Return to Zork

Nostalgia has likely made me biased, but I can't help but love this game. The live character video animation is so fun and they throw in the option to choose how you react to each character to elicit game progression. There is so much problem solving needed and attention to detail, which I believe makes it incredibly challenging. Perhaps it is in part to the sometimes illogical combination of inventory items or functions of those items that make cheating sometimes seem necessary. If you learn to save often and try just about every combination of everything, you will make it through this game in a very lengthy period of time. I just love it.

Friendly word of advice best skip this game in the series and invest in either Zork Nemesis, or Zork Grand Inquisitor instead; given just how painfully hard and time consuming it is even more so than Timelapse and that's really saying something.

Featuring live actors, full motion video, an inventory with multiple ways to interact with different items, and multiple ways to complete the game, Return to Zork is an excellent gem of an adventure game that was unfortunately overshadowed by the more popular Myst that came out several months after. Despite being a fun, challenging, quirky game with fun humor and interesting, albeit strange, puzzles, the game is not without it's issues. There are lots of clues throughout the game for the majority of the puzzles and things you must do. However, you have to pay very close attention or you'll miss the clues. A lot of them are very vague and you'll probably not even know they're clues. But I think in some ways that adds to the challenge and fun :) But there are as many ways to screw yourself over as there are to complete the game. So just save often and don't overwrite your old saves.

Just a great game, but the ending is bugged and no workaround to be found on the internet works here :(

I was so excited when I received this as a gift but was ultimately disappointed. It feels a whole lot like, when Activision bought out Infocom, they had another game they were half-hearted about and so decided to try to superimpose it on a "Zork" background. The game play has its moments, but this just does not feel like the Great Underground Empire. There's a witch and some trees you can talk to, but there are also a modern farm, a comedy club, and what's essentially a Holiday Inn. In frustration, I ordered the hint book, which turned out to be inaccurate. If you are such a fan you have to own ever Zork game ever made, take advantage of a sale price. If you want a game that "feels" like the old Infocom adventures, give this a miss and get Nemesis and Grand Inquisitor.