The Horror of Rylvania

Baf's Guide

Creepy, satisfyingly scary. You're on a hiking trip in Central Europe, and your companion gets killed by werewolves--and you're next on the menu. There are lots of gratuitous puzzles, and some of them aren't very interesting--but a few are pretty creative, and the plot is unusually well done for a puzzle-oriented game. Has an interesting twist at the end--it's an early prototype of what's come to be known as the Zarfian ending. Very gory in parts. Originally released as shareware, but when a project to release all the Adventions games on a CD failed, this and all the rest were made available for free.

-- Duncan Stevens

A nice vampire game. Very much based on object puzzles and hunting for potion ingredients, but there's some good interactive storytelling underlying it. Full of clichés, but it delivers them with considerable gusto. I hope I'm not giving away too much here, but it's hard to write a review without mentioning the first of the game's big plot twists: fairly early on, the player character is turned into a vampire. It doesn't really carry the this far enough, though. Your special powers are few and unsatisfying, you only seem to have superhuman strength when the plot calls for it, and you can be killed surprisingly easily for one of the undead. But it does provide the basis for a modal environment, with some locations that you can only visit as a human and others that you can only visit as a vampire. Two mazes, scattered violence, easy to lock yourself out of victory, expects you to dig in places just because you can. The "help" command gives gentle guidance through the early stages of the game.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SPAG

I enjoyed playing it. The atmosphere was well created to be eerie, but not disgusting. (Audrey A. DeLisle)
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SPAG
Well, the game starts with you and your friend Carolyn being attacked by a pack of wolves during a trip through Rylvania, a small country somewhere in the backwoods of Central Europe. [...] Then, just as things really got rolling, I was resolutely grabbed by the collar, pulled back, and told, "Not so fast, my friend. From now on, you've got to do it the usual way -- explore, pick up things, and enjoy yourself". This sudden change alone was baffling enough; to make things worse, it turned out that one had to be pretty careful, if not pedantic, in collecting items -- the game is split in two parts, with many rooms in the first part no longer accessible when you reach the second stage; however, puzzles at stage 2 often require objects from stage 1 to be solved, so that you're very likely to lock yourself out of victory, and find out something is wrong only several hundred turns later (sometimes without a hint what item is needed, exactly). (Valentine Kopteltsev)
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SynTax
This is a nice game. It's very big and there's lots of booty to collect and carry. I like that - it makes me feel (wrongly) like I'm getting somewhere. I found the UNDO command in TADS particularly useful after making a stupid move - and I did make one or two, believe it or not. The game has a solemn atmosphere in keeping with the scenario but there are some nice humorous touches including some footnotes - but you really need to be an Infocom/Unnkulian nut to get the best from them. (Alan Medley)
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SynTax
The quality of writing in Rylvania is superb, with exquisite location and object descriptions; and you are quickly drawn into the utterly believable game world as the story opens on a scene charged with drama, and proceeds with unrelenting tension from there to the bitter end. (Bev Truter)
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