Zork Anthology Reviews

fun and relaxing

old school and fun figuring it out

Knowing that these game is a big part of gaming history, I really wanted to like them, but I just couldn't get myself to enjoy them. My experience was more mixed than entirely negative though. The writing is neat, some of the puzzles are clever, and it is cool to play a game where the visuals are left up to your imagination, but I just found playing through this game to be too slow and tedious: [list] [*] There are no visuals in this game. That does create a neat experience where you're forced to mentally visualize everything, but as someone who doesn't do great with written directions, I struggled to understand where I was most of the time, and the confusing layout of the rooms didn't help. Trying to write down a map (using a neat application I found called Trizbort) helped a little, but even that was difficult, and it was extremely tedious as well. [*] These games came from an era where the game manuals were often very important, and these particular games came with written hints that you could reveal when you were stuck as well. However, this game only includes two manuals out of the six, so you miss vital information such as the SAVE and RESTORE commands for saving/loading games (which I didn't know about for hours). I played the Zork games on my iPhone years ago, and that app included all the manuals and hints, so it's definitely doable. I was disappointing to learn that they aren't included with this game. [*] The game is missing some very basic QOL features, like pressing up to scroll through previous commands, or even the ability to scroll up and see what happened previously. I understand this is how the games were played years ago, but adding some basic features that just make the game less tedious would have been nice. [*] It's pretty easy to play these games online for free, so it also makes it a bit harder to justify spending money on it. [/list] As such, I can't recommend this game. If you've played these games before, if you really want to experience a neat piece of gaming history, or if you're a hard-core text-based adventure player, you might enjoy playing through this game, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else.

You have any idea how old this game is I had this back in 1985. When I was in 7th grade on my home computer..it a text adventur game..no graphics..fun at that time

I love this series- but it's going to be hard for most people to get into them. However, Zork Zero, the last text-based entry, is in my opinion my favorite. It's designed by Steve Meretzey, features a more visually interesting interface, built-in hint system (with some fun inside), and a storyline that is really fun especially if you read the feelies. I beat all these games when I was young boy, and while today they may be hard to get into, I can assure you if you give Zork Zero a chance, you won't be disappointed with either the writing or puzzles.