Zork II

by Dave Lebling and Marc Blank

Episode 2 of Zork
Fantasy , Zorkian , Cave crawl
1981

Return to the game's main page

Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(27)
4 star:
(34)
3 star:
(24)
2 star:
(5)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 90
Write a review


Showing All | Show by Page


- LoquySSS46 (Longueuil, Québec, Canada), March 27, 2024

- Artran (Taipei, Taiwan), February 10, 2024

- ENyman78 (Gold Beach, OR), October 30, 2023

- Andrew Schultz (Chicago), September 8, 2023

- wisprabbit (Sheffield, UK), July 1, 2023

- Phil Riley, March 24, 2023

Adventure Classic Gaming

Gameplay follows the tradition set by the previous game of the trilogy. It is totally absorbing. You meet the Wizard of Frobozz very early on when he tries to prevent you from completing your quest. He also appears at random places throughout the game and casts various spells at you that can delay you considerably, but it is well worth noting the names of them. [...] From the perspective of an adventure gamer with a passion for interactive fiction, I really enjoy the complexity of some of the puzzles. They require an awful lot of thinking!
-- Karen Tyers

You wrote this review - Revise it | Direct link | Add a comment

- cgasquid (west of house), January 29, 2022

- Lance Campbell (United States), December 24, 2021

- Frodelius, September 19, 2021

- Pirate Gopher (Fort Worth TX), September 2, 2021

- Karlok (Netherlands), August 15, 2021

- heasm66 (Sweden), August 10, 2021

- Keybordz (Raleigh, NC), April 8, 2021

- Ogre (A Cave), January 6, 2021

- Zape, June 18, 2020

- Tim Delag (Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan ), August 20, 2019

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Second verse, better than the first, May 3, 2019
by deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN)

The second installment in this landmark text series is a definite improvement over the original, though still has some maddening features that would never be tolerated today.

Rather than just collecting treasures, your goal is to face the evil wizard. Thus, the story has more inherent conflict and gives it more weight. The map is also more manageable, with no mazes (though there are some tricky room exits). Some of the puzzles are very clever, my favorites being the carousel room and the bank vault. Unfortunately, one requires familiarity with baseball, which isn’t fun for non-American players.

Probably my favorite of the three entries, though still not terribly satisfying with minimal plot and some obtuse puzzles.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- ishashobar, September 4, 2018

- Guenni (At home), February 6, 2018

- lastplaneout (Boone, NC), December 31, 2017

- e.peach, December 29, 2017

- nosferatu, July 10, 2017

- TheAncientOne, March 25, 2017

- Spike, February 26, 2017

- Denk, December 31, 2016

- EngineerWolf (India), December 18, 2016

- Xavid, December 7, 2016

- NinaS, July 3, 2016

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A fantastic retooling of material from MIT Zork, with some new material, February 3, 2016

Zork II incorporates my favorite puzzles from MIT Zork: the palantirs, the tea room, the round room, the robot, the volcano, the glacier room. The dragon (a callback to Adventure) was a fun challenge, and the two or three NPCs made the game quite fun. I enjoyed watching the wizard travel around zapping me.

I prefer Zork I's treasure drop off system, however. It was annoying having a huge pile of treasure, not knowing what to do with it.

I used a walkthrough on a few places (especially the oddly-angled room), because I wanted to see the whole game. Having completed MIT Zork before made some of the hardest puzzles trivial.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- electromancer, July 19, 2015

- Pegbiter (Malmö, Sweden), June 15, 2015

- Thrax, March 11, 2015

- cabalia (Ohio), March 2, 2015

- MattC, April 13, 2014

- shornet (Bucharest), March 23, 2014

- KidRisky (Connecticut, USA), December 20, 2013

- Egas, August 13, 2013

- Robb Sherwin (Colorado), June 21, 2013

- DJ (Olalla, Washington), May 9, 2013

- absentsock, April 27, 2013

- hyst3ria, March 23, 2013

- dk101 (London, UK), March 2, 2013

- Jimmy Gonzolo (New Mexico), January 21, 2013

- Puddin Tame (Queens, NY), October 27, 2012

- AADA7A, September 24, 2012

- amciek (Opole), June 20, 2012

- kala (Finland), May 26, 2012

- Christiaan, March 27, 2012

- Jim Kaplan (Jim Kaplan has a room called the location. The location of Jim Kaplan is variable.), March 20, 2012

