Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands

The Good
Superb ambience. Look, feel and soundtrack all come together for a haunting experience. Strong backstory which one discovers piece by piece and retroactively, until the full picture of what happened becomes clear.

When first released, this game got severely bum-rapped by people who claimed that it wasn't Zorky enough. It has very few laughs, and the references to other Zork games could be omitted without fundamentally changing the story. Both are specious complaints. Except for Zork Zero (and later Zork Grand Inquisitor), both very funny and self-referential games, most Zork games are neither funny nor self-referential. Try finding any laughs in Zork II or Zork III, for example. There may be a couple, but that's not what either game is about. Or other Zork universe games, such as Enchanter, or Spellbreaker, neither one a comedy, by any stretch. Even Beyond Zork, once you can get past the idea of a quest for a Coconut, is a fairly straightforward game. As for the references to other Zork games being dispensable, that can equally be said of virtually every other Zork game.

In actuality, in tone and feel, Zork Nemesis is closer in tone and feel to the original Zork 1 than perhaps any other game. Both are basically serious games, with excursions into dark and mysterious territory, that are broken up by bits of dark, wry humor, largely in the form of surreal written messages, and odd mixtures of ancient and modern technology. Zork 1 has better puzzles, but Nemesis has a stronger plot.

The Bad
Most of the puzzles in the game are of the "Find the secret code" variety. A locked door, a machine or some such cannot be used until the code to open or activate it can be found in a book, a note, or some such place. As a result, if you have all the codes written down, you can blitz through the game without having to discover them. It's Hot Lever-Pulling Action, a la Myst, except Zork Nemesis puts it all together ten times better than Myst does.

The Bottom Line
One of the best Zork games. Both a good game and good Zork. For all but hard core hard puzzle solvers.

The Good
The graphics in this game are excellent. It has a dark, foreboding atmosphere that is only occasionally lightened up by the typical Zorkian sense of humor. I liked the size of this game...each "section" of this game is about as long as some whole games I've played. Puzzles are difficult but logical and are usually well integrated into the storyline.

The Bad
The only thing I would say is that some puzzles were a bit too difficult, but none were impossible for the average adventure gamer.

The Bottom Line
If you are familiar with other Zork games, that will not help you here. While there are many references to the usual Zorkian placenames, objects, and historical events, this game is much darker in tone. The puzzles are challenging, the graphics are wonderful, and the story keeps you interested through to the end. I highly recommend this game!

The Good
Its a fantastic game about a lost couple challenged by four alchemists. You wander around a temple, using it as a junction to travel to the four homes of the Alchemists. Each home holds a part of the puzzle of the temple.

While many didn't like the darker mood of the game, Its not without lighter moments, particularly the frozen morgue. The atmosphere of each home blended in the puzzles. The artistry in the design was unbelievable. The artists used techniques of tapestry and oil paintings to embellish the 3-D rendered structures.

The homes of each Alchemists tells a story. While this is a worn out practice in adventure games, ZN brings a life and color to the stories that sparks the curiosity of the player. The images and stories are full of intrigue.

The sound and music are well done, and appropriately spooky. The acting is decent if not spectacular.

The puzzles will work your brains. They are logical and seamless with the story. No obscure steps to take. Disc swapping wasn't as bad as others.

The Bad
Configuring it to work with DOS. It plays much better with Windows. If you can, purchase Zork Grand Inquistor on DVD. It will have the entire Zork Nemesis game on it as well.

The Bottom Line
An underated classic that had a really good story.