Research Dig - part of Disk 1291
                   By Chris Armitage 1998
           (additional ideas from Jaime Crossley)

                  Reviewed by Karen Tyers

This is the second of this year's Internet IF-competition games I
tried and initially the game looked very promising.  The opening
sequence tells you that although you have only been at the
Archaeological Research Centre for a few weeks, you've already
been given an assignment.  OK, so it's not digging tombs in Egypt,
but it's still a research dig.  The Centre received a letter from
the groundkeeper at a church, who had found something while
digging in the graveyard, and `it looked old', so you have been
sent.  You were picked up by taxi from the railway station, and
now you are standing outside the groundkeeper's house, next to the
graveyard...

I knocked on the front door and was greeted by the groundkeeper
and his niece.  After a short conversation he was called away, and
I was left with the niece, who was engrossed in the television, so
I wandered around the house, picking up one or two things which
looked as if they might be useful.  Getting no response at all
from the niece, I wandered out into the garden, and found a shed
which I couldn't get into immediately, and the graveyard itself.
Things were beginning to look interesting now, and I discovered a
crypt containing a coffin and a secret entrance to an underground
set of passages.  I duly explored these, and after finding one or
two items, all of a sudden the game was finished......

There are a few comments I would like to make.  Firstly back to
that hoary old chestnut, the grammar!  I'm no English expert, but
I can't abide locations that start with `You are stood on.....'
Even the average 10 year old knows that it should be `You are
standing on...' or even `You stand on....' I apologise if it seems
that I am nit-picking, but there is really no excuse in my book
for appalling grammar and bad spelling.  There - `nuff said!

My other comments relate to the game proper.  I was most
disappointed in this one, because it had an interesting
introduction, which made you anxious to know more.  Basically it
was just a stroll around, with very little in the way of objects
or puzzles, and a very strange ending.  It's such a shame, because
with some thought and effort, this could have been an excellent
game.  However, don't let the above put you off trying it - it's
freeware after all.  You might see it very differently.....













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