Inspired by the gameplay of Sierra's classic 'Leisure Suit Larry' and clearly designed in the same vein as the early Sierra games, 'Denarius Avaricius Sextus' (or simply 'Avvy') is - for a relatively small, low budget and little-known title - a surprisingly well put together little adventure, with some amusing moments and a few reasonable puzzles. Unexpectedly well put together for a small shareware title.
The input parser is extremely reminiscent (and quite clearly based on) the very early Sierra parser system. And it captures that very well.
Most required commands are of the two word system as in those early Sierra games (which in turn derived from even earlier text adventure input systems), and whilst there are inevitably the odd desired action with which you'll have to have a couple of attempts at finding the correctly required wording, for what this is - and especially when considering this is a small "home brew" shareware adventure, it actually functions quite well.
For a fairly small and 'basic' shareware adventure game, it surprisingly does have a certain charm to it, conjuring up an enjoyable little representation of ancient Pompeii.
Whilst it is possible to die in the game, with the very occasional 'sudden death' when attempting the occasional unwise move, overall the game is quite fair - and whilst clearly emulating the early Sierra games, thankfully does lack the 'countless sudden deaths' that litter a number of Sierra's earliest entries.
The only exception to this is an (unavoidable) arcade-like section of the game where our hero is forced to fight for his life and fend off, one-by-one, a huge hoard of lions in a gladiatorial arena. This section of the game is incredibly hard - not helped any by the fact it is intermittently quite buggy and glitchy, and when being played through DosBox can sometimes give even more problems! (Worse still, there are chunks of unescapable dialogue either side of this game, and death (over reincarnation) if you don't do well enough in the ring... making this extremely hard section a slog to go through each time and then be able to restore and try again after inevitably failing!
I found there to be a fair selection of puzzles in what is a fairly small shareware adventure. Many of them are reasonably straightforward and can eventually be solved with a little trial and error, with a few trickier ones thrown in at a couple of points.
However despite the mostly pleasant selection of puzzles, I did find a couple of them - maybe due in part to the game's small and cheap-budget nature - to be a little obscure as to what you're actually supposed to be doing, as if things could've done with being fleshed out slightly more with them to at least help nudge the player in the right direction. However this is a relatively minor niggle, and as shareware adventure games go, I have encountered far, far worse instances of this.
Oh, and there's also the lions section of the game, which I've covered under "cruelty" and is disputable if really counts as a puzzle, but it is HARD (and glitchy).
Deliberately similar in design and gameplay to early Sierra titles (such as 'King's Quest', 'Space Quest' and 'Leisure Suit Larry', the latter of which the game's then-teenaged author played before deciding to write his own), this is an unexpectedly likeable shareware adventure.
Amusing selection of characters and some decent puzzles, and in an ancient Pompeii environment which works well for the game's setting. Considering some of the decidedly "cheap and cheerful" (or downright terrible!) low budget / shareware adventure games from the era, 'Avvy' is surprisingly well done.
Due to being a small and low-budget shareware game, it does lack some of the 'polish' of those Sierra counterparts, with it occasionally being unclear what you can or can't do, or are supposed to be doing, whilst the graphics on a few of the screens are noticeably basic and sparse - one or two locations give little more than black backgrounds with simple white outlines. However this latter point is partly redeemed by some of the reasonable-looking locations seen elsewhere in the game. The fact that you can't skip the sometimes lengthy dialogue exchanges and occasional sound effects, is one of my only real niggles with the game's handling.
It obviously doesn't quite match the heights of some of those Sierra counterparts, but none-the-less 'Avvy' does provide an engaging quest and with some funny moments. The author has commented years later that he regrets some of the tone of humour, and whilst there are one or two elements akin to a 'Carry On' film I did not find there was any overly-strong content beyond the occasional eye-rolling "teenage humour" line, despite the game carrying an 'adult themes' warning on one-or-two abandonware sites.
Overall a quirky and charming (if little known) game, and one that should hold the attention of fans of the early Sierra games for a while (just beware of that save lion-slaying mini-game!). The sequel, 'Lord Avalot' (more polished in all departments) is also worth a look. A third proposed and semi-advertised instalment, set in the future, sadly never materialised.