Until their gradual decline in the late 90’s, graphical adventure games were the zeitgeist of PC (and Amiga) gamers of all ages. From the unforgiving “Kings Quest” series by Roberta Williams to the unique absurdness of Tim Schaffer’s “Monkey Island” series, adventure games have provided gamers with a sense of novel storytelling that is difficult to find in modern, big-budget titles. Among this genre of the past was Adventure Soft’s title “Simon the Sorcerer,” in which the player is cast into a fantasy world that doesn’t take itself too seriously with its warm-hearted jokes and acknowledges the fact that it’s just a game. Be that as it may, some players new to the genre may find the puzzles found in Simon the Sorcerer to range from confusing to the point at which you have no understanding at why you just performed what you performed in order to continue. Although riddled with vague and difficult puzzles, Simon the Sorcerer is full of charm and humour that will captivate any adventure-game enthusiast.
Everything from the hand-painted artwork to the FM-synthesis music, Simon the Sorcerer’s world does a great job of engrossing you into a fantasy setting filled to the brim with extra details that make the world feel alive. Randomly walking through a meadow to see a hawk swoop down to catch a field mouse serves as one of the many immersive pieces the developers took care and pride over to make the player feel as though this world is dynamic and waiting to be explored. Though the developers have a fetish with tinting indoors with purple, the graphics are otherwise beautiful for its time and have aged wonderfully.
The biggest strength of Simon the Sorcerer is, without a doubt, the dialogue. Although Simon is the star of the show, other notable characters include a wise owl that gives out worthless advise, a snotty tone-deaf bard, and a tree-stump who Simon has a discussion over the topic of racism. Simon the Sorcerer is self-aware of the fact that he is in a PC game, often asking characters if he can buy a hint-book for some puzzle or claiming to know the identity of someone by the player having scrolled the mouse pointer over him. Given that Good-ol-games.com’s downloadable version has the CD-Enchanced speech version, hearing the characters banter out their lines in their respective British accents makes the game a worthwhile purchase.
However, be prepared for many nefarious and obscure puzzles in Simon the Sorcerer. I often found myself combining items and attempting to use every inventory item I could with highlighted parts of the screen out of desperation. Furthermore, it is possible to make the game impossible to win just from something you did earlier in the game (i.e. purchasing the wrong item from a shop), forcing the player to either make numerous saved games or to go through the walkthrough. However, those worried that the game becoming a pixel hunt exercise will be happy to know that this is not the case, as by pressing the F10 key on your keyboard will allow items of interest to be highlighted on the screen for a brief moment.
Overall, Adventure Soft did a spectacular job in creating a unique and memorable game that is well worth the $5.99 I paid for it. Even those who dread puzzles, Good-ol-games included a walkthrough of the game so you will not have to go through the hair-ripping experience that I submitted myself to. Simon the Sorcerer is a must-buy for anyone looking to enjoy an adventure game that is comparable to the old Lucasarts games of the early 90’s.