Review by Mandy Kinson

Name:         Zork Nemesis
By:           Activision
Format:       CD/Rom (3 disks)
Available:    Now


Requires:

O/S:          DOS 5.0+ or Win95
Processor:    486/DX2-66+
RAM:          8Mb+
Graphics:     VLB/PCI SVGA
CD-Rom:       X2
Soundcard:    All major cards supported


Tested on:

Processor:    P90
O/S:          Windows 95
RAM:          16Mb
Graphics:     Stealth 64 2mb Vram
CD-ROM:       Sony Quad Speed
Soundcard:    Soundblaster 16 Vibra
Controls:     Microsoft Mouse

Zork Nemesis

Except in name, this game doesn't really seem to be a follow on to Zork. It is an excellent game in its own right, and you don't need to have played the previous game to enjoy it.

Your job is to locate four missing VIPs - people whose disappearance has caused turmoil in Zork - a great General, a great musician, a religious leader, and a great doctor. Behind their disappearance lies a more sinister evil driven by the lust for absolute power - The Nemesis. All you've got to do is rescue these unfortunates, avoid being made into Daemon-dinner, and restore Zork to peace, with the added complication of the murders of two of their children to solve. Easy huh??

Wrong!!

You can play Z.N. either under DOS, or via Win95 (NOT Windows 3.1). The installation is a dead cinch via Win95 - just click the install button - and there you go. I didn't try the DOS install as Win95 is the recommended one.

There are 3 sizes of install you can select, each taking up progressively more disk space. I opted for the biggest install, to get optimum performance, but even so I noticed that in just a couple of places the game was slow to respond. The rest of the time however, it ran smoothly so perhaps that was just a tiny bugette.

Considering how detailed the graphics are, the screen scrolling is great. Using Activisions new Z-Vision Surround technology you can spin yourself seasick in beautifully detailed scenes with no sign of 'chunkiness'. Forward movement is not scrolled, this is the traditional jumping forward step-by-step - ah well, you can't have everything! Once you get used to it, the 'stepping' doesn't seem so bad, and then you get 'into' the game and the atmosphere is so good, that you stop noticing it at all.

There are five main locations to the game, all very different. You start off in the Temple of Agrippa, where you need to free the four missing nobles. This is your base, which you must first secure, then from here you have to solve the puzzles at the homes of each of these souls in order to release them.

To give you a feel for the personality of the nobles you are trying to save each location is pictured right down to the minutest detail. You'll see many famous works of art on the walls, and details such as Tiffany lampshades and art-nouveau posters for the musician, Persian carpets and stained-glass windows for the holy Father, medieval tapestries and suits of armour for the general. The doctor is one on his own - very odd!!!

There is a *lot* to look at in each place, some things might not make any sense straight away, so its a good idea to go slowly and carefully, and make notes. There were several occasions when I started a puzzle only to think "Oh, I should have copied that diagram in the study" and had to wander back a few locations. That's not to say the game is repetitive, its not, but like any puzzle game its just a case of getting a feel for the way the designer thinks. One or two of the puzzles were solved by trial and error though, although this could have been due to me missing some vital clue.

It`s not really the sort of game where you get killed a lot, though there are some deadly traps - generally one per location - so it`s worth saving fairly regularly. As is often the case with this type of game it is important to examine every nook and cranny thoroughly as it can be easy to miss something if you 'skim' a room too quickly. Finding the hot-spots is the usual cursor waggling experience waiting for it to highlight. There are several different types of cursor depending on the situation. Most often it is a movement such as look up/down or move forwards, but there are also cursors for picking up an item and using an item. You sometimes have to be at the right angle to 'see' some of the hot-spots, so you can't just twirl around in the middle of a room and figure you've found everything.

The game has built-in help which starts with a vague hint, and gets more detailed if you ask further. The online help is only available for the initial Temple location, but it helps you to get into the way of thinking for the game, so you'll have an idea of how to tackle the puzzles in the later locations.

One thing that is unusual about Z.N. is that unlike most games of this genre there is no inventory of items. There are few items that you pick up, and generally they are used very near to where you find them. Your icon changes to reflect the item that you have picked up and you just keep it in your virtual hand until it is used.

There is an internet address supplied in the manual where you can log on and get help if you become irretrievably stuck. In addition to this the WWW site also offers the added option of some online play with extra puzzles for each area in the actual game. This is a nice touch as it prolongs the life of the game.

The sound quality really is good, there is a lot going on in the background, the spirits of the restless dead are all around. The music really piles on the tension, and the sound-effects can make your skin crawl.

There are quite a lot of video clips, which can hold important clues and information. Luckily the acting is good, and the characters really believable. The voices don't make you grit your teeth either. The atmosphere of the game is brilliant , really spooky in places, and stomach-churningly ghoulish in the Doctor's labs. There are also plenty of subtle touches of humour to relieve the mood.

Zork Nemesis isn't an 'action' game, its purely puzzle-solving. OK, a couple of the puzzles you have to be quick, but there's no hack and slash. The story is absorbing, and I found no bugs, crashes or glitches (apart from the couple of slow patches I mentioned earlier) which is not bad for a game so very detailed.

This one is a definite 'must have' - even better than Gabriel Knight 2!

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Rating: 9/10 (Classic - Must Buy!)
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