Usually when I get a game to review, I try and finish it as fast as possible. I feel a sense of obligation to get it played, and get the review posted. Not because the world is hanging on my every word, but because if someone is going to give you something for free that you would otherwise have to pay for, the least you can do is be timely about going to print.
Sometimes I don’t do any of that. This was one of those times.
The sense of obligation was still there, but it was tempered by a touch of selfishness. Or perhaps respect. I have played the previous two instalments in the Last Half of Darkness series, and knew this was a game for hastening slowly. The atmosphere is slow and dark, brooding even, and the experience and exploration need to be in kind. It would be rude to rush, so I didn’t.
All I have… gone with my wife
Tomb of Zojir is a sum-of-the-parts sort of thing. The graphics won’t blow you away, but there is a simplistic awkwardness to them that grabs you and provides just the right amount of strange. Light flickers, things scuttle, or flit, or appear and then disappear. The sounds deepen the mood – from the insects, to the rain, to the wailing – and then the infrequent music adds a fingernails-on-chalkboard edginess. Some images are meant to frighten or shock. Put it all together and you get those little moments of frisson that prickle and tease. Delicious!
It’s a world of swamps, and mansions, and damp and entropy. If it’s all a little strange, then so are you. You, the Stranger, need to restore the bloodstones that guarded Zojir’s tomb and kept the spirit world at bay. But first you have to get in.
When you do, read and collect and listen and think. Take notes. There are a lot of puzzles, and they do not lead you by the nose one at a time. I didn’t find it to be a hard game, but there were puzzles that forced me to reconsider and backtrack and review. A few had compound solutions, requiring solves elsewhere to get pieces of information needed. There were some “doh!” moments, as there often are when the puzzles are well crafted.
I don’t remember feeling cheated by a solution, which is a good sign. Nor did the puzzles feel tacked on, but rather were embedded into the proceedings in (by and large) explicable ways. According to the website, a few puzzles apparently solve themselves after several tries.
And don’t forsake your game paraphernalia. I love getting stuff with my games – the old Infocom games with their many feelies still have pride of place on my shelf – and Zojir’s tomb comes full of stuff. More than that, they aren’t just novelties, but are intimately related to a puzzle. I won’t spoil it by saying any more, but it’s pretty neat. Plus there are plastic spiders!
Violent darkness takes her life
It’s a mouse driven outing, played in the first person. Icons indicate the variety of things you can do. Left click brings up the inventory, right click examines the items. You can combine items, and selecting the correct one for use will cause the item to shake. A map will help you get about.
You can tweak some settings at the initial screens, turning some effects on or off and determining how the transitions work. Saving is straightforward, and overall the interface will be familiar to most adventure gamers, and easy to get on top of for a newcomer.
This game seemed longer that the other ones, but it might just be the length of time over which I played it.
I did encounter some startup issues, and the website says that some codecs have caused problems. The website is full of information to help you if you do strike difficulty, and if all else fails, send an email. I can confirm that you will get a response, and you will get it quickly. And it wasn’t because I was reviewing; I sent mail from another address pretending I had a problem and got just as efficient service.
It comes, I guess, from being a one-man band. WRF is William R Fisher, who pretty much does everything. Tomb of Zojir is all the more impressive for it.
There are some other little surprises which, if I told you about, would defeat the purpose of them being such a thing. Suffice to say that there are many reasons to venture into Zojir’s tomb, and that you will indeed be surprised. Pleasantly, as well as in other ways. I was already a fan of the Stranger, and the Tomb of Zojir only cements my feelings.
Everything considered, this is a game I think you should play.
by flotsam
The Genre: Adventure, Quest
The Platform: PC
Exit Date: October 2009 г
The Developer: WRF Studios
The Publisher: Tri Synergy
The Description:
The ominous darkness has shrouded «the Den of the gipsy» in the city of Shedoukrest. The book which specifies a way to Island of the dead is found. The book, whose pages should be protected by centuries by the eternity. Ancient legends say about the phantoms disappearing in the most gloomy places of island. They patiently wait for new victims - the silly seamen who too close have swum up to a haunt of vice. The ancient treasure stored in depths is visible, and attracts trustful rascals. However not all can to them take hold, as it is protected by darkness - the ancient force living in an old temple of century prescription.
Features of game:
- The convenient interface of management
- Game in the high permission
- Music forcing atmosphere
- Original puzzles
- More than 30 hours of game process
System requirements:
- An operating system: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
- The processor: Pentium 800 MHz
- Operative memory: 256 Mb
- A place on a hard disk: 2GB
- The sound device: compatible with DirectX
- A video card: compatible with Direct X, 64 Mb
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