- jrc (Stockholm, Sweden), February 25, 2012

- Nav (Bristol, UK), November 24, 2011

- GDL (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), July 7, 2011

- André St-Aubin (Laval, Québec), May 31, 2011

- Rotonoto (Albuquerque, New Mexico), May 16, 2011

- JasonMel (Florida), March 28, 2011

- JohnW (Brno, Czech Republic), March 16, 2011

- artao (SW Wisconsin), February 2, 2011

- snickerdoddle, January 27, 2011

- Stickz (Atlanta, Georgia), December 14, 2010

- Narcisse, November 26, 2010

- johno158 (New York, NY), August 22, 2010

- Alder (San Francisco), August 15, 2010

- Muskie, August 11, 2010

- Xervosh (San Jose, Northern California), August 10, 2010

- o0pyromancer0o, April 23, 2010

- lavonardo, April 2, 2010

- Azazel, April 2, 2010

0 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Okay, yet ripped off a bit., January 16, 2010
by NosesAreAlive (Noseland, Noseland)

I feel like this is a bit ripped off of Alice in Wonderland at times. Yet this game has great writing and overall is better than Zork I because Zork II actually has a story present.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
More Zorkian Fun, January 16, 2010
by tggdan3 (Michigan)

I was a fan of Zork I since I played it at 10 years old on my grandmother's PC. I was excited to get into Zork II.

Now, after playing the Mainframe Dungeon, I see that Zork II is just a bunch of puzzles that wouldn't fit into Zork I anywhere, which is all fun.

You still have to manage your inventory, and it's difficult to get a permanent light source until most of the game's done anyway. (Spoiler - click to show)Once you get the wizard's wand, you can point it at an item and say "Fluoresce" and the item will permanently glow. Or, if you take too long, the wizard may cast this spell on you, making it impossible to win the game.

This game does have some impossible puzzles, such as the infamous baseball puzzle, which set the standard for what not to do in a puzzle, and the bank puzzle, which is really ingenious but horribly under-clued. Then there's the spinning room, which can be more of a nuisance than anything. Most frustrating, however is the Wizard. If you remember how pissed you were in Zork I when the thief showed up and stole your torch, you'll really get mad at the wizard, who randomly shows up and casts spells on you, sometimes causing you instant death (such as making you go into a frenzy while on a cliff, or freezing you in place near a lit bomb), or sometimes wasting precious light (freezing you wastes time while the lamp counts down), or even stealing treasures from you.

As in previous Zorks, you can be brought back to life, but many times your death still makes the game unwinable.

However, this is what added to the appeal of Zork I. I fondly remember as a child becoming nervous when my lamp got a bit dimmer. Even more so now, with no torch to fall back on. And the randomization makes the game have just a little bit more replay value. I'd even go out on a limb and say this is the best of the three Zork games, in term of fun (and certainly challenge- anyone who bests the baseball puzzle without hints is a master of all IFs.)

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), December 6, 2009

- lupusrex (Seattle, WA), October 4, 2009

- JonathanCR, September 21, 2009

- Damon Graff (Boston, MA), September 11, 2009

- Cuxxu (Albany, NY), August 26, 2009

- DallasBrianK (DFW Area), August 16, 2009

- googoogjoob, May 20, 2009

- John D, March 14, 2009

- qwrrty (Carlisle, Massachusetts), February 10, 2009

- albtraum, February 8, 2009

- Fredrik (Nässjö, Sweden), January 4, 2009

- Linnau (Tel-Aviv, Israel), October 31, 2008

- Nathan (Utah), October 26, 2008

- schifter (Louisville, KY), August 17, 2008

- Anders Hellerup Madsen (Copenhagen, Denmark), July 21, 2008

- Nathaniel Kirby (Pennsylvania), July 7, 2008

- Zoltar, June 17, 2008

- Mike Ciul (Philadelphia), June 4, 2008

- TCWT, May 2, 2008

- bolucpap, March 19, 2008

- Ghalev (Northern Appalachia, United States), March 13, 2008


Showing All | Show by Page | Return to game's main page