Please consider a donation to the Higher Intellect project. See https://preterhuman.net/donate.php or the Donate to Higher Intellect page for more info. |
Return to Zork
Released under Infocom in 1993.
Return to Zork is an amazing accomplishment on many levels. Unlike many CD-ROM games, the incorporation of live actors is actually well done and the characters effectively draw you into the mythical land. From the old drunk at the windmill station to the giggly witch in the swamp, you interact with believable characters as you explore a wonderful and sometimes terrifying world. For older gamers, Zork is a text adventure come to life. In the days before multimedia enhancement, one of the most popular forms of gaming was interactive fiction. Reading lines of text, you entered a few simple commands at the end of each scenario and were taken to the next level of the story. Depending on the choice you made, the story would take multiple twists and turns. Infocom’s original Zork was based on Adventure, a very early computer game created on a mainframe at Stanford.
In Return to Zork, live characters are seamlessly integrated into the 3-D rendered landscape. Like Myst, much of the Zork world has been turned into a barren wasteland, but there are still enough people to talk to, so that you can find out where everyone went. To get to the bottom of things, you need to gather as many off-the-wall artifacts as you can, solving puzzles long the way. Some aspects of Return to Zork are so complicated that even veteran gamers will end up frustrated (you really need a Strategy Guide to get you through this one) but overall, the game is an perfect example of how multimedia can and should spice up the adventure game format.