Travels in the Land of Erden

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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

Erden is a sprawling, ambitious game which probably does not belong in the competition. This isn't to imply that the game is without merit; on the contrary, it seems to have the potential to become an enjoyable fantasy excursion. However, the game is huge -- I played for two hours and I didn't even visit every location, let alone solve many puzzles. Moreover, Erden could use another few rounds of testing; I found several coding bugs and a plethora of grammar and spelling errors. In my opinion, the best thing that could happen to this game is thorough testing and proofing, then release in the spring of 1998, when we've all recovered from our competition hangover and hunger for substantial new adventures.

This game is very large, and it's not too bad content-wise. There's a number of temples, a town with several shops, a castle with more than 10 rooms, and extensive woodlands, mountains, and so on. This takes several hours to finish.

However, the game has a hard time hinting things. Most rooms are described well, but have few items. It's almost impossible to know how to communicate with individuals.

Laura Knauth went on to write Trapped in a One Room Dilly, which had much better puzzles but only one room. She then wrote Winter Wonderland, a cute, mid-sized game with plenty of rooms but also great puzzles, and it won IFComp. It's interesting to see the author's progress through the different games.

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- DJ (Olalla, Washington), May 9, 2013

- tfbk, January 10, 2008

Baf's Guide

Possibly the largest game ever entered in the competition. You're hunting a dragon, seeking a lost jewel, and generally exploring a rather varied map. Sprawling and diverse, with lots of puzzles, some guess-the-verb problems, and often not much guidance on what to do next, but it has its charm as well--certain actions have large-scale effects in a way that's not commonly done in IF, and there are some multiple solutions and plot twists that keep this one a cut above your average fantasy quest. There's also a helpful on-screen ASCII map. Not earth-shatteringly novel, but enjoyable if you like fantasy.

-- Duncan Stevens