The Zork Library Forum

'Comon - which was the best Zork game?

I have to go with the text adventures, but Z:THE isn't a "was" just yet.

I liked ZGI the best - but it was just too darn short.  They should have spent a little more time with it and made it a longer game.  My second favorite - nemesis.
Elizabeth (zorket)

Nemesis :-}

Zork I overall.  ZGI out of the graphic games.

Take a wild guess at what I voted...cmon...

I would have liked to have filled in all of the options because all of the Zork games maintianed such a high standard of quality it is impossible to choose.

I voted for Nemesis, but I REALLY loved the Enchanter series of text adventures.  Return to Zork and Grand Inquisitor were truest to the original Zork style.  But Nemesis was such a good game...

It is cruel to ask us to choose.

Zork Nemesis was definately my fav, since I'm morbid and coniving like that, though the text games were awesome as well. It's really too hard to pick just one of them, but overall I'd have to choose Nemesis!

I really like all of the graphic ones. I guess RTZ is my choice cos it has a great insight on the daily-social lives of the common Zorkian which is an element I like in fantasy games. ZN though had by far the best atmosphere and story-line and ZGI was, well, funny, traditional, and cool puzzles.

I don't want to sound like a troll here, but the shock of browsing this forum and seeing that Nemesis was voted the best Zork game just stunned me.

Now, I must mention disagree with lumping all the text adventures in one batch together. Byond Zork is close to one of my favorites in the fact that it's probably the most replayed of all the Zork games I've purchased. (As a note, Zork Zero counts as the least played of the text games. After I beat it I felt no want to ever go through it again. )

When Return to Zork came out and I bought it, overall I was pleased with how it graphically represented Zork. Some of the areas near the end, a little less so, but the jokes were funny, the game was enjoyable and the puzzles, solvable. True, next to Nemesis and Grand Inquisitor it looks outdated, but from the moment I walked into Boos' place and heard "This guy's so drunk even his plants are potted." I fell in love with the game.

Then, came Nemesis. Graphically, the game looked fine, if not a little dark. The story, too was a bit dark, but Zork isn't all fun and jokes. However, the puzzles were way too easy and I beat the game on the first go. The CD has not left the jewel case since. As a whole, the game felt very out of place in the storyline and the puzzles forced. I assume the ending was supposed to be some sort of surprise from the way the end played out, but it was as predictible as a Hollywood movie.

I almost didn't buy Grand Inquisitor, I must say, but I'm glad I did. Grand Inquisitor restored my faith in the idea of a graphical Zork game. The characters are interesting and the cut scenes are fun to watch, the puzzles felt about the right difficulty. (Though, I didn't realize that the phone in hades and the instructions for making the spell could be simplified, and thus, bypassed. Silly me, logic puzzles are some of my favorite. )

In fact, the only real complaints I have of the game are the fact that the transition of walking to the outside of the monestary seems very unnatural and the fact that the whole walking castle seemed _very_ out of place.

All in all it was the too easy puzzles and the uninteresting characters that really disgusted me about the game. While Grand Inquisitor was fairly easy and the end of Return to Zork felt very rushed, they really, as whole games, felt more in place with the rest of the series.

As I stated, I was shocked to see that Nemesis won the poll and thus, I have made this post in an attempt to find out what people found so great about it.

Feel free (pun intended) to email me rather than just post a response here if you'd rather have a more personal, one on one discussion about the Zork games.
(Orochip_fish at yahoo dot com)

Though I agree that Nemesis was not the truest 'Zork' type game, I think most of the laurals (sp?) go to it because it was the most well laid out graphically and was a step up to the current (Myst) level of graphical games, as well as the whole 'look-and-feel' was  a well written game, though I honestly think it really was just Activision using the Zork name to try and compete with Myst, since they didn't really have any adventure/walkthrough names on their roster at the time.
I was actualy a little disapointed by GI as  a graphics game, I was hoping for the same level of detail and darkness, but with the same Zork feeling that GI brought across.

Though my vote still went for the orginal I.F. games.

