Return to Zork
Return to Zork is a
1993 adventure game in the
Zork series for the
PC and
Apple Macintosh. It was developed by
Activision and was the final
Zork game to be published under the
Infocom label.
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A Return to Zork screenshot, showcasing the additional fuctionality |
Unlike the previous games in the
Zork franchise which were
text adventures,
Return to Zork takes place from a first-person perspective, and made use of video-captured actors as well as detailed graphics; a
point-and-click interface replaced the text
parser for the first time in a Zork game. The overall gameplay style was somewhat similar to
Myst, although
Return to Zork predated Myst by a few months. Unlike
Myst, which had no extraspatial dimensions of functionality,
Return to Zork featured multiple ways of interacting with each object in the game world, as well as with several non-player characters also present in the world via a menu which appeared on the left side of the screen.
Among the actors who appeared in the game were a number of instantly recognizable (by face, if not necessarily by name)
character actors as well as a number of well-known younger actors:
A. J. Langer from
My So-Called Life as "Rebecca Snoot",
Robyn Lively of
Twin Peaks as "The Fairy",
Jason Hervey of
The Wonder Years as "The Troll King", and
Sam J. Jones from the
1980 film
Flash Gordon as "The Blind Bowman". This added to the appeal of the game.
The player's character is a
sweepstakes winner who ultimately must destroy the evil Morphius.
|
The Wizard Trembyle, inside a Tele-Orb |
The game was packaged with an abridged version of the
Encyclopedia Frobozzica, which also served as the game manual and assisted in the game's
copy protection scheme (in order to start playing, one had to provide information from the
Encyclopedia).
Throughout the game, the player could take photographs of the environment with a camera and record significant information with a tape recorder. The game also automatically generated a map as the player progressed, and took notes in a notebook as the plot unfolded through dialogue or events in the game.
Return To Zork is set in the year 1647 GUE, later than any other game in the fictional history of Zork.
Unlike earlier text-adventure games by Infocom, violence against innocent bystanders is possible. It is possible to kill several of the game's civilian non-player characters, where as in every other Infocom or Zork game, such actions are either impossible to accomplish or immediately punished by death. However, killing causes a masked
vigilante to steal all the player's items, with the intention of rendering the game
unwinnable.
As in the Zork text-adventure games, there are several ways to make the game "unwinnable" by using or altering an object or item in an unintended manner. For instance, burning many items with the matches will usually result in an unsolvable game. The most commonly cited example of this occurs with the weed by the side of the road near the beginning of the game. Although the weed is essential later on, it is very easy to unintentionally kill it, and the game gives no indication that the weed is at all important. (It is in fact possible to obtain a new one, although the secret is well-hidden and arguably makes little sense even after it is accomplished, a criticism that is often leveled at many of the game's puzzles.)
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Imdb Entry for Return to Zork*
The JAVE Entry for Return to Zork*
Home of the Underdogs' entry for Return to Zork*
MobyGames' entry for Return to Zork*
GameFAQs entry for Return to Zork*
Disaster Labs' satirical review of Return to Zork
