Behind Closed Doors 3: Revenge of the Ants

5 star: (1) 4 star: (0) 3 star: (0) 2 star: (1) 1 star: (0)

Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 2 Write a review

(Reviewing Adventuron version)
I have enjoyed previous episodes but this game is far too hard for me. I enjoyed it briefly, but I quickly got stuck and took a look at the walkthrough. I got one step further, then I got stuck for a long time again, and looked at the walkthrough again and so on. The solutions to these sub-puzzles (both actions and exact verbs) are way beyond what I would be able to figure out without a walkthrough.

Add to this:
* The game can be unwinnable even if the player does nothing wrong (random element)
* The verb USE is normally not understood but suddenly required in one situation.
* The game has a two-word parser but it turns out that in specific situations, the game accepts a four word sentence to be split into two commands:
(fictive example below is not in the game and doesn't happen when using the verb PUT)
>PUT BOOK
On what?
>ON SHELF (SHELF wouldn't have worked, ON SHELF required)

Some might see these "problems" as challenges. For me, this isn't what I am looking for when I play older text adventures. Still, I intend to try more episodes in the series, since I liked the first episodes.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  

More Options

Promote this user

Demote this user

Plonk this user

Flag spoilers

Flag as inappropriate

Direct link

View my user filters

Explain these options

 | Add a comment 

- amciek (Opole), December 18, 2011

Your Sinclair

"By now you should know what to expect from a Zenobi Behind Closed Doors game, as this is the third in the series and has the sub-title Revenge Of The Ants. In case you don't know, these are author John Wilson's renowned one-location games, that one location being... well, the smallest room in the house. Or, as we're dealing with Balrogs, the little room in the hut at the bottom of the garden, where all Balrogs must visit at some time or another. If you think a one-location game must be small, then you've not allowed for all the things you can do in that one location... apart from the obvious, and you can do that and much, much more. In fact, this is probably the first adventure game where you HAVE to input a four-letter word in order to succeed, though it's a fairly mild four-letter word. Well, the results aren't mild but the word is."