Just seeing this title appear on GOG made my day; it's going to be difficult to resist the temptation to drop everything and jump back in.
The Summoning was one of the defining games of my youth. I remember it being challenging — on a couple of occasions, unfairly so, I felt — and there's simply no way a low-res user interface from the early 90s can hold up. Those are genuinely my only complaints, but I still feel they're probably worth docking a star, for most modern gamers. Even so, it'll always be five stars in my heart!
It has all the best of games of that era — an archetypical plot of good vs. evil (or is it?); an inventory system which sometimes has you making difficult decisions, but never feels unfair; a teleporter maze which strongly encourages making your own map, but isn't so complex that doing so is a chore. What really stood out to me at the time were the character interactions, the spells and items, and how good it felt to just *explore*.
If you aren't turned off by older games and like good, meaty, satisfying adventure, I encourage you to give The Summoning a try. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go Kano some doors.
