A D V E N T U R E G A M E S
Adventure
| Zork: Nemesis
(Infocom /
Activision)
|
| Boundary-Pushing: Medium |
The first Zork games were simple text adventures with two notable
differences from the Original Adventure written by Crowther and
Woods. First, the Zork games were very good at understanding
user-entered commands, which was an important factor in luring
players who haven't much patience with the simple "verb-subject"
model of most text-based games. Second, the Zork games were
funny. The puzzles were clever, but it was the humor that people
still remember years later. Over the years, Infocom (later
Activision) extended these capabilities of the games set in the
Zork universe. As computer graphics finally began to show up in
every new computer, Zork slowly began to acquire graphical
features. At first these were limited to displaying pictures
describing objects, while control of the game was still driven by
the user entering text commands. The next Zork game (Return to
Zork) finally made the great leap to mouse control. It even
included short live-action video sequences which took advantage of
the new CD-ROM technology. But both mouse interface and CD-ROM
were in their infancy; the result was a game that spent too much
time pushing the envelope and not enough being fun to play. The
next game, Zork: Nemesis, addressed this problem. Again, the
latest advances in technology were adopted, but this time they
were put to use telling a coherent story. The world of Zork was
brought to glorious life in beautifully detailed high-resolution
images seen through a "360-degree" feature by which, at every
location, the player can spin in a circle to view a full
panorama. And it's worthwhile to do so; the artwork in this game
is truly remarkable. But the game itself is worthy of note, too,
as it featured an absorbing storyline that draws the player in to
find out what has happened and why.
|
| Addictiveness: High |
Zork: Nemesis has at least three strong assets which make it
highly addictive: it is gorgeous to look at; it contains some very
clever puzzles to be solved; and it offers multiple live-action
video sequences that reveal important parts of the mystery of the
Nemesis. Although a number of these video segments feature scenes
of graphic emotional or physical violence, and one or two are
sexually suggestive, Zork: Nemesis is nowhere near as gory or
sex-obsessed as either of Sierra On-Line's two Phantasmagoria
graphical adventures. The violence may cause some concern,
particularly in the ethical question raised by the fact that all
the characters appear to accept the violent acts depicted as
justifiable. Otherwise, the only thing keeping the video segments
from being overwhelmingly impressive is the mediocre level of
acting. The plot is excellent, but only one major character
(played by T. Morgan Shepard, the governor of the Klingon penal
colony in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) gives a
truly convincing performance. But this is a quibble; it won't
prevent anyone but a film critic from wanting to keep playing in
order to find out what happens next.
|
| Replayability: Low |
As with most adventure games, once the puzzles are solved and the
game is over there's little incentive to play again. Zork:
Nemesis is no exception to this. Still, in time some gamers may
find themselves replaying it anyway, as the combination of
graphics, ambient sounds and plot combine to create a unique
world. Replaying this game can feel like returning to a favorite
travel destination. On the other hand, Zork: Nemesis surprised a
number of people for its darkness. Despite a few humorous
touches (try playing some of the albums in the Conservatory
backwards), the tone of this game was definitely unlike that of
other games in the Zork milieu. Activision recognized this, and
responded in their next game (Zork: Grand Inquisitor) with a
return to the much lighter tone of the pre-Nemesis games. But in
a way, it's the very darkness of Zork: Nemesis that is responsible
for the "mood" that is so compelling as to increase this game's
replayability. Maybe Activision can start up a separate brand of
graphical adventures....
|
| General |
Until I played Zork: Nemesis, I had pretty much avoided the whole
graphical adventure genre. One of the things I look for in a game
is replayability, and I knew that, once the big puzzle of a
graphical adventure is solved, there's not much point in replaying
the game. It just doesn't seem worth the money to buy a game I'll
only play once or twice. But Zork: Nemesis changed my mind
somewhat. One of the other things I look for is immersiveness...
and if Zork: Nemesis is representative of modern graphical
adventures (and I suspect it is), then these games can be counted
on to only get even better at creating lush, detailed worlds and
captivating plots with which to lure gamers.
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