Zork Grand Inquisitor Essential Collection

Product Details

Platform : Windows 95
Binding : Video Game
EAN : 5030917008047
Manufacturer : Activision
Manufacturer's age : 11years and up
Product Group : Video Games

ASIN : B00004UBJ8

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Zork Grand Inquisitor is an adventure game in the tradition of the earlier, text-only Zork games: addictive, challenging and dryly funny. A gorgeous first-person perspective delivers a game experience much like Myst, only within the world of Zork and the Great Underground Empire.

You begin your adventuring career as a Suck-O-Matic sales representative, caught outside the town of Port Foozle after curfew. This in itself is a life-threatening situation, because the town is under martial law. The Inquisition has arrived to stamp out all magic, and petty rule infractions are punishable by death. Soon you've landed in even more hot water, finding a talking lantern and a book of spells. Travelling with this contraband, you encounter a number of bizarre characters and attempt to outwit the Inquisition on your quest to recover the three magic artefacts that will supposedly restore magic to the land.

Zork Grand Inquisitor features super design, great graphics and an interesting story, but its best feature is the famous Zork sense of humour. From the Grand Inquisitor's battle slogan--"I am the boss of you!"--to the snide comments your lantern makes when you get killed, this game will keep adventure fans laughing late into the night. Just be sure to keep a light on, lest you be eaten by a Grue. --Alyx Dellamonica

Customer Reviews

Cannot equal Zork Nemesis! (2003-11-08)

If you are a long-running fan of Zork then I guarantee you will love this game.If like me you come from a Myst background then this is probably not for you.We'll start with the good points. The strongest aspect of the game is the humour. Largely based on satiricalthemes, ironic cliché, sarky comments and varied references to popular culturethe humour is worked very well into the game. Occasionally it gets pointlesslytoo much, and can inhibit gameplay but generally they know when to stop. The most clever part of the game is the Hades parody-those unnecessarilycomplicated phone instructions (in true zorkian style!!) 'delivering you to yourfinal destination;' a skeleton-rowed boat ride across to the gates of Hell, with a666 letterbox and two-headed guard, all for only two pennies. This is certainlythe most successful aspect of Zork Grand Inquisitor. I also like the element of casting spells because it adds a trivial aspect, butit could have been even better if the player was able to look at a situation, thendecide what is needed, and actually have freedom in designing a spell to workout the problem. This would add another dimension to puzzle--solving. Unfortunately, these unique aspects that make this game individual, are letdown by the poor quality in the essential elements of adventure games. First, the environments of the game are not at all immersive or convincingbecause it is like looking at a disjointed series of images. You cannot walk in astraight procession of steps, instead you leap from one scene to another. An example of this is back at the beginning of the game where a signpostindicates a path leading to Port Foozle. When you click on it before you knowwhere you are, you are in the middle of the town! Secondly, the puzzles are just meaningless!! There is no logic or reason tothem. It is more a question of carrying out a correct series of actions otherwisethe results can be fatal. The puzzle inside the dragon's mouth comes to mind. Surely it would be better if the puzzles were something we can relate to. Which leads me on to my third problem. There is simply not enough storyline. The thing I loved about Zork Nemesis, was the amount of subplots addedto enrichen the gaming experience, so I could go back and discover somethingnew every time. I just didn't get this with Zork Grand Inquisitor, it just seemedempty. Some of the concepts of the existing storyline are unexplainable. How cana coconut, a skull and a cube help to restore magic? Fourthly, some of the characters just do not seem real. The dragon and theBrog are just computer-generated 3D models with no texture or rendering, andthey look very odd when set against the background.From having played Zork Nemesis and buying this as the sequel I have tosay I was disappointed with Zork Grand Inquisitor. It lacks in the qualities thatan adventure should have; immersion, exploration, puzzle-solving, story, depthand appeal. If you have played Zork Nemesis, don't be expecting something quite thatgrand and inspiring. Zork Grand Inquisitor is not really worthy as a sequel andit doesn't really equal how much I got out of Zork Nemesis. Maybe Zork Grand Inquisitor would be better as a comedy game in whichit would be more successful in that genre-because the humour did work. If youare a long running Zork fan then you'll probably think Zork Nemesis wasn't upto your expectations, and you'll love this game. So get it, if that is you. But if you are a serious adventurer then I really do not recommend this. It'sdisappointing for an adventure game, and you'd be better off sticking to Myst.** Rory.

Indiana Jones meets Monty Python - in a great adventure (2000-12-15)

This was the first of the Zork series I had played, and I came to it fresh from playing Riven, which has to rate as the most visually stunning, conceptually difficult adventure ever made. So my standards were pretty demanding. But I hugely enjoyed Zork. Visually, the world created is rich and full of atmosphere - much more complex, I'm told, than some of the earlier Zork stuff. From a gaming point of view, some of the brain-teasers are fiendishly cunning and, while not nearly as complex as Riven, they give you a good run for your money. My favourite aspect, though, was the typical Zork brand of humour. This came through abundantly in the plot, in nice performances by the likes of Dirk Benedict as our swashbuckling hero, and in little details in the scenery. Zork Grand Inquisitor has a great blend of goofball humour, action adventure and sensory richness. I warmly recommend it.

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