Tag: Adventure Games

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From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Inscape
Tested on	LC475 (25MHz 68LC040)
Gameplay	4 / 5 apples
Graphics & Sound	5 / 5 apples
Interface	5 / 5 apples
Difficulty	2 / 5 apples
Bugs	5 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jon Ostenson

Ever wanted to be a character in an Edgar Allen Poe horror story? Well, here’s your chance. In The Dark Eye you are cast into the roles of a variety of characters in any one of four of Poe’s chilling stories (The Tale-Tell Heart, Berenice, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Masque of the Red Death). You will have the opportunity to be both victim to and perpetrator of malicious and atrocious acts. Along the way you will come to know the characters you play quite well, almost too well.

Gameplay & Interface
The Dark Eye is an interesting game with an interesting approach. You take on the persona of two characters in each of the four stories, and things don’t really happen in a linear format. Throughout the “playing” of one story, you might switch between characters (by “soul jumping”) two or three times. This characteristic of the game offers a unique perspective to the challenges you’ll have to fulfill. And moving from story to story is also very non-linear: simply find the right “portal” in the old house that serves as a backdrop to your nightmare adventures.
The Dark Eye’s interface is commendable. You control a hand cursor that changes to reflect the actions you can perform in a certain spot. For example, if you move the hand to the left or right of your screen, it will change into a pointing finger (if you can move in that direction, of course). The hand also changes to signal special interactions with objects. One interesting and effective interaction allowed in the game is to”caress” objects, evoking memories in your mind that often serve as clues or hints. The hand is about all there is to the interface–there is no inventory of items or anything like that here.

Difficulty & Replayability
The game’s free and non-linear gameplay is admirable and enjoyable, but if you’re familiar at all with these works by Poe, you won’t find a lot challenge in this game. In fact, the most challenging part of the game won’t be figuring out what you need to do, but how to get your on-screen persona to do it. And even if you aren’t all that familiar with Poe’s work, if you finish a segment as one character, you’ve already seen what the other character needs to do (you need to go through each story as both characters before you can call it finished), thus destroying the challenge.
It is interesting, though, to see the same incident through another character’s eyes. And the game’s creators have added interesting touches to the stories that allow you to come to know the characters (Especially the victims) more intimately. For example, when you play the role of the old man in The Tale-Tell Heart, you are allowed to explore his room and handle his belongings, something which gives insight into who the old man is. Little touches like this add to the game’s overall effect on the player.

Graphics & Sound
What The Dark Eye lacks in difficulty, it makes up in graphics and sound. This game is about the closest any game I’ve played has come to that elusive “interactive movie” term. The graphics are very effective, well-drawn and emitting a really spooky feeling.The characters you interact with are also convincing, even though they all tend to look a lot alike and none of their mouths move while they talk (which I’ve always found ineffective anyway). The Dark Eye’s music track is also quite appealing–it is never intrusive and always comes in at just the right moment with just the right mood. Although there is a bit of sitting and waiting in this game, it’s made more enjoyable because of the graphics and music.

Find a copy

The Dark Eye has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for The Dark Eye on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.

This post has affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

From the archive: this review first ran on the Mac Gaming Alliance (MGA), the Mac games site that lived here on DimensionZ in the late 1990s. It was published around 1998 and is reproduced as originally written. More in the Mac Gaming Alliance archive.

Publisher	Activision
Tested on	Macintosh Quadra 605 (25MHz 68LC040)
Gameplay	5 / 5 apples
Interface	4 / 5 apples
Difficulty	4 / 5 apples
Bugs	5 / 5 apples
Overall	4 / 5 apples
Reviewed by	Jon Ostenson

North of House

You are facing the north side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded up. To the north a narrow path winds through the trees.

>look at the house

The house is a beautiful colonial house which is painted white. It is clear that the owners must have been extremely wealthy.

>go north

Forest Path

This is a path winding through a dimly lit forest. The path heads north-south here. One particularly large tree with some low branches stands at the edge of the path.

>climb up the tree

Up a Tree

You are about 10 feet above the ground nestled among some large branches. The nearest branch above you is above your reach.
Beside you on the branch is a small bird’s nest.
In the bird’s nest is a large egg encrusted with precious jewels, apparently scavenged by a childless songbird. The egg is covered with fine gold inlay, and ornamented in lapis lazuli and mother-of-pearl. Unlike most eggs, this one is hinged and closed with a delicate looking clasp. The egg appears extremely fragile.

If the above snippet (from the game Zork) looks familiar to you, you’ll no doubt be interested in Activations re-release of the original Infocom classic adventure games. Back in the days of 8-bit computers and before the likes of Myst, Infocom was king–their text adventure games challenged thousands (myself included). Infocom has since disappeared, and Activision now owns the rights to these games. In their re-release, they’ve placed most of Infocom’s original games on five CD-ROMs divided by genre (Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Comedy, and Science Fiction).
These games (over thirty in all) will take you just about anywhere: from being a deck-swabbing ensign aboard an interstellar cruiser to an intrepid explorer in the Great Underground Empire to a detective struggling to unravel the twisted motives and clues behind a grisly murder. The stories range from serious drama to lighthearted poking fun at the government. No matter what your preferences, there’s sure to be a game in this collection that will strike your fancy.

Gameplay & Interface

Since these games were created during the era of the 8-bit computer, you won’t find dazzling 3D graphics and effects, nor is there any mouse-driven navigation. Gameplay takes place by means of a command-line interface; you “communicate” with your on-screen alter ego through conversational sentences and commands (i.e., “Take the bottle then give it to the hobo”). Infocom developed a remarkable parser that understands more than you’d imagine (sometimes, too, more than you’d want it to understand). The parser makes navigating through areas and manipulating objects relatively easy, although it does have its limits. Communicating with the game can sometimes be frustrating if you don’t know exactly what the parser expects you to type.
While these games may seem austere and backwards by toady’s standards, the stories are as complex and challenging as the best games on the market today. Each game is sure to keep you involved for hours as you try and find your way to a solution. One of the keys to succeeding at text adventure games like these is making maps and reading every single word that the computer spits out at you. You will consult your map quite frequently, as exploration is also vital to completing these games.
If you do remember the days when these games came from Infocom, you’ll also remember Infocom’s clever packaging. Make-believe ID cards, parchments, and even “Don’t Panic!î buttons were standard fare. Unfortunately, Activision has not reproduced exactly these ingenious extras. Documentation is not sparse, though, and each game’s original manual has been reproduced along with as many accouterments as possible. Most games also include maps to aid you in navigating through the game’s complex story.
Difficulty & Replayability
Infocom’s games are well-known for being difficult. Each game presents a nice combination of difficult and less-difficult puzzles that provide nice variety throughout the game. The nice things about these games, since they are quite old, is that hints and solutions are readily available on the Web. While you probably won’t get stuck too often, there are bound to be a few puzzles in each game that are just stumpers but that’s all a part of the fun!). The stories are all basically linear (with only a couple of exceptions), so there isn’t really any opportunity for replayability.

Conclusion
If you remember the original Infocom series, these games are worth it just for nostaligia’s sake. But even if the concept of text adventures is new to you, you’ll find a depth and complexity to these stories and your ability to interact with them that is rarely found in today’s more graphical adventures.

Find a copy

Infocom Collections has been out of print for years, but used copies of the original Mac release still turn up, and some classics have been re-released for modern systems. Search for Infocom Collections on Amazon.

Ratings use the MGA’s original 1–5 apple scale. Prices, system requirements and web links in this review are from the time it was written.