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Zork:
Grand Inquisitor ESRB Rating: Teen |
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Few game franchises have survived long enough to say they started as a decades-old text game and I'd be hard pressed to name any other than Zork. Thirteen games. Think about that. Name another game franchise that could say they're up to that many (Final Fantasy is only on 10). Granted the stories have become a bit convoluted, but the beauty of the Zork nonsense and irony base is that each game is clearly accessible to newcomers. Initiates will come across so many whacky things that you'll never be completely sure what is a legacy joke or reference from the series, and what is a true unique moment in Grand Inquisitor. I'm not a fan of reviews that blow my time with lengthy history lessons gleaned from cutscenes or instruction booklets, and I certainly won't try and understand all the intentionally goofy Zork history here. Suffice to say that the game takes place as the Empire of Zork is under the iron-fisted, magic-banishing rule of the Grand Inquisitor. Across 20 years Zork has been appealing and inviting those looking for a rewarding way to spend their free time. It remains the best-selling series of all-time. To those new to Zork, welcome to the most recent iteration, Zork:Grand Inquisitor. But why bother to bring a nearly 4 year old PC game to the Mac? Won't it be graphically inferior (remember that many gamers judge a game solely by the visual leap it makes)? Did it sell some ungodly amount of copies that it just begged for porting? I've got news for you. If you judge a game by the FPS, stop reading. If you judge a game by the number of copies it sells, stop reading. If you are willing to consider a fabulously priced port of a delightful game that you don't need to be on Mountain Dew Code Red to click fast enough in, then you'll enjoy Zork. For goodness sakes, the game features Spinal Tap's Michael McKean chatting away at you like a personal DVD commentary, Rip Taylor as a guard, and regular appearances by Face from the A-Team(Dirk Benidict) as a mock-Indiana Jones character. And there's even more than that to be uncovered... Now, I do realize there must be a cache of people (particularly young ones) who may give a collective "huh?" at that list. Bear with me, I'm just tapping on the collective heads of the older crowd. Interface The game interface is nothing to rejoice about or condemn. Point, click, drag. Got it? There should be little complaining here. The inventory, quickly accessed by a sliding bar on the upper left, provides quick access to all the unlikely (and humorously typical) things you might pick up along the way. The opposite side provides a slider to all the spells you pick up along the way (equally hilarious, timely and inviting). In Zork games, you will pick up things that I garuntee you will never see in a typical inventory. The entire concept of the inventory "easter egg" gag item in other games comes from the sharp Zork games of yore and Z:GI plays right along like a champ. Oh, and if it looks like a "normal" object one might find in an adventure, just wait. There's a second way to look at your inventory, after you hit a hotkey... This sort of bag-open-on-a-table view includes any interesting friends you might pick up, a viewer for trying to figure out what some items even are, and your spellbook where you can look up what your spells mean. Part of the appeal of a game like Z:GI comes from having played the Mystian games at all. Note I didn't say "enjoy" there. The omission is important. I'll concede that if the interface of Point-Click-Solve games irritates the hell out of you, you may not like Z:GI- but the game has enough gags at the expense of the Myst series and clones that you'll probably be entertained. In fact, its as if the careful and witty eye of Zork has turned from what used to be jokes subtly (and sometimes not-so subtly) at the Dungeons & Dragons playing crowd, are now being tossed to the computer adventurers. That's Entertainment The humor in Z:GI doesn't simply take on the form of audio/script references, but also the manic and often totally-left-field way you have to think to solve puzzles. This may sound aggravating, but there is nothing more ironically satisfying than solving a long-standing Zork puzzle; This is mainly because the answer, inevitably, was sitting there the whole time, waiting for the audience to pick up the punchline. It is a smart game. Don't let the sometimes easy humor distract you from appreciating the even bigger humor at work. Try everything, but be prepared that the game carries a cache of jokes at the expense of the typical gamer, dutifully clicking his or her way through the inventory trying to match up a puzzle, or providing an incredibly complicated looking puzzle, with several steps to throw you off, only to learn you had to cheat, literally, to complete it. |
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More Than A Pretty Face Another welcome distraction is the game's visual style. While the 360 degree viewing concept may not be ground-breaking, combined with the simple interface, it makes the game perfect for even a low grade portable (read: my iBook) to simmer along to without missing any of the beautiful detail created for the game. It's easy, between the cameos, humor, references to old games, puzzle solving and inventory wrangling, to take the very intricate, fantasy/future/contemporary visual world for granted. That's not to say that it's easy to ignore it, the styles employed are slickly incorporated into gameplay, but I think it would be easy for someone unsure as to whether to try this game to overlook the obvious care that has gone into the graphics. It's not the Z:GI's team's fault we've become so jaded on our expectations, but for those who give this game a shot, you should be pleasently surprised at the immersive world they have created. Some possible worries you might have: Still, I've never played a Zork game. Will I be totally lost? If you weren't, you wouldn't be in a Zork game. But it's a blissful ignorance. Those who have played Zork have a 10% better time insofar as they will recognize familiar Zork settings or concepts (but they won't have much more of an advantage in solving the puzzle). I've bought lots of Myst, or Myst-clones and have become increasingly bored with the genre, is this worth a shot? You'll wish you'd played this earlier. Plus, the more money you've dumped into Myst interface games, the more enjoyment you're liable to get laughing at the situations that poke fun at them. What does it cost? I'm saving for _____ (insert Icewind Dale, Halo or whatever here) MacPlay is selling this game from their website for twenty bucks, and you might be able to find it lower elsewhere. It comes in the cool and appropriate DVD-size case (at least not encased in the absurdly wasteful cardboard game boxes at first) and includes a PDF manual that you're not very likely to ever look at. |
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Multi Player-Hater Here's a riddle from the current Mac version of Z.G.I. : What's on the back of the box, mentioned in the quick reference, even on the MacPlay website, but invisible in the game? Answer: Surprise, surprise, it's a multiplayer option! Now while I know the "white sheet of death" is a common horse to kick in the Mac Gaming industry (wherein multiplayer is promised and bragged upon all over the box but absent from the game except for a "coming soon" insert hidden in the packaging) but Zork doesn't even have the sheet. It's something you find in a feature blurb and there are key-commands lingering in the inside-quick reference, but the multiplayer isn't mentioned anywhere, including the PDF Manual on the disks. That being said, the game does not need a multiplayer, and from what I have read on the PC side of the multiplayer coin (where it did occur in a Java form) it wasn't all that great anyway. So why leave in any mention of it? Who knows... Another witty Zork joke? Conclusion I am not about to sell this game as the best thing on the market, or even the best thing that MacPlay is selling right now (more on that as we continue our suite of game reviews). But I will say that this is an enjoyable game, of fun depth and setting, of hours of play and of tremendous potential to make you laugh your ass off. It's a game you don't have to take seriously (and if you do, then the joke is certainly on you). If you get stuck, jump online and grab a walkthrough hint. There is no reason to feel guilty with this game. Its fun, and it's only $20- for over 15 hours of gameplay (took me 16 to finish it). Sure, there's no multiplayer even after quixotic references stashed on the box, but hell, it's practically stylish not to include alluded-to multiplayer options nowadays. First Impressions: • Michael McKean! • OS X compatible, but still runs in OS 9 for those yet to switch. •Where's the multiplayer? • Easy to learn, hard to grasp without laughing.
Game isn't simple, but it's also not serious. • Well worth the twenty dollars. FINAL VERDICT: ------------- Look for more Mac game reviews coming soon! |
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