[Vinka]

Originally Posted by Riotgirl

After playing a couple of Infocom games during the 80s, I've always carried a torch for Interactive Fiction in its many guises, mutating into MUDS [multi-user dungeons], free-form RPGs and MMORPGs [Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games].

Unfortunately, I wish I never bothered with Wishbringer. Perhaps at the ripe of age of 33, I am too cynical and jaded, and simply expected too much. But with location descriptions re-defining brevity (I typed 'verbose', and to my horror, I was already in verbose mode!), I was extremely surprised at how basic Wishbringer is. If you substitute 'beginner' for 'pre-pubescent child', then the demographic may be spot on. But even as a teenager, I would have hated this. Yes, the parser is good, even if not up to usual Infocom standards, and there are those touches of quality that make all Infocom games stand out from the competition, but Wishbringer feels far too sparse, the story too simplistic and the puzzles feel too telegraphed.

Embarrasingly, I only got as far as the Olde Magick Shoppe on my first outing before I ran out of time, but I do not feel compelled to try again. Even getting that far needed force of will and effort not to /quit and delete the game from my hard-drive.

I couldn't recommend Wishbringer to beginners of IF, simply because the beginning has a complete lack of immersion. The frustrating part is that there are glimpses of the Infocom magic, but I'm going to head straight to Starcross first.

Note: because it is Infocom, I will give Wishbringer another try. But nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Regards,
Riotgirl

Oh, COME ON! It's not THAT bad. Yes, it's a bit simplistic, but it does say at the very beginning of the game: "interactive fantasy for beginners" so one cannot really expect it to not be simplistic.

Anyway, even as simplistic as it is, I'm really enjoying it, but I wish had started playing text based games with this one, it wouldn't have been so frustrating to learn how to interact with them (and I probably would have enjoyed this one a lot more).

Originally Posted by gildedgirth

Good game and a great introduction to interactive fiction games. I still remember buying this game new when I was way young.

One thing worth mentioning about 'Wishbringer' is that I think its a great game to get people into interactive fiction games. While 'Zork' and 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' are probably the most well-known Infocom games and perhaps the first games people are most likely to try out, I don't think they are the best games for a newbie to text adventure games, as in the case of 'Zork' it lacks a compelling story and in Hitchiker's case, has some devious (but hilarious) puzzles that might initally frustrate and turn off new players, which is a shame since both those games are great. 'Wishbringer' however was designed to gently guide new players into the world of Interactive Fiction and also quickly hooks you in with a great story that is really very nicely written (and quite touching too). Wishbringer was the first Infocom game that I ever completed as a kid and gave me motivation to tackle other games, like Zork, Deadline, Infidel, etc.

Also it should be pointed out that Wishbringer was authored by the great Brian Moriarty, who while was not part of the initial collection of great Infocom authors as he joined the team later on, he was soon to be a key person in company, authoring several games including the fabulous 'Trinity' game. After Infocom, he also did the Lucas Arts 'Loom' graphical adventure game which is considered a classic as well and I believe Abandonia has this as well.

So in short, if you ever wondered at all about Interactive Fiction at all, 'Wishbringer' is definitely a fine introduction.

Anyway, thanks for uploading another classic game.

Completely agree, I began playing IF with "shadow of mordor and "a mind forever voyaging" and they both drove me insane before I could figure them out (In fact, with "shadow of mordor" I just kept walking in circles until I gave up and never played again, I suppose I should give it another go now that I know how to make maps :P), Wishbringer would have been perfect to learn about IF.

Also, I loved "the legend of wishbringer" on the manual, it really got me on the atmosphere of the game.