The Institute (1981)

Play: 8/10 I played the original 1981 version, which means no graphics like in the 1983 version. There was some color and surprisingly some "music"/sound. But I can't really rate those 2 things based on the title screen ha. Anyway, pretty sparse but surprisingly effective writing and (on the atari 8 bit at least) format/UI. Not a fan of the return to countless "Look" messages in a row. But ugh. The parser acts like it's pre-1977 or something lol like cmon "coffee cup" but you wont recognize coffee or cup... or mug. Sad. And it became a bit too much for me to solve, definitely without a guide, but it still was overall fun. A lot of potential, a lot of good feel, but in the end only moderately fun a la a lot of text adventures! Cool concept, decent fun! When in the mood for text adventures, definitely great tho.

Feel: 9/10 I do love the color changes, but to be fair to the "Look" category, I will include it here. It sorta changes the "background color mood" for each room/scene in the game heh, spicing up the otherwise purely text adventure :-p Great sound and flashing graphic when Attack too ha. And of course, interesting concept, unique idea for a text adventure, and good execution. I was surprised it wasn't so much the unique plot, setting, and concept that caught me though--but rather the innovations and, hm, playfulness of the gameplay(?). Not sure how to word it.

Attachment: 7/10 While I did really enjoy it, the concept, and the execution, I can't claim I will be returning to text adventures that often. Plus, when I wanna show a top-notch example of the game, while this one has a great feel and a lot to offer, there are so many that will trump it.