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Review
I looked forward to playing this game, as I know Phil Riley tends to make polished, well-written games. I found this game to have all the main ingredients I like in parser games: interesting/systematic puzzles, lots of conversation (including in German (!)), a well-made hint system and lots of descriptions.
You play as an Indiana Jones-type character fighting the Nazis during WWII. Jumping out of a plane, you parachute down to a desert where the ruins of a fascinating civilization jut out of the rocks. Interspersed with your nazi fighting, you have flashbacks to the beautiful woman you left behind.
The game was good, but my brain didn't interface with it properly. I died a lot because I misunderstood what was going on. A couple of times I thought I had locked myself out of victory 50 turns before and reloaded an old save (once I was wrong, but I'm not sure about the other). Even in the opening, I tried a lot of commands that didn't work (X DARK, LOOK FOR SIGNAL, X DESERT), and for some reason I couldn't make a mental map of the opening areas, most of which is empty rooms (though almost all rooms had a purpose in the end). And near the end I used all hints for several things but still didn't understand what I was meant to do due to weird choices I could make.
But, I suspect others will not encounter this. I tend to play by the seat of my pants, not making a map and not taking notes or planning carefully. Those who do such things will likely avoid the pitfalls I found.
