Spiritwrak first impressions

["Sarah E. Bergstrom" <sarahb@sccs.swarthmore.edu>]

[Mild plot/etc spoilers but no explicit puzzle spoilers]
Well, I've been playing Spiritwrak, the current bookclub topic, and I was
far more impressed by it than I expected to be, after reading some old 
reviews of the game.  The atmosphere feels just right, especially (I 
think) because my first Zork game was Beyond Zork, and that's the one 
of which Spiritwrak most reminds me.  The lack of "extra" responses is 
disappointing, but it's still more detailed than some of the Infocom games
were in places.  We've all gotten a little spoiled by the amount of 
description in some of the smaller "modern" games, and though that's not a
bad thing, I'm not highly annoyed by the lack of it.  I am annoyed by the
random spell failure, which I only found out about in reading other 
reviews.  I'm now going to have to go back and see if any of the times I 
tried possible solutions to puzzles I haven't solved yet were actual 
wrong ideas or spell failures.  I'm currently rather stuck, and am 
wondering whether I'm just not a good IF player, since old reviews call 
the game rather easy.  (Though the only game I've ever finished even 
without hints was Spider and Web.  Beyond Zork took me several years even
with hints.)  But I'm not looking for hints yet (so I may only read some 
of the bookclub stuff) since I'm thouroughly enjoying wandering around
Quendor.  

The writing is somewhat minimalist but describes enough to evoke a world
most of us already know.  If it were describing an unfamilar world, it 
might be too little, but in this game, it works.  The gnusto-learn-cast
spell system doesn't bother me, especially playing in PalmFrotz, since I 
can (and have) just add the right commands to my custom user quicklist.  

This review is sounding rather lukewarm -- I don't mean it to be -- this
is the most fun I've had with a non-Infocom game in quite a while.  Play
the game, and let the discussions begin.  (Though please, please, mark
spoilers well.  I want to be stumped a bit longer.)

Sarah

-- 
---
"It's like those cartoons of the roadrunner and me.  They get shown time
and time again, and the same thing happens every time the cartoon gets
shown.  It doesn't ever change, no matter how many times you show the
cartoon.  The roadrunner always gets away.  You know what?  I wouldn't
have it any other way.  I just love that cartoon even though I know I am
going to get blown to bits, flattened, made a fool of every time."
---Webster Kitchell, in "God's Dog: Conversations with Coyote"
***Sarah Bergstrom <sarahb@sccs.swarthmore.edu>***