Christminster

Baf's Guide

A social visit to Biblioll College, Christminster turns to an exploration of alchemical secrets and centuries-old conspiracies when you discover that your brother is missing. A well-developed environment with vivid characters and some quite suspenseful moments. Although not billed as a mystery - and although whodunnit is pretty obvious - much of what the player does in this game is very detective-like. The whole game is very closely tied together; once you've gotten past the front gate, neither the plot nor the map is easily divided into segments. A nice mix of puzzles, including several optional ones. Some puzzles appear to be time-based, but closer scrutiny reveals that time only advances in response to plot events triggered by solving puzzles, so that's nothing to worry about (although there are a few small, local time limits.) One of the few games with a female protagonist. Has a built-in hint system that dispenses hints, not solutions. One item, a map, uses characer graphics, but this can be ignored.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

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5 star: (16) 4 star: (14) 3 star: (3) 2 star: (2) 1 star: (1)

Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 2 Write a review

Annoying, August 20, 2009
I actually couldn't get very far into this game. The interface annoyed me. The rooms did not list the exits, and only sometimes gave hints as to where the exits were in the game description. In order to get a list of the exits, you actually have to try and move in a direction you cannot move in. There is no 'exit' command, there is no feature which lists the exits as many other such games have. Combined with the incredible sparseness of the descriptions, this leads to incredible annoyances. For example in one room on a city street the exits are west and east, but neither direction leads back into that room. Actually, if you head west, you find that heading east leads you to a locked gate, which had nothing to do with the room you were previously in. This is bad room design.

The puzzles I saw in the portion of the game I completed also made little sense. This may be fine for interactive fiction when it was made back in 1995, but seems a bit outdated today. If my brother called me to visit him, why do I have to go through several complicated puzzles to break into his college, instead of just having him meet me outside? Obviously there is an answer - it turns out he's vanished - but the fact that he does not meet you and that you have to break into the college isn't really remarked upon. Honestly, I'm not sure why people rate this one so high...I just found it a bother. I gave it a three because of its age; if it was new I'd give it a two.

Superb stuff, March 29, 2008
In thinking of great IF I keep coming back to this one - it's puzzley but not too puzzley, it executes set-pieces in a way that might even have been novel for its time, and it balances progression and frustration excellently. Add to that the well-rendered setting that changes over time, the characterised NPCs and I think you've got something really special. One of my all-time favourites.

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