Download Journey - The Quest Begins

Game:

Journey - The Quest Begins is a fantasy adventure and text styled game of surprisingly high quality for one released in 1988. (Although the company responsible, Infocom, usually produced high-quality games.) The graphics have 16 colours and the writing, story and interface are excellent for their time. The writer, Marc Blank, also worked on the popular Zork trilogy of text games.

Story:

The story commences with an isolated village in crises. The villager crops have failed for the last four years and now the water supply has turned foul. A party of four gallant men decide to seek help from a powerful Wizard who lives some distance away on Sunrise Mountain. There is a Tolkien flavour to the story as the usual cast of elves, dwarfs, wizards, nymphs and orcs appear throughout your journey. There really isn't a dull moment as drama and magic spring out at every turn. The story is captivating and will keep you playing, always curious about what will happen next.

Interface:

The interface looks unusual but is simple to use. On the left hand side is an action screen which pictures the current scene and the characters your party meets. On the right hand side is the text narrative which initially tells the background to the story and afterwards describes the places visited and actions the characters take. At the bottom of the screen is a row of five boxes which contain a variety of actions and commands for interacting with the game. It's fun to watch the corresponding story pop up when you choose an action. You can select a command or action either with your mouse or the keyboard.

Gameplay:

You can control up to five characters but the main character you play is an apprentice merchant called Tag. A fustrating element of the gameplay is its linear structure. If you've made a few wrong choices you reach a dead end in the storyline. The game doesn't offer any alternative but to restore an earlier saved game, as you repeat the same actions which lead nowhere. I suppose, though, that with interactive fiction there are only so many choices that can be offered. An unusual gamplay element, for an adventure story, is that there are a few combat scenes, albeit simple ones. At the beginning of each confrontation, you can choose whether to go into 'Combat' or whether to 'Retreat' or 'Parley' with the enemy.

Summary:

I was surprised how engrossing the story was, although nothing very original, the usual sword and sorcery affair. The puzzles aren't that easy, but if you have the patience to retrace your steps and try every alternative, you'll have an adventure to remember. For rating purposes, I'd like to choose 3.5, but this isn't possible for reviewer ratings, so it's a 3.

There is no setup required. You just click on 'start.bat' and you're away. For some helpful hints, go here:

Solutions