The Miser's House

Puzzle 1981 Dos Typing or writing

Lackluster adventure

It's time for another trip into the world of interactive fiction and while this is a decent little adventure, it sadly falls way of the standards of Zork, Guild of Thieves or The Pawn and is only really suited to genre newcomers. This is a little peculiar in that there is no real overarching narrative to follow as is usually the case and instead the player is simply charged with exploring the titular house. There are of course plenty of puzzles to solve and which form the game's real reason for being and there are a hundred on display here but what they make up for in numbers, they rather lack in depth or interest. Most of what you will experience here is pretty basic stuff, and in most cases the obvious solution is the right one. Even the room descriptions are startlingly bare in their detail, consisting merely of phrases like 'You are in the kitchen,' with little in the way of writing skill on display, and which doesn't help this game's case. If you are a newcomer to the genre, then you might find this of interest, as it is very accessible and easy to pick up, thanks to the simple parser system and puzzles which aren't overly challenging. However, this very simplicity might just put you off trying another game in the genre, as the lack of sophistication doesn't really show what can be achieved when text adventure creators really put their minds to it. This would be a bit of a mistake though and if you persevere, you may get some enjoyment here, but remember that this is not exactly the jewel in the crown of text adventures. genre veterans are probably best to avoid this as it is sure to prove too limited for their tastes.

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