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1-9 of 95 of
5 people found the following review helpful:
Funny, Hard, Canonical, July 26, 2023Just this morning, I witnessed two online conversants discuss the "overrated" nature of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Typically, I interpret the term "overrated" as an oblique yet economical way of saying "most people like this more than I do."
Still, since it was Infocom's second best-selling game after Zork I, it could be both overrated and quite good all at the same time. For those who have never heard of this game, it is based on approximately half of the beloved Douglas Adams novel of the same name. While I think it is a commonly-held belief that Steve Meretzky performed most of the technical development while Adams was responsible for the text (and was a co-designer of puzzles, perhaps), most researchers today know better. In fact, we generally accept that the game is almost entirely Meretzky's design, barring the source text (all Adams, obviously) and some significant consultations.
Like all of Meretzky's Infocom games (we can debate Zork Zero some other time), it's a worthwhile play for anyone interested in 1980s interactive fiction. His humorous prose blends perfectly with parts written by Adams (whether original or taken from the novel). This is a very funny game as a result, and I would say the laughs alone are worth the price of admission.
However, from a historical perspective, there are interesting formal innovations that truly set it apart, content aside. First, it includes several metatextual features that playfully subvert what we then expected out of a narrator-player relationship. Additionally, it was Infocom's first modular design, featuring multiple, small maps and more than one playable character. These features would have felt quite new and exciting back in 1984, even if they were overshadowed by the game's signature elements: Douglas Adams as author, humor, and possibly unreasonable puzzle design.
What of puzzles? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is surprisingly difficult for a "Standard" difficulty game. In fact, the conventional wisdom is that it is "Standard" only because "Advanced" or "Expert" would have discouraged sales. I personally think it's harder than Starcross, that other difficult science fiction game. Players can easily lock themselves out of victory. In all honesty, they probably will. These conditions can feel quite cheap, as one can reach the penultimate move of the game, only to discover the impossibility of the situation.
What is comparable? The "flouresce" spell in Zork II, perhaps.
The Invisiclues are readily available online. Do yourself a favor and keep them close at hand. They are at least fun to read, written as they were by Steve Meretzky himself. If you are only interested in puzzles, or somehow dislike Adams or Meretzky, give this a pass. Otherwise, this is a very innovative game with Meretzky's best writing to-date. Highly recommended for players interested in 80s IF, Infocom, or the evolution of IF narrative stuctures. Alternately, just use the hints and laugh your way through.
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2 people found the following review helpful:
Engaging Balance of the 'Interactive' and the 'Fiction', September 7, 2021by ccpost (Greensboro, North Carolina) I'm not a huge Hitchhiker's fan, but I still thoroughly enjoyed Douglas Adams' characteristically witty, sardonic prose. Though the game has a (deserved) reputation for being difficult and at-times cruel in its design, the world-class satirical writing and absurdly fun sci-fi narrative are more than enough to motivate the player to meet these challenges.
The first half or so of the game largely follows the plot of the first Hitchhiker's novel, and occasionally draws verbatim from the novel, though with enough wrinkles, puzzles, and knowing tricks thrown in to make it more than a straight adaptation. A working knowledge of the novel will certainly help a player of the game, though having read the book does not at all make this first portion of the game redundant. Adams (apparently a huge fan of IF) and Infocom veteran Steve Meretzky build in lots of charming, self-aware details like warning players to don 'peril-sensitive sunglasses' before viewing a low score after they've died, or a death sequence where the story continues following the deceased Arthur Dent in the ambulance and scolding the player to stay out of it. There's just a lot of learning by death in this game, but it's usually fun if infuriating!
The second part of the game diverges quite a bit in its design, moving from the more or less linear plot following that of the novel to a non-linear episodic design where the player departs from a central map to points across time and space. I really, really liked this except for some major details regarding the mechanics of this episodic structure that are not divulged to the player. It takes quite a bit of finagling (or consulting a walkthrough) to understand how to (Spoiler - click to show)handle the Infinity Drive and get in and out of the darkness, none of which is explained to the player. For many of the episodes, it's also not very clear what the objective is or what the player needs to do to make sure they don't end up in an unwinnable state. Nor is it clear how many episodes the player needs to go through before advancing to the concluding sequence of the game.
In full disclosure, I made heavy use of a walkthrough to get over these difficulties. Even still, I greatly enjoyed this game, and found its design inventive and its writing winning. I feel like a bit more direction about how to navigate through the episodes in the second part of the game would have added to the player experience without necessarily sacrificing any difficulty of the game. As it is, it feels like parts of the game design are cruel just for the sake of being cruel. Regardless, I highly recommend playing this -- and no shame for using a walkthrough at some key points.
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1 people found the following review helpful:
As per the 20th Anniversary Edition, March 26, 2016Confession: I never played any of the original versions, instead coming on board with the BBC Radio 4 20th Anniversary Edition, which is in many ways kinder to the player; it came complete with the game itself, but also some simple but pleasing graphics, interesting game design notes, and all the Douglas Adams hints. That page is still here, although the game is currently hosted here. (Apparently this is the 30th Anniversary Edition, which is like the old one but with a shinier interface and, erm, the ability to tweet from in-game. Perhaps just as well, if the brush-up allows the game to be around for another ten years.)
