I loved text-based games as a kid. My favorite was The Labyrinth on the Commodore 64 based on the movie of the same name by LucasArts, Jim Henson, starring David Bowie. You had control to do some hilarious things, such as eating things you find in your pocket. Eat + Movie Ticket = "You force yourself to eat your movie ticket. It tastes surprisingly good."
Choose-your-own-adventure books were the same deal. The choices were crucial, with everything have a big impact on the story. I would always re-read to see what other options I could have taken.
For the 360, it's nice to see a game that values the power of the imagination. I don't always need stellar graphics to tell me what I should be seeing. That, and you can't complain about the price. Even avatar clothing items don't come this cheap.
Icrontic will likely be reviewing this game soon, so stay tuned.
This isn't a text adventure. Text Adventures were actually a genre and they had parsers so you could communicate with them in simple english sentences. This is a bunch of goto statements reminiscent of the find your fate type of game books popular in the late 80's. One problem. Most of the find your fate books, had maps, pictures, and other niceties that this game doesn't. Another begger asking for free money on XBLIG!
I would argue that those "parsers" were no better than selecting from a menu of valid choices. I played a great many text adventures back in my day (in fact, I wrote one as a project to learn GFA Basic on my old Atari ST), and the choices were so limited that you may as well have had a menu of valid options, as it would have saved a great deal of time.
Nostalgia goggles are often rose-colored. If you were to sit down and play an original Infocom game like Ballyhoo or Wishstone, you may remember how incredibly frustrating the parser could be...
Nostalgia goggles are often rose-colored. If you were to sit down and play an original Infocom game like Ballyhoo or Wishstone, you may remember how incredibly frustrating the parser could be...
Well-said, and I agree. Having played more than a few text adventures in my day, the plain English parsers accepted so few inputs as valid that they might as well have simply programmed a list of canned options.
The end result would have been the same, and they would have been easier to play and code.
Oh, I understand what you're arguing, but you're missing my point: While "technically" a parser is an entirely different animal—and this Zedventure doesn't contain one, clearly—my point is that in the end, it doesn't really matter. What matters is the picture that the story paints.
To argue that Text Adventures require a parser to be considered as Text Adventures seems a bit contrived to me. I'm going to agree with primesuspect and Thrax on this.
I'm a little more interested in how popular this game might be. Who's the target audience? Hopefully the generation that missed out on Text Adventures growing up get a great example of how all the graphics and physics and whatever isn't required for an enjoyable gaming experience.
As I remember them, a large amount of the appeal inherent in these games was figuring out what the game understood as input, and how you could combine various actions and items to advance the story. Frustrations aside, it's a little different when you can finish/win with a predetermined sequence of commands that amounts to nothing more than up/down/enter
I saw someone paying it the other day. It's not as frustrating as old text adventures when it came to figuring out what to do but otherwise it was great.
I bought it. and while not as in depth as like zork or other games, it's well worth the money spent. and you dont spend hours wondering around trying to remember where you are or were or anything else.
Comments
Choose-your-own-adventure books were the same deal. The choices were crucial, with everything have a big impact on the story. I would always re-read to see what other options I could have taken.
For the 360, it's nice to see a game that values the power of the imagination. I don't always need stellar graphics to tell me what I should be seeing. That, and you can't complain about the price. Even avatar clothing items don't come this cheap.
Icrontic will likely be reviewing this game soon, so stay tuned.
Nostalgia goggles are often rose-colored. If you were to sit down and play an original Infocom game like Ballyhoo or Wishstone, you may remember how incredibly frustrating the parser could be...
Well-said, and I agree. Having played more than a few text adventures in my day, the plain English parsers accepted so few inputs as valid that they might as well have simply programmed a list of canned options.
The end result would have been the same, and they would have been easier to play and code.
I'm a little more interested in how popular this game might be. Who's the target audience? Hopefully the generation that missed out on Text Adventures growing up get a great example of how all the graphics and physics and whatever isn't required for an enjoyable gaming experience.
...You cannot do that
Pick up Rock
...You pick up rock and throw it at the troll
...You hit him and anger him
...You die