Into the Mystic - Review

Into The Mystic is another of The Jack Lockerby games which was Quilled for the Commodore 64; fortunately it is not bugged in a game-breaking way like, for instance, Witch Hunt and a Spectrum version of his The Hammer Of Grimmold are.

The back story entails you having been roped in by Merlin to discover why all the magic has disappeared from your land; you begin to the south of an Orc encampment bivouacking for the night.

It contains the customary trademarks of a Jack Lockerby adventure; mainly tough but logical puzzles, a medium sized game map and soft and hard locks a plenty. Magic force fields and gas-filled courtyards are among the problems to be dealt with here. And robbers don't like leprosy! Who does?

Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 7/10)

The Quilled parser as usual understands the first four letters of a word, so exam will do the trick for instance. It has the standard Quill two word parser, as well as the most atrocious spelling I have ever come across in a text adventure. You will be hard pushed to find a single location description that doesn't have one howler at the very minimum. The Spectrum version is much more literate but differs in terms of objects. There is of course no "undo" or "take all" but there are often synonyms available for items and a few verbs that you rarely, if ever find elsewhere in text adventures. Fortunately a full verb list is given you at the beginning of the game and this should give you a nudge towards solving some of the more obscure puzzles, for instance what to do with the oil in the moat and the purpose of the toads in the fountain.

Atmosphere (Rating: 6/10)

The descriptions could never be decsribed as cloyingly atmospheric, but neither are they "You are in a field. Exits are North, East and West." Jack's games have always been more about puzzles and goals than acres of text, well-written or otherwise. One typical description from within the abandoned Great Hall:
"This is the Great Hall that once rang to the sounds of knights and their damsels. Now it is bare except for a tapestry that lines the eastern wall. Stone steps lead up to a gallery." It's not pulling up any trees but then it's not Scott Adams strangulation neither.

The talking dragon is a nice touch and the Dark Woods conjure up a fair bit of menace; until you work out how to travel through them in safety that is. There isn't really much humour to the game; Jack wasn't interested in being a J.J. Guest or an Admiral Jota.

Cruelty (Rating: Nasty)

I think the user-friendliness of the game could best be described as nasty rather than cruel; if you are foolish enough to travel through bandit country without a means of avoiding them then you can probably guess what fate awaits you; likewise there is a puzzle late on where you have to choose one of three objects and, if you think carefully about an unsolved puzzle when you reach this stage the correct choice should hopefully come to you. West Ham supporters may have an advantage here! There are two exceptions to the hard but fair rule though; one involves attempting to enter a building and being given no clues as to why you can't; I think a door which should have been in the description was either omitted from the Commodore 64 port or was missed out in the original Spectrum version as well; not having played the latter to conclusion I can't say for sure. You will recognise this oversight when you stumble across it. All I will say is, leave it and approach it from somewhere else. The second unfair scenario involves the opening of a wooden door which is on the far side of an ADVENT tribute maze. I managed to open it but any solution involving the frequency of a French radio station is just too obscure to be fair. Think Abba and 1975 here. One nice feature of this version is no inventory limit (the Spectrum version has a sack) and your light source is inexhaustible too.

Puzzles (Rating: 8/10)

Some of these are wonderfully clever and, as mentioned, for the most part fair. Jack always had a talent for mixing puzzle genres in his games and this ability of his is well on display here; there are sophisticated chaining puzzles mixed in with a lot of hidden item puzzles. Make sure you search and examine absolutely everywhere in this game. The solutions to the Orc problem and passing through the force field are both masterpieces. Some objects have multiple uses too.

Overall (Rating: 8/10)

A big fat eight from me. Towards the end of his text adventure writing career Jack produced a couple of duds but he was at the height of his powers with this one.