| Review: | A peculiar game of wordplay and paradox, kind of like Nord and
Bert crossed with Trinity under the direction of Douglas
Hofstadter.
The setting is a surreal land, dominated by a black obelisk that houses Count
Zero's machinery of oppression. You must to put an end to his schemes
through time travel.
Many of the puzzles are more associative than logical, and in many cases
rely on literary allusion. Lots of freedom, lots of good puzzles, one novel
but mappable maze, a T. S. Eliot scene, a couple of drug references, and an
approximate average of three or four puns per sentence (which, oddly,
enhances the atmosphere). An irritating beep fanfare plays when your score
increases. Allegedly, it can be disabled by the SOUND command, which, on my
system, simply causes the program to break.
Notable nonstandard features include the commands "WHERE", which tells you the
last location whre you saw an object or character, and "FIND", which puts
you on autopilot bound for that location. These commands are not available
from the beginning, but must be activated within the plot of the game.
Normally, I would frown on such confusion of form and content, but it
actually fits the self-referential tone of the work.
Rating: ****
Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)
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