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 music and 360 motion in the game was state of the art in 1997. So many adventure games fail to correctly unfold an interesting plot and story at the beginning but Zork Nemesis raises the bar without giving away too much. The game is also 4 mini games in one with different universes using a strange device to transport you there. The game plunges into the world of alchemy in that a fantastic journey will challenge your imagination and wits as you struggle to solve puzzles. There is a hint mechanism built into the game and a dangerous being called the NEMESIS around every corner of the temple. I found the puzzles to be the most interesting of any adventure game to date.

The Bad
The DOS version takes you away from swapping the many CDs used in the original windows version. The thing that really angered me about ZN was the use of the Zork name with about 3% reference to the great underground empire storyline and the lack of humor. This looks like someone pitched a love story game called Nemesis to Activision and it was somehow piggy-backed onto the Zork franchise with little effort. I have not met many people who actually finished this game as the puzzles are quite challenging.

The Bottom Line
You are challenged to solve the murders of four alchemists that are held prisoner in a coffins in a state of torture while exploring an ancient ruined temple. Then there is a love story intertwined along the story line that puts you at odds not knowing who is your friend and who is your enemy. After first finding each of the four elements to revive each alchemist you must travel to four different universes to finally confront the Nemesis at the climax of the game.

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!