Being a fan of dragons of any kind, I was drawn to this game immediately. However, what I found were merely disappointments, awkward text, cumbersome tasks and an overall ill feeling...Shall I continue?
The Curse Of The Ruined Opening
The game starts you off as riding a horse-drawn vehicle. These two farmers spot you, have a few words, then threaten you when they notice you with the necklace that their child used to have. Imeediately you disband and run for the woods for a hiding place...Pretty quick...for just three "screens" of text. In an effort to make it seem realistic, the designer has added two "songs" and one picture...The latter is a badly sculpted head of a dragon over a castle with red text over the scene and that's it. The music is either a loud thunder storm(outside castle) or a softer storm with a few low and long notes played(inside castle). Sorry, I'm not impressed. The outside of the castle seems like a desperate attempt for an early area. Nothing to grab, nothing to find...not even maze-like. In fact, head onto the MAIN ROAD and wait as long as you please...the farmers will just let you take your sweet time getting into the castle, despite being a murderer. After you get inside, the idea is semi-obvious what to do next, of which you reach the main part of the castle. And so, the debacle begins...
A quest of pointless-ness
After the first few steps, you are suddenly in the kitchen, with little reason other than you had "followed a ghost". This ghost will then proceed to talk your ear off...and while <waitkey> was wisely used in the intro, it's strangely missing here. You must instead use the command "wait" or "z" about 5 or so times until FINALLY the game allows you to proceed by the ghost letting you know she left a candle for you. So where's the candle? You have to examine the many items of the kitchen to find it...and so our real quest emerges. Our author expects us to examine EVERY last item in this place, 75% or more either repeat what was just said in the room's description or they give us one of the three-four clues provided through the entire game! So you therefore must check even the kitchen sinks...why? Because somehow you cannot find a LARGE WOODEN SPOON in a bare sink without "x-ing" it first. I can understand the cupboards...and even the shelves...but in the sinks? Even more so, how can you miss one of the potions sitting on the tables? Just sitting there...not buried or anything. Shouldn't that be accessable right away?
Of course, the vocabulary options for this game don't help either. "X-ing" a desk in the game didn't provide any more info other than standard responses when I was stuck. Desperate, I checked the file and found that you had to "look under desk" to get the desired response. If that's not enough, I found a floor in particular is needed to be looked at to win the game. This floor is neither hinted at and must be looked in two different places AND those two places must be looked from in the correct order...Is it just me or does that read as "bad planning"? One time, I knew what to do but the game refused to let me do it. I knew I needed the wood on fire and in the spit to make a fire for the cauldron. Well, I tried to light it first : no good. I followed by typing "place wood in spit", whereupon it told me there was no room. "Light wood"?...Nope. "Make Potion"...Nuh-uh. Finally, I stumbled across the right phrase..."Put wood pit"...either that's a typo or they expect us to drop a piece of wood a couple of feet to light it. THEN, you may "light wood"...
The clues are no real help either. As said, you get about three or four hints throughout the game which are "What to mix", "What rooms to do it in", "Where to put the body", and "Background". Only two notes actually provide some decent idea of depth....WHY and WHEN. Everything else is left for grabs...even the in-game hint system barely works. Being in the proper room I understand, but not mentioning the cloak(a required item) under the hint "Is there anything I need in (here)?"...Instead, it points out a journal which gives you the same text and info you can get over and over again from about 6 or so other items. There's also a glass-stained window in a chapel later on, of which the game gives you no hints as to what to do with it. Furthermore, it is possible to complete the game without defining its purpose!
That's another point...The lack thereof. I first completed the game with only 70 or so out of 100. I later found that useless journal, boosting my score by an insane amount. Why provide points for tasks that don't concern goals for the end of the goals? Finding the secret passage to the last goal is worth 2 points...2 POINTS! Meanwhile, our dear journal is worth 5 or more. After the journal and other meaningless tasks, I brought my score up to 95 out of 100...wanna bet that chapel window has something to do with it?
Dragon-bait
As I watched the end of the game, our villian is spotted by the town and is quickly accused by our now ressurected heroine. They quickly have him executed...a potions-master and attainer of near-immortality is killed by a public execution. This is a death sequence befitting the master behind all of these schemes?! I expected magics to be unleashed from the shrine or energies to be released from him...but just a quick accusation and it's all over?
In short, I am extremely disappointed with this game and feel like the author owes me three hours...
3/10 (Burning in its ashes...)