The Zuni Doll

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Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 6 Write a review

- Edo, June 27, 2022

- Vulturous, May 18, 2022

- BlitzWithGuns, January 24, 2015

- liz73 (Cornwall, New York), May 19, 2013

SPAG

[...] Zuni Doll is successful to some measure: the setup is appropriately ominous, the contrived circumstances that loose the doll on you just plausible enough to feel real, and several of the confrontations (particularly when the doll is hacking its way through a door) genuinely suspenseful even if improbable.

Unfortunately, implementation problems weigh the game down considerably. A certain device that you throw together to thwart the doll defies both logic and reasonable syntax--I was forced to resort to the walkthrough. (Actions that aren't on the author's mind get "This dangerous act would achieve little," as if danger were a primary consideration with a homicidal doll on the loose.)

The Zuni Doll is a short horror adventure in which you have to fend off the eponymous and cursed African doll when it starts trying to kill you. Your goal in purchasing the thing was to add it to your collection of curios, but one stupid action by your pet cat has reactivated the doll's evil.

The game is set in the few rooms of your house and doesn't beat around the bush, quickly getting you into the business of finding a succession of methods to stave off the doll's attacks. It has some exciting moments, but the programming is entirely bare bones. The included background information says that The Zuni Doll was written in four days as a programming demonstration, and this shows. There are no synonyms, no alternate ways of doing things, and Undo isn't even mentioned in the game over menu, though it's the most common command you'll need in response to the frequent snuffing out of your life that occurs. There are also random typos, and objects aren't necessarily described through the filter of the life and death events which frame the action.

In spite of these weaknesses, the game is so short and linear that you won't feel like you've wrecked your experience by consulting the equally short walk through, which you'll probably have to do. There's also a bit of humour in the writing (and the whole idea), and some interesting gore. Overall, the game offers brief fun with a good idea, but scattershot delivery. It's certainly a candidate for a tune up which it will probably never get.

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- Grozovaya (The Netherlands), July 21, 2009

Baf's Guide

An African doll containing an evil spirit bent on murder comes to life in your apartment. A small game, not too difficult, but with an extremely high "undo" rate, due to the short time limits in which you must find new ways to delay the beastly little thing. Some of the death scenes are quite grisly. Contains a couple of misspellings and and one major bug. (Workaround for the bug: Don't use "put" when you can use "load".)

-- Carl Muckenhoupt