Ziggurat: The Temple of Doom

Look: 7/10 I love love love the title screen, it gave me such Pajama Sam feels

But then right after that, the graphics went right to the usual bland ZX Spectrum text adventure look. Prefer the Apple II colors, regardless, but to top it off, these were just very plain. E.g.,

Despite the nonstop blandness, the title screen boosts this to an average score heh.

Sound: 8/10 Some pretty nice sound effects like when you go to the top floor on the rope (which absurdly is some sci fi laser shooting sound lol), and I kinda got hooked to the typing sound (especially when the computer is typing out the descriptions). The Flute sound was nice too, and kinda reminded me of later Zelda games. I usually don't include the Sound score in these early games, especially a text adventure, but hmmm, in this case it helps.

Play: 8/10 Mostly your usual text adventure inventory management as gameplay, but it had a nice, straightforward feel to it--refreshing after the complex gameplay of Swiss Family Robinson (which I fully respect, mind you). Effective parser, enjoyable gameplay, and straightforward enough text adventure. The humor wasn't great, like when it fakes you dying, but it used the meta jokes better than most text adventures and just generally had better humor than most the cringe-worthy jokes I've endured so far in my text adventure journey heh. It was pretty funny when I'd afk or do something else and come back and the game was calling me out for taking forever "try pressing some keys" etc haha. Thank goodness for online hints, cuz I would not have thought of the Washer as the last needed Coin heh , tho I assume the Help feature would have helped. Later in the game, I was very glad to see the "big fight" (heh) does have some RNG factor but it isn't like those annoying ones where you just have a chance to survive or die: by having an item you can almost definitely win. If I were young, and had all the time in the world, heh, I could see myself replaying it to try out different challenges, defeating the Mummy without the Sword etc. Regardless, like always, I'm just super grateful for deaths you can avoid or solve, rather than simply have a chance to survive or not. My type of text adventure death heh.

Feel: 8/10 I really really love that title screen, it gets me so excited for Humongous Entertainment PC games, but wow did the game "look" rushed and tacky. Nevertheless, it "played" well-done and fun (as fun as text adventures can be). And tho I liked how it felt a bit like a return to the collect-and-drop-treasures type text adventure with the coins you can count collecting, it felt quite bland and unimaginative again with just Get Coins then Get Coins then Get Coins then Get Coins ad nauseum. (Oh, well, actually turns out the coins are just for a later puzzle, and there explicitly are treasures like the Bronze Ring and a 100% completion type report--some of my favorite attributes of text adventures!!) The Anvil/Throne "puzzle" reminded me of later Zelda, Pokemon, RuneScape, etc., games where you place a boulder or stone (or Pet Rock like in RS haha) on a spot or switch to open a door. If only the look was more varied and interesting (after all, it's a temple of doom for goodness sake...), the navigation parts wouldn't feel so blah and would better reward the slow drawing/loading of early computer games. In the end, I got hooked to this--as odd and bland as it was--and got 100%. Then it had to have its first reprehensible text of the game... if it had such a context throughout the game I would have quit it earlier... what a disappointing way to end it..

Attachment: 7/10 I'm in a weird mood tonight, feeling kinda blah and irritated and restless all day. Just one of those days. I wasn't patient enough for the complexities of Swiss Family Robinson, even tho I loved the look and wanted to love the gameplay. But this game hit the right spot. It was lengthy, but it filled my night in a nice, approachable, just-the-right-amount-text-adventure-frustration way. I got totally hooked and wanted to finish it. Like most text adventures, I'm not sure that I see myself replaying this, but it definitely would be on my list of text adventures to replay... plus, if I had played it when it came out, it would have been fun replaying it to learn the different ways you can finish, how to get 100% completion instead of just 70 or 80 (I like that you can end it without 100%, unlike some text adventures that feign a completion rating), and to challenge myself with certain limitations like the no Sword I mentioned earlier. But for now, it's unlikely I will replay, especially with such a bland Look, but it's one I am happy I played and I suggest you do the same! Especially if Look isn't really your thing (after all, this is a text adventure heh)

Completion: 100% Playtime: ~1 hour