Look: 9/10 So many good screens, from the Hydra to Sisyphus. .I was focused on playing the game, because it's getting late after my brother left, but there were several screens worth remembering. All that being said, though, not every room had a screen so they were quite occasional. They were the highlight of the game when they'd come along, though, especially with how overly-long this game is. I captured a couple, here's one for instance

Ayy my boy Sisyphus

And some silhouette vibes from Tisiphone

Ok I'm trying not to post too many screenshots, but you know me and Apple II graphic adventures gah... and I mean cmon, Poseidon

Play: 8/10 Despite an amazing concept, relatively well-executed too, there is wayyyy too much navigation. But most importantly, despite this overabundance of navigation steps, and the overly long game length, I kept pushing through. I saved my game and returned to it the next morning, indeed, to finish it up. Because the story (as much as I already knew most the mythological tropes and references heh) felt that it needed to be finished and the descriptions/screens felt worth it. Plus, the gameplay was relatively fast-paced (partly because there wasn't a screen for each room) and classic text adventure vibes. At first, it was hard to find info/instructions online because the same guy went on to make a puzzle game with the same name in the 90s. But luckily I found the manual. I mean the game even urges you at the beginning to read through it first! Ha. But lets be honest, it's really just to know that to control Jason alone you type J/ and to control Hercules alone you use H/ before whatever command. Ez pz tbh. Oh, and the part where Hercules standing on the spot opens a door as long as he estays on there is a great way to use the 2 characters and reminds me of sooooo many later games, one that comes to mind are Runescape (getting to those darn Dagannoth Kings, thank goodness for your Pet Rock you can set down ha). I always liked those type puzzles cuz, gasp, I can solve them :-p even when you have to set a boulder or rock on the switch like in Zeldas etc. As good as this was, it still had many of the downfalls of text adventures: a lot of navigation and backtracking, frustrating inventory management, and parser challenges.

Feel: 9/10 I love how you see which character you are playing as by their name being highlighted. But like Kim Schuette said in her Book of Adventure Games, the game really doesn't take full advantage of these 2 separate characters. Still, pretty much a typical text adventure game. Absolutely beautiful descriptions at times, tho, with very vivid diction allowing short one-sentence descriptions that pack a punch. I love the mythology parts too. It's just a bit too darn long heh. I seriously am amazed how long the game really is. I think by not having every room have a graphic it allowed them to fit this much in one Apple II disk? Ironically was just telling Anarchistica how none of these early text adventures normally would take 2-3 hours unless you can wander in the game etc. (which most don't let you due to RNG petty deaths or only allowing a certain amount of turns etc.)... then that same day I come upon a text adventure game that manages to fit 2-3 hours of actual content, 2 different characters you can switch between in the middle of gameplay (first time in any of the games I've played, of any genre, that you can do that???)... anyway, the irony! Ha. I stand corrected. Anyway, I know I've mentioned it several times, but yeah, typically I don't like the particularly long text adventures, but I think that's largely because they aren't organized well and still have the petty RNG deaths or limited amount of turns. Instead, in this one, it's organized into 3 clear parts that felt logical to save after (for instance, after I finished Part 1 and headed into Hades, I saved and went to bed. Wow, feeling like I'm entering modern gaming of the late 80s and on, but this was in fact from '81!!). And each part is perfect length (imo) for a play session and, thus, allows for well-placed breaks by saving between (and not having to worry about wasting a turn to save like in many early limited-turns text adventures or the ones where each turn could result in a randomized RNG petty death). In other words--well-done, Johnson! Mind you, if you do play this all in one setting, it definitely could get old or overwhelming or feel too long--definitely take it in segments imo. Oh and like I've mentioned with a lot of '81 and '82 text adventures, you can really start to see the roots of later adventure games like Zeldas, where you have a goal, speak to someone or something that's in the way of the goal, and are told what item you must fine or puzzle you must solve to get past em. I especially enjoyed the Hades parts involving that. Also, nice Aegis Shield, I know that's mythological but soooo many later RPGs and whatnot had Aegis Shields as ultimate shields. To think most of this is just for that darn Golden Fleece and to get into Olympus heh, I'd go with the Aegis Shield and Poseidon's Trident tbh :-p (oh, I see what they wound up doing there; your mission was much larger, indeed!) Near the end there it definitely starts to get to be a bit too much of the back and forth type stuff you often see with collect-and-store-treasures text adventures, despite not really being one of those. Back and forth from Hades we go heh. Another reason I'm glad I played this in chunks.

Attachment: 9/10 The character switching is really well-done, and makes the game worth a playtest at least to see how the UI and gameplay accomplishes this concept. Otherwise, a pretty run-of-the-mill mythological text adventure game without much frustrating rng pettiness (which I appreciate) but also just too long and eventually repetitive to be a favorite of mine. That being said, it has so many good qualities, the innovative 2 characters feature, and I surprised myself by saving and returning to the game to finish a single playthrough (which is something I expect from '84 and on, not '81!!). This game really, the more I think about it and engage with it, impressed me and is worth remembering and replaying eventually! After all, I already returned to the game at least once! Wow, after a very long journey and 2 separate play sessions, this was nice to see! So nice to see a true ending screen, I always loved that about adventure and RPG games (I have screenshots of all the FF endings heh, those are the best), and wow there's even an ending song (tho it's awful lol).

Completion: 100% Playtime: 2 hours