adventure games are dead, they've been telling us for decades, yet new games keep coming out of the woodwork. most are point & click, sure, but don't think for a minute that text adventures (or interactive fiction) are dead. there's no end to them either, they're just not in the limelight anymore, like they used to be when the genre was supposed to be alive.
[b]the eye of borrack[/b] is one of those text adventures, old-school and unforgiving in most respects, but has a few modern features to make life a bit easier. there's a [b]manual in the install folder[/b] you might want to check out if this is your first foray into the genre, or if it's been a while since you played something like this, but I'll briefly explain how it works.
you wake up in a hut, the game shows you a picture of it (there's one for most major locations), describes what's around you and where the exits are, and waits for instructions. for example: examine chest (this one is very important!), look under bed, take mattress, and for navigating, simply north, west, up, down, etc. you can use abbreviations, n for north, i for inventory, etc. but also more complex sentences, like drop penny into machine.
this all sounds great, but even after a few hours I was struggling with figuring out what the game wanted me to type exactly. a simple 'use' command is frowned upon, and while some things simply work, like 'make axe', more often than not you have to be more specific than logic (well, my logic) would dictate. it's been tweaked a bit though and now the game is more lenient, so 'take sword' works without 'from chest' if there's only one sword and one chest and the chest is unlocked and open, just to give an example.
the game is technically [b]turn-based, stuff only happens when you type something[/b], and each action takes a turn, so if you 'take all' and there are three objects, it will take three turns. if you don't type pause, every 30 seconds a wait command executes and time passes, but this is mostly irrelevant and the clock at the top only shows the actual time in the real world.
there are [b]some timed puzzles[/b] in the game though, and torches only last for a while, so be careful (you can extinguish them when they're not needed, kinda work like a flashlight). also, [b]alt-tab unpauses the game[/b], so maybe don't do it while dealing with a timed section. windowed mode might get added at some point to alleviate this.
[b]you can also die[/b], but there's an oops command, basically undo, works for a single turn, might be enough or not, so [b]make sure to save often, which you can do anytime, but there's no autosaving[/b]. the game has 100 save slots, though you have to switch between them manually, but when you start the game after your first session, it asks if you want to continue your last save or start a new game. very convenient.
[b]inventory management can be pain.[/b] I hate weight/size/item limits in games, and in an adventure I always expect more or less bottomless pockets, as you have to deal with a lot of items, so it was quite a surprise when I found myself unable to move because I was overburdened. you can drop stuff anywhere and go back to them later, or hand over a few items to companions, there's even a handy 'where is x' command to locate items you've already found, but all the back and forth, especially at the beginning, got on my nerves pretty fast. then again, I'm not a patient person and I like my creature comforts, but you also run into your first companion (or pack mule) relatively early.
as is customary with text adventures, [b]it's advised (and fun) to draw your own map[/b], which is easy enough, squares with a location name and some notes, connected by arrows to know where you can go. [b]auto-mapping is in the game's future[/b], and at first I wanted to wait until it gets implemented, but I'm glad I didn't. I sometimes miss games that need you to take notes and such.
the writing is fine, funny enough, shame about the quite frequent typos (much fewer since release though), the pictures serve their purpose, and I loved that [b]there's audio, bird noises, wind, etc. and the occasional music[/b], which adds a lot to the atmosphere, but you might want to know that [b]audio settings are only available via commands[/b], such as sound off, music 50, etc.
can't tell you much about the story, and wouldn't want to anyway, as that's what the whole game's about, all I know is that it's a weird place, seems fantasy-like at first, but there are robots and such as well, and a bunch of treasured items to find and deposit to win. you'll meet companions on the way and visit many different places. I've already explored a huge forest, found a giant mushroom village, a regular village, been in the mountains and in some mines, and this was just the beginning.
I didn't get very far, about 20% according to the score, but explored quite a lot of the game world, and when I wasn't struggling to make the game understand what I wanted to do, I enjoyed walking around, drawing my map, making notes, trying to figure out what to do next and how.
I don't think it's a good introductory game to the genre, you might want to try something shorter and simpler first, but [b]it's really cheap, and not because of low production values or length[/b], so if you're a fan of interactive fiction, give it a shot.
I wish all the game data weren't packed into a single file though, because even the smallest update means the entire game (about 350mb) has to be re-downloaded every time instead of only a fraction of it.
