Lock & Key

by Adam Cadre profile

Fantasy
2002

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Number of Ratings: 74
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- Zape, November 12, 2023

- Hellzon (Sweden), August 9, 2023

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Perfect puzzle. Not so perfect implementation., June 10, 2022
by deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN)

I was a senior in college when this game was released and played it the moment it dropped. I took copious notes while playing and brought those notes to my classes, occasionally ignoring my professors to hammer out this puzzle. No regrets.

The conceit--building a dungeon worth of death traps as a contract to hire for a perverse king--is brilliant. Despite the dungeon having 16 rooms and there being 17 traps to purchase, there is only one solution to killing off the prisoner; as such, Lock & Key more than any interactive fiction feels like solving a logic grid puzzle from a games magazine. As the prisoner continually foils traps, you must determine what traps are completely worthless versus what traps slow him down (and in the best order they slow him down).

Naturally, there is much "learn by dying" as you take notes on why each traps fails and why. And, unfortunately, every time the prisoner escapes you have to start over from scratch. So every play through involves a tedious resetting of doors and resetting of traps. There are some shortcuts implemented to tackle this and if you are confident in your door layout or some of the trap layout you can create a save file to save you some time. But even while taking advantage of both, I was beginning to resent the game a little before I solved it, which in turn took some of the joy out of the triumph.

If you're a fan of dark, witty humor (which a game like this requires in order to be palatable) Cadre provides plenty with nearly every possible action. It certainly takes a little bit of the edge off the tedium.

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- Titania Lowe, January 24, 2022

- nf, July 11, 2021

- Edo, May 12, 2021

- Karlok (Netherlands), April 14, 2021

- Sammel, February 26, 2021

- William Chet (Michigan), July 19, 2020

SPAG

Making the perfect dungeon is difficult, and one is clearly intended to play the game many times and learn from one's mistakes. Playing through the game is lots of fun at first, but gets a bit tedious after a while. There are many hints that you are on the right track, but I think there could have been more of them, or they could have been clearer, otherwise you just have to guess what to do. (Øyvind Thorsby)

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- E.K., March 27, 2020

- Jonathan Verso, December 10, 2019

- Galgador, May 20, 2019

- imollo, August 3, 2018

- mrfrobozzo, June 2, 2018

- nosferatu, January 29, 2018

- Spike, November 5, 2017

- Cory Roush (Ohio), June 29, 2017

- Ivanr, June 14, 2017

- CMG (NYC), March 13, 2017

- Aryore, August 2, 2016

- NinaS, July 3, 2016

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Great reverse puzzle: You build the dungeon, your enemy tries to get out., February 3, 2016

This is one of my favorite Cadre games, best known for Photopia and 9:05 (and my other favorite, Endless, Nameless).

In this fantasy game, you play a dungeon maker charged with building an inescapable dungeon. Unfortunately, your first test subject is extremely resourceful, producing items out of nowhere and charming all opponents.

You have to place traps on a path through a 4x4 grid. You have to get the right traps and in the right order. It is tedious, but each playthrough (besides a few cutscenes) is different, as the adventurer reacts to your challenges with new resources.

Buying each trap is also funny.

It got a little tedious after 3-4 times; I had the basic idea, but I knew it would take a lot more to get it down right, so I used the walkthroughs.

Wonderful game.

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- Thrax, March 12, 2015

- Katrisa (Houston), September 24, 2014


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