Ad Verbum

by Nick Montfort profile

Humor, Wordplay
2000

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(28)
4 star:
(77)
3 star:
(21)
2 star:
(6)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 132
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- egostat (1st Level, Abyss), October 13, 2023

- Tabitha / alyshkalia, September 27, 2023

- gattociao, August 16, 2023

- Hikari Starshine, May 22, 2023

- biscuit, April 30, 2023

- WorstPunk, September 29, 2022

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

Up until about halfway through Ad Verbum, I found that it was very well prepared to handle anything I threw at it. However, as I moved to other puzzles, it started to reject perfectly valid commands, which caused me to lose faith in the game with distressing speed, despite how impressed I had been with it up until then. After that frustrating period, I turned to the help and didn't try very hard to solve the rest of the puzzles, which is a shame because some of them were really excellent puzzles.

The problem is that because Ad Verbum requires such specific input, when it isn't prepared to handle what little input is valid under its rules, it seems much more broken than does a typical IF puzzle when it rejects alternate solutions. I can't say I blame it -- frankly, I'm astonished by how well coded it is already, even despite what it still lacks -- but that didn't make my experience any more fun when the game was rejecting correct answers.

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- TheBoxThinker, January 28, 2022

- Titania Lowe, January 24, 2022

- tmack, October 14, 2020

- Xuan Li, July 1, 2020

- Zape, June 23, 2020

Aligning Alliterative Aspirations: Admirable. Accompanied Accoutrements: Average, June 7, 2020

I decided to give this game a try as it seemed right up my alley. Spurred by the positive reviews on sections with alliteration, I was excited for the ways my vocabulary might be challenged, and I'll tell you, those sections are every bit as engaging as the other reviews say. The effort put into the descriptions in these alliteration rooms was very impressive, and they meshed perfectly with the interactive fiction medium. I think it was worth playing just for those sections. Most of the other areas, with the exception of the library, were mostly a bit frustrating for me. There was a particular puzzle with a certain animal that gave me a headache, not for the core of the puzzle, but figuring out how to format the text to enter. In the end I did need to consult the hint sections for multiple puzzles, and part of it was the un-intuitiveness, thus the 4 stars. I would play an entire game of alliterative word puzzles any day though.

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- Katrisa (Houston), May 7, 2020

- kierlani, March 30, 2020

- IanAllenBird, December 14, 2019

- querent, November 15, 2019

Exciting English exercises, entertaining enigmas. Expect ennui expunged. Enjoy!, May 10, 2019

by deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN)

Like Infocom's Nord & Bert, Montfort created an essentially plot free game for Americans with a love for wordplay. Also similar to its predecessor, there is a built-in hint system that will ensure you don't get stuck.

While I adore Ad Verbum, its best puzzle is easily the first one you're likely to encounter, that being the compass rose rooms. The descriptions and responses to valiant attempts to escape these rooms are some of the wittiest I've seen in interactive fiction. I was delighted when trying to leave the south room when (Spoiler - click to show)"skedaddle" worked. I also rather enjoyed the library room. Like others have mentioned, I was disappointed that several puzzles have very little to do with classic wordplay (and aren't terribly interesting), and the Latin pig understands less than he should.

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- elias67, March 12, 2019

- mrfrobozzo, January 17, 2019

- Spike, December 19, 2018

- Ploppy, December 16, 2018

- Vigorish (Bradenton, Florida ), November 15, 2018

- yaronra, July 16, 2018

- wisprabbit (Sheffield, UK), June 17, 2018


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