Hmmm... I never saw the end comming to Nemesis, and it took me very long to complete...

GI was funny, but shot, and simple, took me 12 hours total or so... you could simplify hades-chuttle-service?... *durk...*

I have *never* understood why people say Nemesis feels wrong because it is so dark and lacks humor.

Play the original trilogy and the Enchanter series. Then play Nemesis. They are very much alike. A few jokes here and there, but all in all serious.

And I'm sorry, but I burst out laughing when you said BZ was the best. If you didn't know, most Zork fans actually make fun of this title. It trys to be too much RPG-like (as in D&D.) I definetly think that the original trilogy was much better, even with its lack of humor.

For the record, I was never able to beat Zork 0.

The reason Nemesis won the poll is because of its rich storyline, interesting puzzles, and overall graphical dominance.

And YES the ending was a surprise. I don't know how you found it predictable. At first it's as if you have no clue what's going on and it's not even slightly clear until the end is nigh.

Nemesis had what most adventure games lack, the ability to draw me in and never let me leave. Once I started playing, I couldn't stop, it had me intrigued, the graphics were great and I loved the ambient music, all this made me really feel like I was there. The acting was great and the story awesome. It did a great job taking you to different places and never really letting you in on what was really happening. It was suspensful and fun. :-}

And I'm sorry, but I burst out laughing when you said BZ was the best. If you didn't know, most Zork fans actually make fun of this title. It trys to be too much RPG-like (as in D&D.) I definetly think that the original trilogy was much better, even with its lack of humor.

Yes, I do realize that many fans dislike BZ, however, the main reason why I like BZ over, say, the original trilogy is the fact that as a player, I feel much more in the world provided in BZ. In the original trilogy, you start by a white house in the woods. Why? Wander around, there's nothing but a house in the woods. The pamphlet in the mailbox pretty much breaks the fourth wall, but that's not so much as a problem as the fact is that the whole game consists of is going along to find the next puzzle.

And the humor was not that big of a draw for BZ in my opinion, though it definately helped with GI.

As for the RPG element, sure the combat was all fluff, but the stats did give way for some interesting puzzles that, while still may have been able to be implemented, gave way to things like, "Man, I'm sure deficient in this area, how could I change that." The big problem with this in BZ was the fact that in the end, the stats had very little effect. It was possible to go through the game exactly the same, reguardless of stats. And the best way to play seemed to be to simply start out with all stats even.

The reason Nemesis won the poll is because of its rich storyline, interesting puzzles, and overall graphical dominance

Unfortunately, two of the three things you mention here are exactly what I found lacking in the game. The graphics, which were nice, I must admit, are a nonissue. If the ending to Return to Zork was stronger, (Gah, it really annoys me how it starts off so interesting and just degenerates at the end) the lack of graphical quality wouldn't even matter.

On the issue of the other two, the puzzles and the storyline, it all comes down to the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

I honestly think it really was just Activision using the Zork name to try and compete with Myst, since they didn't really have any adventure/walkthrough names on their roster at the time.

I really hadn't considered it, but you're probably very correct here. Four areas that had to be visited and completed, though not necessarily in any order, a storyline where in the end, those you are working for end up to be the baddies. Wow. A lot more is similar between the games than I had first realized.

I never thought of comparing the two because Myst and Riven (I have not, unfortunatley, gotten to play Exile yet) seem like very different games than Return to Zork, Nemesis, and GI to me. At the heart, all of those games are pretty much about exploration. The graphic Zork games seem to feature story over exploration, with the Myst games taking the opposite road. Not that any way is better, just different, which is good. God forbid that all adventure games were alike.

you could simplify hades-chuttle-service?... *durk...*

Yeah. I didn't even realize that until pretty recently when it was mentioned to me by someone else.


And, as a response to DataAngel, I could almost replace the first word in your post with Riven and it could be something I would type. Cyan was good at creating a world I wanted to explore for the sake of exploring. Zork games leave me wanting to solve the puzzles. Which is good, it's exaclty what they should do.