Ray's Adventure Game Rule #9985: Some Games Are Obscure for a Good Reason.

My gaming friends know me as a compulsive completist when it comes to adventure games. I search out the most obscure games I can find, and I like to play any series in order, even if the very first one is (in computer years) a bit on the ancient side.

So. Having never played a Zork game, and since reaching back to the original text games was too extreme a step even for me, I recently dusted off an old copy of the first graphic Zork game, Return to Zork, and fired it up.

The game starts quite promisingly, with a tribute to the original Zork text game. The screen goes black, and you see the following typed text: "You are standing next to a white house. There is a mailbox in front of you." I'm sure this tribute to the original game must have sent shivers down the spine of true-blue Zork fans.

Just how old is this game? It's from 1993, which is old enough that it still has the "Infocom" label on it, though Infocom was already a division of Activision by then.

The graphics of the game are adequate, DOS era-style. Nothing particularly imaginative, though. The best part of the look of the game is the use of video actors for the characters. The cast is colorful, and the performance are surprisingly good. I also must note that RTZ is that rarest of games, one in which the characters are pleasing not only to eye of, say, a 15-year-old straight boy. It's quite rare when the ladies and gay men of who play games are given characters to, uh, appreciate. Thanks, Infocom.

However, other than the hunky blacksmith, the rest of the game doesn't have much to recommend it.

The format of the game is first-person, which is a rarity for games of this era. The interface is reasonably handy.

But. This is the silliest collection of puzzles I've ever seen. RTZ is one of those games that seems to be designed with the philosophy that one game should occupy you for a year or so, and therefore can only be solved by an excessive amount of wandering around and puzzles that are so illogical it's ridiculous.

RTZ made the puzzles in Simon the Sorceror seem organic and mild.

The story and gameplay are also disappointing. I never really understood why I was doing what I was doing, even after reading the volumes of material the game so generously provides. I didn't understand the structure of the whole Zork Universe, and the game didn't offer to help much. Plus, major elements of the story were dropped for no reason--for example, at the beginning of the game a character starts talking to you from a crystal sphere. For the first part of the game he comments, cracks jokes, and offers hints. Then he just shuts up ... for the rest of the game. Why?

I've heard that Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor are well worth playing. I do still look forward to playing them. But now I understand why Return to Zork should be permanently placed in the El Obscuro File.

Final Grade: D

If you liked Return to Zork:
Watch: Mom and Dad Save the World
Read: Anything, rather than play this game
Play: Zork (if you dare)

System Requirements:

IBM PC 486SX or faster
4 MB RAM
10 MB hard drive space available
MS-DOS 5.0
2X CD-ROM drive

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.