A Journey into Xanth

Baf's Guide

An original story set in the magic land created by novelist Piers Anthony. Rather heavy on the noninteractive exposition and surprisingly light on the pun content - Mr. Sorensen seems more fascinated by the "magical talents" aspect of Xanth, and makes them central to the plot. Follows the proven Xanth format of a perilous journey (in this case, a jaunt across the Gap to Castle Roogna), at the end of which things are solved without much effort. Game mechanics suffer from typical early-AGT flaws - most special cases only work properly in the one situation where they have to. Food is a factor. Requires learning by death. Probably largely more accurate than Legend's Companions of Xanth, but less enjoyable for a non-fan like myself. I'll give it this much: It's a lot shorter than the novels.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SPAG
While most of "Xanth" is fairly logical (though sometimes in a strange, punnish kind of way), a few problems -- crossing the river in particular -- determine success or failure (i.e. life or death) based entirely on the outcome of a random number generator, a very, VERY big no-no in my book. Also, while many of the puzzles make perfect sense after you've solved them, there is often little indication beforehand that a particular solution is the correct one. Perhaps this is due to the somewhat inconsistent nature of the AGT play system more than anything else.

It's hard to knock "Xanth" completely though, because it tries so hard. The author has gone to great lengths to make the game as easy to play as possible, even including a set of brilliantly rendered ASCII maps (a great time-saver) with the game files. There's also a walkthrough in case you find some of the puzzles a bit too obscure. Speaking of the puzzles in "Xanth," although they aren't terribly difficult or imaginative, they do serve to actually advance the plot, a feature sadly lacking in so many text games.

-- Christopher E. Forman
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