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Mini-Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz - Review

Review by ClockWyzass

Ratings

Parser/Vocabulary
0
Atmosphere
0
Cruelty
Merciful
Puzzles
0
Overall
0
Written:
16-09-2022
Last edited:
Platform:
unspecified

As with Mini-Zork I, MZ2 makes an excellent introduction to the Zork trilogy, especially when combined with MZ1.


(NEUTRAL) OBSERVATIONS

Similar to the first two Zork games, MZ2 is nothing more than a treasure-hunt game. Surprisingly, the same number of treasures are still included in this mini version. However, a few of them were taken out of their original (and now missing) locations and placed in other locations.

Also, despite persistent rumours that MZ2 is buggy and unplayable, the r15 version I played was perfectly stable and there were no glitches or crashes. As I suspected, those rumours were the result of the unfinished copy that came directly from the Infocom source-code archive. Torbjörn Andersson’s remake may not be exactly what the Infocom developers originally had planned, but it’s nevertheless playable.


POSITIVES

As with MZ1, I found that playing MZ2 in one sitting was very enjoyable. Like Zork II, it’s a fairly complex game with inventory/action “puzzles” that are far less straightforward than either Zork I or MZ1, so too much of that complexity gets tiresome.


NEGATIVES

In a way, MZ2 feels slightly less abridged than MZ1, even though the hardest of the inventory/action “puzzles” (and locations) were completely removed. Sadly, though, the bank puzzle was removed, and that was one of the most-ingenious puzzles ever created for a computer game.


RECOMMENDATIONS

I have the exact same recommendations for MZ2 than I had for MZ1. Unless you get easily offended by playing simplified versions of classic games, then you can’t consider yourself a fan of vintage computer games without exploring these usual versions.

Although I haven’t yet played (and therefore, tested) the C64 versions, I also highly recommend playing MZ1 and MZ2 in a C64 emulator.




Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 0/10)

The z3 parser has moments where it's hard to find the right word or phrase, but it's still better than parser in all of the other 80s text-adventure games.

Atmosphere (Rating: 0/10)

Unless you're a huge fan of brevity (which I am), there's so little atmosphere that it's barely breathable.

Cruelty (Rating: Merciful)

The (baseball) diamond puzzle was removed, thank goodness.

Puzzles (Rating: 0/10)

However, the bank puzzle was also removed, which I hate. That was one of the best puzzles ever created for a computer game.

Overall (Rating: 0/10)

As with MZ1, you'll need a revised MZ2 map because there're a lot of changes.

[Note: No scores were submitted with this review.]