STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT by Rich Pizor
      A text adventure on Disk 1311 and this issue's disk

                   Reviewed by Bev Truter

This recently written TADS text adventure looks, at first glance,
like a fairly simple affair to "win", as it contains only a few
basic puzzles. But although the plot is straightforward enough,
and the puzzles pretty elementary, most of the entertainment comes
from the brilliant atmosphere, good writing and novel plot of
STRANGERS. The aim of the game came as a bit of a surprise - you
play the role of a modern-day vampire, on the prowl for blood
during the course of one night, and to finish the game you must
find at least three suitable victims to bite, then return to your
apartment before dawn. Some of the buildings you will have to
visit may be closed for the night, and others only open much
later, after 11pm. The game begins at 9pm, and you have until 5am
(320 turns) to find your required 3 lots of blood. Stay out later
than this and sunrise will cause you to change into a small little
heap of ash, in true vampire tradition!

It would probably be essential to make a large-ish map, as the
gameworld is a 4-block by 4-block section of the fictitious city
in which you live, and when you enter any of the buildings, it
tends to muck up your neat E/W and N/S rows of streets, as
interior building locations mingle merrily with your street
locations.  Although this game is time-based, there is plenty of
time to find all 3 victims and do what a vampire's gotta do;
that's if you have questioned your obliging doorman about the
various buildings featured in a magazine lying in your living
room, and visit those buildings that are likely to close before
midnight first.

Call me bloodthirsty, but I really enjoyed playing the part of a
vampire; it certainly made a refreshing change from playing the
usual "adventurer" type persona found in most text adventures.
There are very few items to pick up or deal with in any way, and
most of the problems involve choosing a suitable victim, then
ensuring that you are alone with them (can't be caught sinking
your fangs into someone's neck in public) before typing BITE .....

The atmosphere throughout STRANGERS is dark, brooding and very
gothic, with well-described locations and believable characters.
This game is NOT recommended for children - although there is no
obvious blood-and-guts type of violence, there is a very dark and
adult feel to the whole game. The version of STRANGERS that I
played was called "Version1.0contest", so I assume it was written
as an entry in one of the many I-F competitions run on the Net.
There are a few spelling errors, mainly due to haste while
writing, I suspect, but certainly not enough to spoil the
effectiveness of this well-presented and fascinating game.
Overall, this is a really "different" game to play - not exactly
puzzle-less; but not the traditional kind of text adventure
either. Altogether an interesting concept, competently programmed.





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