Return to Zork (1993 Video Game) User Reviews

Pure nostalgia.

[insomniac_rod · 6/10 · 23 April 2010]

I remember this movie with a feeling of nostalgia. It was one of the first games of it's kind where a player could actually interact with environments, conversate with other characters, solve puzzles, and take decisions.

I played it with my cousin and as I was young and English is not my first it was a bit frustrating when trying to solve the difficult puzzles.

Anyways, I enjoyed it big time. It allowed me to kill real persons ;) Seriously, I recently played it and I must admit it's not that good but for nostalgia's sake, I will defend it in the future.

Revisiting an Old Friend

[hamburgerman · 10/10 · 30 December 2000]

I grew up with the Apple II computer in junior high. The original text adventure ZORK series was an all-time favorite of mine. I never played any ZORK games after ZORK III, like ZORK ZERO and BEYOND ZORK, though. After being away from the computer gaming world for a while, I got a new PC and then I saw RETURN TO ZORK on the shelf. Wow. Not knowing anything about it, it was already a must-have in my eyes. I took it home and played it right away. It was fantastic! It has the same sense of humor of the text adventures. Great graphics (for the year it came out), great storyline, just plain fun.

If there is one complaint, it's that RETURN TO ZORK is a point-and-click adventure. Puzzles are often easy to figure out because sometimes you can just start clicking things until you get it right, where in the original text games you had to really think about it, because you typed in your action. But even so, RETURN TO ZORK is great fun. It has a maze, as most adventure games had in the past, the I found impossible to figure out, so i bought the cheat guide.

A Great Escape!

[SnacksForAll · 29 July 1999]

This game may be a little old, and maybe even outdated, but it still remains one of the most impressive and downright entertaining computer games to play.

The storyline is lighthearted (with a few dark undertones thrown in for good measure), the characters are all lovable, and RETURN TO ZORK really gets you laughing sometimes. For a game that was produced in 1993, I would have to say that the graphics and sound are still very noteworthy, even by today's standards.

The plot is just wonderful. It has you wanting to see what unfolds next in the story of the Great Underground Empire, and is very addictive (which, in this case, is a good thing!).

RETURN TO ZORK also receives kudos for its musical score. WOW! It really moves you. Even the cheap MIDI files are impressive! The musical score for RTZ is by far one of the best for any computer game this decade.

The only area RTZ falls short in, are a couple of extremely-hard-to-solve puzzles. If it weren't for a cheat guide, this game would have taken me at least a year to beat -- and I'm not kidding. The most ridiculous of these puzzles has to be one of the three mazes, which are absurd, because there is no secret to solving them....you just have to figure out how to get through (this could take a lifetime). You'll DEFINITELY need a cheat guide to get through things like this.

All in all, though, RETURN TO ZORK is a game that makes you come back for more, and leaves you wishing you lived in that truly bizarre and comical world. And if you need further proof: I have played and beat this game about six times since 1993!

Highly recommended.

So Illogical

[Flipyflip222 · 3/10 · 29 April 2008]

I remember playing this game when I was younger. At the time in the early 90s when games like this came out I was so fascinated. I was amazed at the vibrant, colorful graphics, the goofy acting, and immersive environment. I was also a scaredy cat when it came to the whispering woods. I never did beat the game until now. I had to use a hint book to beat this game because of how illogical the puzzles our. Fast forward to 2008 and I'm playing this game and I realize how terrible it actually is. There are no hints to solve the puzzles (and if there are they are quite vague), the voice acting is terrible, and the ending boss is just a photomorphic blob of milk that challenges you to a lousy game called survivor. Probably the most frustrating parts of the game is the foggy swamp bog, every time you go back to the place it resets the map and there is no way of knowing whether or not you are going to be out of the bog. Even the parts where you're not supposed to steal (well you can pick up almost EVERYTHING that isn't nailed down) stuff. I'll admit this game is quite lousy, but the best parts of it? I guess the soundtrack is awesome and it's quite catchy. The part with Boos is classic (it has it's own youtube video I mean that's how epic that part of the game is). Oh and it's funny to kill people in the game (check out what happens when you stab Ben Fyshin, it's a riot). If you want to play it find the CD-ROM at a flea market and get those hint books out on the internet. You'll be scratching your head as to how the game developers came up with these ambiguous solutions to solving these ridiculous puzzles.