Anyhow, it's gloriously implemented and perfectly atmospheric. Definitely worth a try if you're at all a fan of the radio series/books/movie/stageshow/whathaveyou.
7 of
7 people found the following review helpful:
Frankly, I just used a walkthrough and enjoyed the show, February 3, 2016Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy is co-written by Douglas Adams, and the strong prose shows this. The game is very imaginative and vibrant.
On the other hand, the puzzles are (I assume) by Steve Meretzky, who is one of my least favorite puzzle writers from Infocom. Sorcerer, though great, was my least favorite Enchanter game, and I get tired of Planetfall early on. So when I started this game, I was scared of any misstep sending me on a wild goose chase into an unsavable state.
So I just used a walkthrough and sailed through the game, enjoying the witty prose. I plan to go back and read more of the room descriptions and the actual guide. I often find that this approach works with very difficult or unfair games, because the second playthrough can be done without a walkthrough, allowing your memory to help you on some puzzles but still having fun with those you forgot.
The game has several puzzles that are frequently referenced in interactive fiction reviews and forums: the Babel-fish puzzle, and the tea. It may be worthwhile to play through with a walkthrough just to see these.
Note that Douglas Adams released this game for free when Activision went a long time without selling it. I don't know the current status of it, but he intended to freely distribute it at least once in the past. It is not available on Lost Treasures of Infocom for iPad, my usual go-to place for Infocom games.
3 of
7 people found the following review helpful:
Read Doulgas Adams' books instead, November 29, 2015The puzzles are absolutely stupid. There are plenty of more enjoyable games you could play instead of this. People say you should play this for the writing, but I would say you're not really missing much, and you're certainly not spending your free time effectively by trying to figure out these stupid puzzles. If you want to enjoy Douglas Adams' writing, read his books.
You will have to save often and reload often. You might even find yourself in a situation where you have to revert to a save much earlier in the game due to the game becoming unwinnable without you realizing it, causing you to have to play large sections of the game over again. A game designed around saving and reloading is acceptable as long as the interface for performing those actions is fast and makes it easy to see where you're going to end up and makes it easy to restore to specific points. Of course, this game doesn't do anything in that regard. It's up to you to create descriptive file names. Just unnecessary busy work.
The puzzles are just ridiculously bad and unenjoyable. There's so many other games that do puzzles in a much better and more enjoyable way. It would even be possible to maintain Douglas Adams' brand of humor and style without making these puzzles so stupid.
If you seriously want to try to solve this game with a guide, and you persist even after so many saves and reloads and so many hours spent without making progress, you should seriously stop and ask yourself what the hell you are doing with your life. Do you value your time? You only have a short time here on Earth, and maybe you only have a small amount of free time to play games. You should play games that are fun. You are unlikely to have as much fun playing this game as you are many other games. Put this stupid game down and find something more fun.
If you still think you want to play this game, do NOT hesitate to use a guide. I give this two stars only because of the unique style and writing that Douglas Adams brings to this game. It has a few small, funny moments. But, as a game, it's just doesn't provide even a remotely acceptable amount of enjoyment per minute.
0 of
5 people found the following review helpful:
Great classic text adventure!, October 30, 2012This game brings back so many memories of college and friends trying to figure out how to beat it. For anyone who is now trying to play it on your smartphone, this site helped me tremendously with the commands that you can use in the game:
http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/hhgttg/hhgttg.html
The biggie here is the command "RESTORE". This is the way you can load a previously saved game. I think I tried everything else under the sun to get my SAVEd game back.
I should try to find that box...I bet that "fluff" would go for big bucks on eBay now......
Enjoy!
3 of
13 people found the following review helpful:
Fun!, April 14, 2010Still as much fun as the first time I played it years and years ago.
9 of
15 people found the following review helpful:
Evil, But Enjoyable, July 8, 2008Hitchhikers is one of those games at times so dastardly, so unfair, so evil, that it shouldn't be enjoyable to play. But thanks to the wonderfully enjoyable writing of Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky, HHGTG is an enjoyable puzzle-fest.
Sure some of the puzzles take dieing and restarting to solve, others take immense amounts of obtuse logic to complete. Because of the difficulty, HHGTG is very fulfilling if you complete it. It's a must play for fans of a) Douglas Adams or b) Classic puzzle-laden Infocom IF.
5 of
9 people found the following review helpful:
Convoluted, but fun, November 15, 2007The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was my first experience with IF, and it was very frustrating, but in a way that entertained me greatly. The game unforgivingly kills the player again and again for oversights so ridiculous that the player was obviously not expected to even guess at them until after dying. If that's not something you enjoy, the deliciously witty prose is worth the effort, even if you resort to using a walkthrough, step by step.
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