Wishbringer

Released in 1985, Infocom's Wishbringer was an attempt to create a simplified adventure to ease new and younger players into the often baffling and brutal world of early text games. Forty years later it may not be the best introduction to IF in general (the story is simple, there's plenty of deaths, a surprise maze, and it's easy to render the game unwinnable within a few turns) but the game remains an excellent and accessible example of old-school text adventure in the Infocom house style. In fact, it's one of the very best text adventures I've ever played.

The story is fairy tale stuff, combined with some early computer nerd wish-fulfillment: you play as a small town postal worker who fantasizes about being a heroic adventurer. Luckily for you, a special delivery to a joke shop turns out to be a ransom note, the proprietor is a witch, and you must set out on a quest to travel across town and rescue her kidnapped kitty with the help of a magical stone which grants wishes. Upon climbing down the town's northern hill, you find that the village of Festeron has been transformed into the dark and threatening Witchville. Like in all good fairy tales, there's a great deal of frightening atmosphere. Some scenes actually gave me the creeps, especially one set in a movie theater. But the darkness is balanced by a lot of whimsy: you're pursued by literal foot soldiers and a hungry mailbox, and just wait till you learn the truth about the (Spoiler - click to show) platypus.

The game's most unique mechanic is the one that seems to annoy people the most. The magical stone Wishbringer can grant seven different wishes, depending on which items you hold. Many items exist only to enable the casting of wishes, though a couple double as solutions to puzzles. Using wishes is optional, a feature intended to provide "easy mode" puzzle solving and give hints to inexperienced players. Here's the rub: you don't receive points for solving puzzles using wishes, meaning that if you want the highest possible score you can't use the titular item at all.

In the game's defense, I think this approach works for Wishbringer's stated purpose of introducing players to text adventures. You can choose to wish your way through puzzles just to enjoy the story, but you are encouraged to solve them through traditional adventure game logic once you feel ready. It's a confidence builder. The wishes also provide the game with replayability: beat it once with wishes, then see the alternative solutions! All this said, in practice the Wishbringer implementation is flawed. There are only a few puzzles that can actually be solved by using wishes, and I'm not sure if I would say that using the wish solutions are easier at all. In fact, I wasn't able to figure out how the wishes were useful for solving the majority of obstacles in the game - the "hard" solutions were easier for me!

The excellent game prose by implementor Brian Moriarty is what elevates Wishbringer above most of its contemporaries. It's funny, evocative, and has that extra literary quality that's present in the best Infocom games. The feelies are minimal but essential for solving a puzzle and wishing, and they contribute a lot to the complex and wistful tone. There's a theme of doubling throughout the game that I found fascinating: there are two versions of the village with two hills on either end, on top of which (Spoiler - click to show) live two witches and two black cats. The doubling theme extends to the gameplay. There are two ways of solving the game, using wishes or using adventure logic. Meta-textually, this echoes the way that there are two ways to play any adventure game: do you follow a walkthrough to experience the story without any challenge, or do take the time and effort to solve the game yourself? But maybe these doubles aren't quite so binary. After all, the name of the "good" town is named Festeron (fester on), implying that there's an element of darkness even in the light.

Contemporary players might find some frustrations in Wishbringer, particularly the harsh timer in the game's opening and a few easily missable but essential items that can softblock your game if you don't get them in time. But I think that even these elements are fun in an old-school way, and their presence helps gently familiarize players with these conventions. This is an excellent game for those who want to get into classic IF or experience a simple but satisfying adventure.