy than those flimsy trainers you got on your feet. Second, as a good reporter, you owe it to your professional pride to stick your nose into the Puddlecombe inhabitants’ business and pry loose as much as you can about this strange beastly appearance. And lastly, a small town comes with small-town etiquette. One must at least present oneself to the reverend and the publican…

Actually, The Beast of Torrack Moor consists of about two-thirds of this preparation in the town of Puddlecombe. Gathering information and survival gear is not straightforward at all, which is not surprising in a text-adventure of course. Acquiring some items is as easy as talking to the right person, and maybe performing a small errand. Getting other necessary items is somewhat more complicated. Even without the moor-area, the map of the town is large, and objects needed on one side are sometimes found all the way on the other side of town. Even so, none of these early puzzles are too difficult.

The town is alive. While you’re going about your business around the village, so are a number of other people. NPCs move around doing their own errands, notably getting things ready for the Church Hall sale. Should you need one of these mobile NPCs, there’s a helpful WHERE IS [npc] command. In line with the townsfolk doing their own stuff, the shops and the pub are also on their own timetable. From the moment you arrive on the town green, the clock is ticking and the day is advancing. This does add some pressure to get your preaparation done in time. It’s an easy fix to just explore at your leisure until you have most of the puzzles and their probable solutions mapped, and then reload an earlier save and solve everything with time to spare.

After this almost Midsummer Murder-like sequence in Puddlecombe, it’s an impressive change of atmosphere to finally set foot on the moors. Without proper preparation, you will get lost in the rain and the falling darkness. Even with all the gear you need, there are still a few obstacles that demand a bit more of your with than you needed in town.
Most impressive here is how moving just two or three turns from the village brings you to a completely different world, with beautiful but unhospitable natural features, and some ancient human relics.

The writing is good throughout, and sometimes wonderful and touching. I was stunned for a few moments when I encountered this:

The Cemetery

Surrounded by a stone wall, the cemetery is reasonably sheltered from the
wind, although the occasional gust blows leaves around the gravestones,
and a bench sits beneath a large tree.

>X GRAVESTONES
Everything ends, but until then, there is love.

A moody old-school text-adventure, lovingly ported to Adventuron. I enjoyed this a lot.