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Review
When Infocom disbanded, Steve Meretzky was hired by up-and-coming Legend Entertainment to continue text adventures and compete with Sierra in the adventure game industry. While Legend’s first offering wasn’t entirely polished, and did not have very good sound support, Meretzky certainly did his job to jump start the company and this series.
Legend did their best to try and appeal to all types of adventurers with their new engine. The game has dozens of still graphics, which can be turned on or off. You can also have different status screens available, such as a map, or nothing at all as if you were playing an old text adventure. That said, the graphics are grainy in this offering, and many of the status screens are either unnecessary or clunky.
But where Spellcasting shines is the wit and design of its author. Resembling one of his older offerings, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, you have the option of playing in naughty or nice mode. There is no nudity, but the sexual undertones and jokes certainly crank up under ‘naughty.’
You play Ernie Eaglebeak, an aspiring magician who has escaped your abusive home to attend Sorcerer University. And to get all the girls! The game is fairly linear, though there are many time-limited puzzles, albeit easy ones. A majority of the puzzles therein revolve around wordplay (a la Nord & Bert), a major attraction for myself.
Overall, this is an average offering from a company that wound up releasing many excellent games during the 90’s. If you are a fan of Steve Meretzky or language puzzles, or just want to see where Legend started, you’ll probably like this game.
