~2 minute readproduct reviews
Wishbringer
Infocom, Inc.
125 Cambridge Park Drive
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 492-6000
$34.95, 48K disk
Welcome to Festeron, a quant little hamlet somewhere on the New England coast. This is a real nice place to bring up your kids. Except...
Except that Festeron has its dark side -- a mirror-image town known as Witchville where Evil rules, Magick abounds, and the Elder Gods dwell. Even your boss Mr. Crisp, the town postmaster, is now the. . . .well, the less said the better.
This is where the action takes place in Wishbringer, the latest in a long line of excellent text adventure games from Infocom. As the game begins, it is up to you to deliver a mysterious letter to the old woman who runs Ye Olde Magick Shoppe at the outskirts of town.
Once she gets the letter, you are suddenly thrust into Witchville with an important and dangerous mission -- rescue the old woman's cat, which has been kidnapped by a sorceress known only as The Evil One. Your only aid is the power of the stone known as Wishbringer. Once you find it, you will be granted as many as seven wishes to aid you in your quest.
In many ways, Wishbringer can be seen as a successor to Sorcerer and Enchanter. Wishes take the place of spells, of course. But your seven wishes only work if you have a proper item in your possession. In addition, each wish can be used only once, so it is critical that you not misuse or waste one.
According to Infocom, for every puzzle that can be solved with a wish, a logical solution exists. The game could be concluded without using any wishes at all. Well, if anybody has gotten past the Hellhound without using a wish, please write me care of Antic and tell me how it's done.
Wishbringer is Infocom's second attempt at an introductory level adventure, and as such it is considerably more successful than last year's Seastalker. Although written for novices, the prose is not in the least juvenile. Veteran adventure game players will not be challenged at all, although they will enjoy the story line, the wit and inside jokes. Be sure to open the mailbox next to the white house.
And there is the challenge to earn a perfect score by completing the game sans wishes. But most of all, Wishbringer is an excellent attempt to bring new blood into the fold -- those who previously have been unable or unwilling to get the most out of Infocom's finest. If you've been curious about Infocom text adventure games but never actually took the plunge, Wishbringer is the game for you.
This article appeared in
Antic
Jan 1986
These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.
