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Isle of the Cult, The

Rune Berg 2004

Language:
English
Authors:
Rune Berg
Systems:
TADS
Platforms:
TADS
Genres:
Fantasy, misc.
Entered by:
iamaran
Added:
16-05-2023

Synopsis

You lied about your background, and you lied about your age. Heck, you even gave a false name. And with not much ado they made you apprentice to the Thieves' Guild.

The easy life beckoned: picking pockets 'round the merchant quarter, the occasional roof-top burglary - all for a solid tenth of the profits...

Instead the Guild Master took you aside, hinting of a certain "item" he wanted retrieved. Something out of the ordinary; a "key piece in the puzzle of restoration". With promises of due reward and recognition, he coerced you into a weeks-long journey down the south coast.

And now, after a final night's travel by boat, it seems you've arrived at the location of a long-intended plunder...

Notes

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Resources (Upload file)

Map
by Canalboy (trizbort)
Further Info:

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Images

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Isle_Of_The_Cult.png

Rating

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User Comments

Canalboy (28-08-2024 20:04)

A traditional and well written puzzlefest, with a nod towards Guild Of Thieves. The puzzles here come thick and fast and some are none too easy. The usual panoply of object manipulation, tightly-timed setpieces and myriad keys in locks are in evidence and an intriguingly mystical back story adds to the game play. A few opportunities to make the game unwinnable are in evidence but no inventory limit or lamp timer.

This is one of the best TADS games I have encountered.

Canalboy (30-08-2024 20:45)

Amending my previous observation about soft locks, there are in fact none. I assumed I had found one regarding objects on the beach but there is no need to fret about the problem that utilises this particular area of the map.

I managed to complete this just now; a particular problem was holding me up. Unclued exits can be clever or downright annoying. The difference between forcing the player to try every compass direction and examining every wall, as opposed to subtly hinting at the possibility of meta exits is an important game design feature should the creator wish to utilise this particular type of conceit.

Repeating the same action several times to achieve progress is another grey area, viz. having to dig three times in one spot. If there is firstly a response along the lines of

Canalboy (30-08-2024 20:47)

"you dig a small hole in the ground" then a response something like "you expand the depth and breadth of the hole" secondly, this suggests progress and acts as an encouragement to continue the action. Merely repeating the first parser response the second or third time when the fourth attempt bears fruit strikes me as unfair. Few will repeat an action that many times in one place. Castle Of Riddles springs to mind as an otherwise excellent game that suffers from this complaint.

Isle Of The Cult does not feature exact versions of these types of puzzle but similar sensibilities will be experienced by the player before reaching a successful denouement.

Aside from these observations I enjoyed it as a very well put together puzzle fest. And shock horror! Rune Berg can spell check a document too. I came across nary a spelling mistake or indeed a grammatical infelicity anywhere although I did extract a TADS run time error when attempting to place an object in a very unlikely place. This did not crash the game or impinge on progress in any way however.