Ok, I am at 33 of 70-something points, so take this with a grain of salt.
I will first discuss the game aspects of Legend, then move on to the
prose, and conclude with a discussion of the thematic aspects.
Legend as a game is quirky and fun. The puzzles are, to me,
rather difficult. While I enjoy difficult, I enjoy a good hint system
even more. :) Fortunately for me, Legend has this as well. I saw a
couple of puzzles that seemed kind of oddball, like the mosaic. It would
have been nice to have one last command, like left (10k, 10k, 10k), to
signify the division that you have to perform. As it was, I checked my
math 6 times, and then read the 7 hints. The clawmaster(?) game was a
fun little puzzle which only took me 3 hints to solve. I don't know yet
whether it matters what seeds you get, but if it does, then that puzzle
has my vote for evillest in the game so far. One last thing, the black
ticking sphere was a particularly nice touch.
The prose aspects of Legend are outstanding. As with other
people, what comes to mind is the pool and the old man. The tombstone
out back of the house was interesting, as was the fact that the rear door
was boarded up. However, being a people person, I was very disappointed to
note that the NPCs were almost totally unresponsive to my queries. While
the preset dialogues were very good, it seemed that little effort had
been put into fleshing them out interactively, as it were.
Now I come to my favorite part of the game, the part that sets it
aside from Zork and some other widely acclaimed games. I refer of course
to the theme that runs throughout it, that of the environment/humanity
vs. technology/the machines. I am of the belief that a good text
adventure really needs a theme to make it great. My favorite games:
Trinity, Spellbreaker, Shades of Gray, AMFV, all bear this out, in my
opinion. Assuredly, not everyone likes all these games, but they score
very well in SPAG on a regular basis, with Shades of Gray suffering in
the puzzles area. Now, Legend's theme has remained consistant throughout
what I have seen of it, and I find that endearing as well. The idea of
the matter mover spreading humanity out all over the place is
interesting. I am sure that Dave had more to say here than "Hey, look,
student housing on a frozen planet!". It seemed to me that he was
commenting on the way that technology tears us further apart, and yet
brings us closer together at the same time. Look at the Internet. I
have made many friends on here, but if th Net crashed, I might never talk
with any of them again. It makes us dependant on the technology for our
real-life interaction, and that's not really a good thing. The CAMELs
(in an interesting tie-in joke to M.U.L.E.) were also an interesting
statement. Look at how advanced all the tech in Legend is, and then look
how primitive the truly essential machines are, the ones that power
everything else. I see this as paralleling today's society, in which our
luxury items are quite sophisticated, and the things we use the most are
still pretty primitive, such as cars.
The old man I won't discuss too much, except to point out that
he's on an idyllic forest world, and yet he's just slumped in front of
the TV. Whether this has more to say about youth and age or not, I
cannot be certain, but it seems likely. The fact that the family's
high-class poodle died, and then they bought a mutt and sealed shut the
back door seems significant. Anyone care to comment on that? I see it
as shutting out death, but who's to say what Dave meant.
Anyways, that's all for now. More after I beat this game and see
the ending.
-- <~V~E~SOF~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CYBER~CHESS~~~~~~~~~~~~~NO~RELEASE~DATE~~~~~~|~~~~~~~> < RTI T In the distant future, entire planets are won or lost | ~~\ > < G O WAR E in a single battle. Vertigo's first strategy game. | /~\ | > <_____DONT-HOLD-YOUR-BREATH-WARE_______whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu__|_\__/__>