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Review
Zork III feels like an altogether different game than the first two.
The world of Zork I is vast and vibrant. Its sort-of fantasy, sort-of modern setting and abandoned yet still in-tact structures fills the player with the spirit of adventure - to discover what secrets lie in this land (and many secrets there are!).
Zork II pivots into a curated puzzle box, feeling less like a world and more like a series of vignettes for the player to find and solve. The zaniness of Quendor's history is highlighted here by references to the many subsidiaries of FrobozzCo and the actions of the Flatheads. Where Zork II feels less cohesive and less fair than Zork I, the evolution of the formula and attempts at making puzzles stand out and be unique shines through even where those attempts failed (looking at you, Oddly-Angled Room and Bank of Zork!).
The atmosphere of Zork III is choked and bleak. Darkness covers the land, structures have collapsed, and the only remaining inhabitants of this place are worn, wrinkled husks. Far more than in the first two games, you can *feel* this setting. This is also the first of the trilogy to really feel like it has a narrative. This place has a history, the few people here have lived long, painful lives and have stories to tell.
Unfortunately, what Zork III has gained in narrative skill it has lost in gameplay. Where the previous games tended to favor lock-and-key style puzzles, this one has you interacting with the environment much more. Very positively on the one hand, this adds a very physical and grounding element to the puzzles - they feel much more real and important. But on the other hand the way it does this relies heavily on breaking the rules of how the player has learned to interact with the world. For example, to solve the (Spoiler - click to show)time machine puzzle you must (Spoiler - click to show)push the machine into different rooms. Even ignoring (Spoiler - click to show)the description of the machine suggesting it is likely highly immobile, never in the entire trilogy has the player been able to (Spoiler - click to show)take scenery between rooms with them. The closest analogue would be (Spoiler - click to show)the robot, dragon, or princess in Zork II, but (Spoiler - click to show)those were creatures that were following instructions or acting of their own accord rather than inanimate objects. Or, to (Spoiler - click to show)cross the aqueduct you must (Spoiler - click to show)get there before the earthquake occurs (around move 130 or so). If you have not (Spoiler - click to show)gotten there by then, the game just becomes unwinnable through no fault of your own.
This is also the first game where I ran into a handful of bugs during play which actively made the experience much worse - The first when (Spoiler - click to show)I was somehow able to cross the lake after using the Grue Repellent and still making it through the dark rooms unscathed. After many, many attempts I was never able to replicate this and not having discovered I could (Spoiler - click to show)dive in the lake, I became very frustrated trying to find another solution when I had seen that work. The second was regarding the (Spoiler - click to show)man on the cliff. After you (Spoiler - click to show)trust him and tie the rope to the chest (which is *highly* unintuitive, especially given how shifty he acts) he will lower the rope back down to you. If you then type (Spoiler - click to show)`CLIMB UP` as would be expected, you will actually (Spoiler - click to show)climb down, leaving the chest unopened and the man permanently gone. Instead you need to specifically (Spoiler - click to show)`GRAB ROPE` which admittedly (Spoiler - click to show)is what he tells you to do, but as the intent is to (Spoiler - click to show)go up I would suggest the former is a significantly more intuitive input when both are expected to be synonymous anyway.
The final point too is that although Zork III has a stronger narrative presence than the previous games, it does a poor job capitalizing on that. The very few characters you encounter in the first two games have no semblance of backstory, personality, or characterization. They are all just props on a stage. Here, for the first time, the characters you meet are interesting! They have emotion and hint at a past, but you can't interact with them in any kind of notable way to learn more. There is arguably a reason for this as (Spoiler - click to show)it is revealed they are all the Dungeon Master in disguise, but it still feels hollow. Even after you (Spoiler - click to show)enter the dungeon and are able to interact with the Dungeon Master directly, there is still nothing more to be learned. The final "cutscene" at the end of the game features a very interesting interaction as well, but offers no insight into why it plays out the way it does or what that means for the future.
Ultimately, Zork III does a very good job at thinking outside the box and presenting a wholly different and unique experience compared to its predecessors, both narratively and in terms of puzzle design. It is an interesting experience and absolutely worth the play through, but I did find it the least enjoyable of the three to play (even forgiving the bugs) and while it implies a stronger focus on narrative, it fails to really deliver on that.
