@~It's 'double review' time again - this time, two views of @~Nirvana from Russell Dowling and James Judge. Nirvana - authors Wimsey Co. (PC text adventure on PD 174) 1. Reviewed by Russell "Rusty" Dowling Nirvana is a text game created by Wimsey Co. The story goes along the lines that a witch, named Nirvana the Ice Maiden, in the Village of Lostwithiel, takes one young man on a full moon each month who experiences something worse than death itself. Your job is to resist the evil witch by resisting her curse (which she kills all the other young men with) which ultimately is worse than death itself. You go through the game meeting escapees of Nirvana, to kings who have no friends and are very lonely. You have to escape the witch's personal hounds who are hungry for blood, seek out keys, cross piranha filled waters and dodge different coloured spiders. God only knows what the parrot is there for, I'd like to take the witch's advice and have it as toasted parrot. It is well set out but unfortunately the '"..." is not in the dictionary' statement left me cursing the computer. The text descriptions are not bad but it only describes what you need to know or something that is important. The descriptions are of good length though, are well set out and even when I didn't look to see what the spelling and grammar are like, I assumed they were probably better than mine. The text also has some humour to it. When a character asks you to do something, like opening a window, you try opening the window to find you have already done it. This happened to me. As I recall, this is what happened: There are two windows on either side of the room, both of which I have opened. Hubbard (one of the exciting characters) enters the room. You open both windows and as soon as you are done, Hubbard says "Why don't you open all the windows and let in the morning sun". Another humorous bit of text is: A rabbit hops along, nibbling herbs. >Kick the rabbit (command I input) You have kicked the white rabbit. The rabbit wriggles free and scampers off. The colours (light and dark blue) don't interfere with the text. the text is clear, not fuzzy like some colours make the text look. I would have been interested in being able to change the colours during the game. Conclusion: To me this game is exciting but some of the game's aspects were a turnoff for me. As I pointed out before, the ' "..." is not in the dictionary' message was so much of a turnoff I almost decided to quit the game and find another game. The registration fee for Nirvana is only the cost of a postage stamp. I would like to see the sequel just to see what the authors can come up with, other than that I can't wait to play something else. Although this game is not as good as it can be, it is not a total write-off. The humour of some lines and of maybe little unforeseen errors make that little bit better. Rating 6/10 Difficulty 6/10 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Reviewed By James Judge When the moon (that large round thing you see at night and looks as if it's smiling at you) is full, a young man from the land of Cornwall (home of the pasties) disappears and is never seen again. Well, that is not ENTIRELY true, he is usually spotted gracing Nirvana's fence which is encircling her marble palace atop Bald Mountain. What this evil fiend does with these young men is lure them to her abode (humble it is not) and then turns them into stone, so she can have a bit of privacy (cough). Nirvana (boo, hiss) can only be stopped by ringing a crystal bell and quel surprise, 'tis your quest (mission, job) to find that bell and ring it when Nirvana is in spitting distance. Thus you can dispel the evil curse and have plenty of admirers for ever more. Sniff, sniff, I smell a pretty good adventure coming up. Apart from the usual instant deaths and standard adventuring 'pitfalls' you must make sure you don't become part of this modern art structure ol' Nirv is making or else there'll be no-one to rescue you (sob). Standard adventuring stuff here, with the usual inputs (examine, get, drop, look etc.) but the directional commands are completely different to any other game I have played. You've got your usual N, S, W, E, U, D (which can also be changed to left, right, forward and backward) but they change for each location. Let me explain. If you exit a hut by typing in north, you will enter a garden by the south. If you then go west from the garden you will enter the side garden from the west, as if you had actually turned west and walked forward. This means that what was north in the first garden is now the west and to get back to the first garden you must go backwards or south. Then from the first garden you can get back to the hut by going east. It is a very logical way of thinking but only if you use the Left, Right, Forward and Backward instruction as it gets completely confusing having your norths changing every time you enter a new location. Even using L, R, F and B it still takes quite a while to get use to the system and unless you draw a map and constantly refer to it you can get lost quite easily. This, I should imagine, is my main gripe with the game, shoddy movements, a nice idea but it didn't work out as well as it should have. Apart from the control system the puzzles are very good, starting off easy and gradually getting harder which all take quite a bit of thinking about but, after a few hours, you should be able to find the answer (should). The descriptions are all of a nice length, oozing with atmosphere and correctly spelt words (hmmm). Apart from great puzzles and descriptions there are lots of people to talk to but they all seem pretty cardboardy when compared to characters in other games, just repeating what they have said time and again when you prod them with questions. Sausages. So I can't dredge up much to criticise with this game unfortunately (I'm in the mood for a groan) so I'll just give it a bit more praise and let it be. What with the good puzzles and atmospheric descriptions this game is very good for the price, giving good value for money and will take even the most battle-hardened adventurer quite a while to complete. Buy the game and buy a few days of enjoyment. - o -