The Enchanter Review
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You stand at a fork in the road, holding nothing but your spell book. Your mind is dazed from the immensity of recent events: from nowhere, you, a lowly novice enchanter, were summoned into the presence of the august Circle of Enchanters, and charged with an almost impossible task: to enter the domain of the powerful warlock Krill, and destroy him.
As the dawn sun rises over the land, you draw a deep breath, choose your path, and trudge off along a dusty road. Thus begins THE ENCHANTER, the latest member of Infocom's stable of winners. It has all the touches you have come to expect (even demand!) of them: the great command parser, excellent text descriptions, intriguing puzzles, and coherent story line, to name a few. The one difference between this game and most of the other Infocoms is that you know exactly what has to be done from the very start. No guesswork about the ultimate objective is necessary, although that doesn't mean getting there is easy!
In this game, the use of magic is all important. You start out with four spells in your possession, and as you progress, you will find scrolls with other spells written on them (one per scroll). Some of these spells you can "write" into your spell book, thus making them re-usable. However, some are so powerful and complicated that you can't transfer them into your book, and so they can be used only once (the scroll vanishes after use). As you wander through this land of enchantment, you will come across various creatures, some helpful, some not so helpful, and some that are merely red herrings. You will have to determine in which category each of these beings are, and act accordingly.
Also, your actions should be considered with great care: some situations have more than one solution, and choosing the wrong one will put the game hopelessly out of reach. It's always best to save a game before experimenting, and this one is no exception. All sorts of unpleasant things (such as being rated a -10 "menace to society") can happen when you start messing around with magic. Food and water are also important, as well as sleeping: periodically throughout the game, you will be reminded of your body's physical needs and woe unto you if they aren't satisfied!
Finding a water supply and something edible at the beginning of the game is a must. There are also some rather neat tie-ins with the Zork series. If you've played ZORK III, you might recall Scenic View 4, the sacrificial altar and monstrous creatures. Well, you'll learn a little more about them in this game, maybe more than you'd like to! You may also come across a vaguely familiar person in one of the Mirror Rooms.
THE ENCHANTER is a lot of fun to play, especially with some of the deft touches of humour here and there throughout the game. In terms of difficulty, I would rate it as being harder than Planet fall, but not as hard as Suspended or the Zorks. Bottom Line: Another typically excellent game from Infocom.
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