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Ferret - Review

Review by Canalboy

Ratings

Parser/Vocabulary
9
Atmosphere
9
Cruelty
Cruel
Puzzles
9
Overall
9
Written:
05-04-2023
Last edited:
Platform:
PC

Ferret is in some ways a unique game in the fifty-odd year history of the text adventure; in others it is decidedly old fashioned.

Created by a group of anonymous authors on an obscure 16-bit minicomputer back in the days just before the micro revolution it seems to have started out as an attempt (as so many games of its time were) to trump the early markers in the genre, namely Advent and Zork. Indeed, the first eight phases of this enormous game follow a familiar path to the games of the time. The science fiction narrative is definitely playing second fiddle to the puzzles. The puzzles themselves tend to be very hard, and must have been nigh on impossible in the days before Google. Chess end games, degree level mathematical posers and sundry mazes meld with clever logistical problems.

The different writing styles and types of puzzle are clear as you travel through these early parts of the game.

One can hear the evolutionary tick of the modern IF era clock from Phase Nine onwards as the post acocalyptic Cold War story really kicks in and the narrative swells.

One way travel from here to Phase Sixteen is via an old train locomotive which travels through the once affluent parts of SE England; English players will no doubt recognise the pleasant, leafy names of Sunningdale, Virginia Water, Epsom etc. These examples are cleverly juxtaposed with the contemporary apocalyptic wasteland that has transformed expensive Surrey, Kent and Berkshire postal addresses from all to die for des res locales into a monochrome desolation.

Like Shelley's Ozymandius: "Nothing beside remains."

Every piece of equipment encountered, every window view is of a broken, anti-holistic world. We are indeed a far cry now from the early IF landscape. For caves, trolls and scrolls we have blasted buildings with their curtain walls jaggedly exposed, piles of mangled dead bodies and torn and slimy papers and documents.

An odd feature of the game is that certain information to solve a problem in, say, Phase Ten will be discovered in Phase Fourteen, and sometimes these revelations entail visiting no exit locations. So manifold saved games and use of command files where you can build a rerun of a section of the game by loading a file are more than useful.

I found the multi word parser to be a very good one and recent updates to the current version at the time of writing to 10.3 have included the ability to chain multiple commands by using commas. There is also a lot of ASCII art contained in the game which fleshes out the various pieces of equipment and modes of transport that one encounters. In this respect it is very similar to another large mainframe game, Warp.

I had a constant dialogue with the authors which enabled me to send them details of any bugs (not many) and also to receive hints which were more than necessary in certain places. Indeed the story goes on as they are currently beavering (ferreting?) away at Phase Seventeen at the moment.

I thoroughly enjoyed my six months or so playing the game and look forward to future updates.




Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 9/10)

Excellent location descriptions; very evocative and a multi word parser that seldom leaves you scratching your head. A mercifully large inventory limit.

Atmosphere (Rating: 9/10)

Particularly from Phase Nine onwards the game cleverly builds the apocalyptic tension. Some of the screen dumps are very long.

Cruelty (Rating: Cruel)

Extremely easy to hard and soft lock; save often and use command files.

Puzzles (Rating: 9/10)

Every type imaginable. Many mazes, general knowledge posers, logistical headaches and codes galore. These are mostly extremely ingenious.

Overall (Rating: 9/10)

Ferret will surely go down as one of the great milestones in text adventure history.