Smirking Horror

Copyright : WoW Software | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

Itâ??s late, itâ??s dark and an absolute blizzard is raging outside. What more could you possibly want? Finishing your assignment might be a good start but as you know one thing invariably leads to anotherâ?¦

Call it déjà vu if you will, but this all seems strangely familiar somehow�

Graphics

Skipping graphics to concentrate on the fiendish puzzles, â??The Smirking Horrorâ?? doesnâ??t utilise the graphical element of the GAC program used to create it instead opting to reflect the atmosphere created by its inspiration â?? Infocomâ??s text adventure masterpiece â??The Lurking Horrorâ??

Sound

Nothing to distract from the task in hand

Gameplay

As with all text adventures, The Smirking Horror lives or dies by the quality of its puzzles and its ability to draw the player in. With a cheeky nod and wink to The Lurking Horror, Smirking cleverly re-hashes a number of familiar situations and locations giving them a re-jig, injecting a dark and surreal sense of humour in healthy doses.

Playing The Lurking Horror is a definite advantage to any player looking to get far in this game, as there are enough homage and pastiches to give the player a push in the right direction.

Having said that, Smirking is still a real challenge in itself and even the most accomplished of adventurers will struggle with some of Jasonâ??s more obscure puzzles.

One drawback in playing the game though is the obvious limitations of GAC itself. The limited parser and frustratingly ham-fisted way that it deals with changes to the current location can become tedious. For example asking to open a panel will result in the response â??okâ?. The player then has to examine the panel to find out what was inside. Again, this is more the fault of the original program than the programmer of this game but it is still a major irritant.

All things considered Smirking Horror is a good example of how GAC should have been used and is miles better than some of the sludge released under the banner in the past. Not as good as its inspiration, but then when youâ??re trying to live up to the greatest text adventure of all time it was never going to be easy.