External Links


erudite.gam
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
Walkthrough and map
by David Welbourn

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

The Erudition Chamber

by Daniel Freas profile

Fantasy
2003

(based on 25 ratings)
2 reviews

Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best Puzzles - 2003 XYZZY Awards

4th Place - 9th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2003)

Editorial Reviews

IF-Review
Warrior Needs Hint, Badly
Simply presenting a challenge is insufficient: it's the writer's job to motivate the player to want to take on that challenge. Usually, this means the promise of a reward: the reward of good prose. Funny responses to commands, interesting plot developments, that sort of thing. The Erudition Chamber falls short on these counts. In fact, the game is seriously hobbled by the prose that comprises it. The author repeatedly misuses commas, misspells words, and gets verb forms wrong. (Adam Cadre)
See the full review

SPAG
I loved the way situations had multiple and logical solutions. It was compulsive in a self-assessing way because you just had to find out which sect fitted you best. I also loved the way doors disappeared behind you as new areas were entered. I was left in no doubt that I should go forward with the equipment in my current inventory. No fifty-move treks across the map to retrieve an essential object discarded earlier. (Virginia Gretton)
See the full review

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

Troubled prose... always weakens a game for me, and it's a pity, because this game is pretty strong in lots of other areas. I found no bugs, which always pleases me, especially in a comp game. It's certainly a quantum leap in quality over Freas' last work (Grayscale), and I feel encouraged that his next game may take the ingenuity shown by Erudition Chamber and combine it with the level of polish needed to make the gameplay experience as enjoyable as it should be.
See the full review

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(1)
4 star:
(10)
3 star:
(11)
2 star:
(3)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 2
Write a review


8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting concept, not a strong story, July 10, 2011

The premise of the Erudition Chamber is that the protagonist is being put through a series of tests in order to determine which of four sects -- Warrior, Alchemist, Artisan, Seer -- he belongs to.

To this end, each chamber contains a puzzle with multiple solutions; each of the possible solutions is associated with a given personality trait. There's also some add-on effect, in that certain equipment can be lost or used up if you follow certain solutions. It's an experiment with the idea that the player is essentially defining a character through the way he chooses to act in the world. We see that in RPGs all the time (e.g. in games where you can earn melee experience points every time you swing your sword), but less frequently in IF.

All this said, I'm not sure how well the game actually works as an assessment of personal problem-solving skills. Some of the puzzle solution styles are much more obvious than others, and I found that rather than play through the puzzles as a personality test, I quickly started to try to game the system. Getting the Warrior sect point by bashing through something was usually the easiest option, but also therefore the least satisfying, and it was more fun to try for some other approach. Completist players will likely want to find all four solutions to every puzzle.

The writing is not as interesting. The story, such as it is, is all about being tested. It feels pretty artificial, both in the idea of setting up this test in the first place and in the lore that goes with the various puzzle-solving styles. There's a lot to read about, say, what it means to be a Seer, but very little sense of characters or of the broader setting that would make this kind of world possible.

Personally, I found this piece more interesting as a kind of essay about interactivity and the ways a game might detect and adapt to player preferences than as entertainment. But that's still definitely worth checking out for people who are interested in those questions.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A shortish game with four paths through each puzzle, February 3, 2016

In this game, you're being tested to see if you belong to warriors (who use force), artisans (who use mechanical skills), alchemists (who alter the chemical nature of things), or seers (who look at and think about everything).

You are given four puzzles, each of which can be solved in any of the four ways. At the end, you are given one of 6 possible endings, depending on which route you picked.

I enjoyed this game; I tried the seers route first, and got through all the puzzles without a walkthrough.

I then tried the warrior path, but had to use a walkthrough.

Overall, a fun short game. If you are interested in this kind of personality-test-via-choices, as I was, you will like this game.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

The Erudition Chamber on IFDB

Recommended Lists

The Erudition Chamber appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Richly simulated worlds by Emily Short
IF in which the setting is especially deeply simulated, especially works that implement traditionally difficult systems (fire, liquid, ropes, recording devices, etc).

Noteworthy Games Which Can't Be Played on the Web by Walter Sandsquish
Because TADS 2 is still missing a TADS Web UI or Glk server or a JavaScript 'terp.

Polls

The following polls include votes for The Erudition Chamber:

games where you can create your own character/aspects of character by Angharade
I'm curious if there are any IF games where you can create your own character. I'm more interested in parser games than point and click, but I'm open to exceptions if they merit a mention. Also games wherein your actions change...

Multiple solutions to puzzles and/or situations. by Hulk Handsome
Games that offer more than one solution to most of the puzzles and/or situations encountered. Bonus points if this means that items have multiple applications (unless they do something even more clever).




This is version 11 of this page, edited by Paul O'Brian on 8 May 2022 at 11:04pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page