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Zork Nemesis

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 11
Date: December 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Bought it because it sounded really interesting. Never got it to run on my computer. Continuoslly locked up my system. Actually threw away the disc. Didn't feel it was worth wrecking my computer for.

let down

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

With "Zork" in the title you'd expect the game to be set somewhere in the original Zork underground; but there are only passing comments about such places as "flood control dam #3" etc. I would have dissmised that as marketing if the game had been even half good, which it ain't. The graphics are ok, and the 360 deg scroll thing is nice, but in my opinion the Journyman #3 did a better job there. The one area that I'd give 4 stars to is the movie clips, pretty good. My main complaint though is that the story line sort of sucks... I'm a gammer not a soap junkie. The whole storyline smells of a really, really bad soap opra chliche. A tragic love story, an affair, murders... give me a break. And sticking severed heads on electrodes isn't my idea of ingenious puzzle content.

Atmospheric and Gripping

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: November 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Zork Nemesis is an absorbing adventure game in the tradition of Myst. You are immersed by music and beautiful graphics. In the game, a dark lord has risen and you are to stop this Nemesis. The puzzles are challenging and the sound effects and music are top notch and very atmospheric. Compared to other Zork games, this one is virtually humorless. The story is dark and depressing, but it doesn't keep it from being an unpleasant game. Zork Grand Inquisitor is much better, but this one is worth playing.

Zork in name only

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Zork Nemisis is a "zork" game in name only. Unlike Zork Grand Inquisitor and Return to Zork, Nemisis is a completely different story line. The game is a dark adventure with good graphics, great sound, and good gameplay. It wins a place on my best games list.

A timeless game, but all things have their flaws.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I remember playing Zork Nemesis with my mother when the game was first released a number of years ago. I was young then and the combination of haunting music and (for the time) stunning graphics frigthened and enticed me into loving the dark game.

Playing it again now is a bit of a nostalgia trip, and a good time waster, but sadly nothing as grand as it was in my early childhood. The game is fantastic to play once more for its fantastic worlds and characters (the frozen asylum of Dr. Sartorius, for example, is one place I will not soon forget), but sadly its plot can only entertin you for so long after you know its, one other reviewer put it well, Soap Opera worthy end.

That, however, should not stop first time adventurers from picking up the game and enjoying immensly. It's a game worthy of the Myst crowd (a series which, in my opinion, is still far beyond this game in its puzzles and atmospheres), the player must examine everything and take note of all of it for completing the sometimes tricky (though nothing to the level of some presented in Myst, especially Exile, the third game in the series) puzzles along the way.

For the fans of the old text-based Zork originals, this game is a far cry from the embodiment of those type of adventures, but for people like myself who enjoy both the more dark and serious puzzles like Myst, but also have a soft spot for the humor and culture picked up in playing the old text-baseds, some moments in Nemesis will have you giggling out of your chair. References to the Underground Empire, actual encounters with living, breathing (unseeable) Grues (the best and classic throwback to the original Zork), and a good helping of some wacky side characters and other bonuses that will give you a small helping of wacky humor to lighten things up in the midst of some rather macabre and eerie scenes (Might I mention a certain nurse in the blood filled asylum?).

All and all, while it is not a game to be played over and over (though certain points, like the aformentioned nurse, are enough to make me save often and go back to revist some more enjoyable scenes) it is a good game to experience at least once for the inovative world and characters the creators came up with.

Not quite Zork, but still VERY entertaining!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: August 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Although Zork: Nemesis lacked the humor of the Zork games (In fact this could have easily been an independant game if the designers tweaked a thing or two) it still is an excellent adventure game and will keep you entertained time and time again.

The game is about four alchemists who were trying to find the secret to immortality but were murdered by someone that they refer to as 'the nemesis'. Their spirits plead with you to restore their symbols and elements and bring them back to life so that they can complete their work and create the secret to immortality.

But things are not as they seem. As you travel through the realms of each of the alchemists you start to learn about their secrets and the true tale of how they met their fates. Its a story of love, a story of manipulation, a story of betrayal, and a story of perserverence. In my book, THAT is the kind of story that makes for a wonderful adventure.

True, its much darker than one expects from the Zork genre. There are no jokes about the Magician's guild, no throck spells or hunguses to turn inside-out, but it is still an amazingly deep and unique adventure game. If you get a chance to play this, please do! You won't regret it.

It is hard to find titles good as this one...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: August 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Hi, guys. I consider myself a big fan of the 3D graphic adventures janer of games. Some of the games I very much enjoyed playing was "Myst","Riven","Grim Fandango","Sanitarium","Carma","REAH","Zork Grans Inquisitor","The longest Journey","Fantasmagoria(Yach!)","Return to Zork","Gabriel Knight 1,2,3" ets. - I'll tell you 1 sure thing: Zork Nemesis is my most favorite one! If you're in to these kind of games, and you have never played ZN, and you're just right now in the quest for another game which will take your very own free time and won't leave you days and nights, and will come back again & again in your dreams, and would make you go around in circles while in work, waiting to get home already! - U MUST/SHOULD/HAVE to play Zork Nemesis. The best Zorkian game, for me, the best adventure game ever created. Now, let's stop all the worshiping and get real a bit. I am a guy who loves adventures. Not games only, I mean REAL adventures, like the ones that life can bring to us - But mostly the ones that life CANNOT bring to us. But I'll be happy to say that these adventures can be found in the games. The adventure games. especially, 3D real-graphics adventures games, with good story, and realistic pazzels. The first game I played back than (10 years ego) was zork 2, on my old PC, and I loved the new idea it brought to the entertainment world. After that, year passed, and the great guys from Cyan brought us the marvelous "Myst", a graphic, very realistic game, which brought the world the new idea of questing and exploring around to find clues, and solve pazzels that makes sense. After that, it took a long time until some other companies made new adventures as "Myst". "Fantasmagoria" - the worst - brought us at least movies and some new multimedia features. but then came the other Zork games, and of course - "Zork Nemesis". If you take all others and put them together I must say, that I love most of them. but I really had something else to ZN. Maybe it's because of the mystic enviroments, maybe because of the story, which was so cool, just like the best Sience Fiction books, and it reminded me old and huge movies such as "Dune" and "2001:Space Odyssey" (Not really same category, but the atmosphere of it was similar). The game is smart. It is interesting, it leads you to a very great end, and leaves you with tones of ideas to think about. The Pazzels are clever made, ou won't find simple tricks and pazzels which makes U say :"common... really..." You cannot NOT loving it. I just wait for the Sequel, and may yoruk hear my wishes. That's all, I really get nothing from writing this, but I thought I should share my feelings about my most beloved game with all of you guys. c'ya And say hello to Lucien and Alexandria

A great game, a departure from the silliness of other Zork's

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: June 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When I read other reviewer's comments about the humorlessness of this game relative to other Zork games, it made me feel like a real stick in the mud. I loved this game and never got through any of the other Zork games because of their obnoxious silliness.

This game is more in the style of Myst, Riven, Exile etc. You are tasked with solving puzzles to get to the end of this game. All are very tied in the overall theme of the "elements".

The graphics are wonderful and the story line is well contructed. The music is haunting. My teenager's found it scary.

This struck me as a well constructed game, well worth the time and effort and entertaining to boot.

If you liked Myst, Riven and Exile, or X-files Journeyman's projects, The Beast within or Blackstone's Chronicles you should enjoy this game.

Possibly the best adventure game ever.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is not your typical Zork game. The traditional Infocom Zork adventure is amusing and thought-provoking, and geek culture has certainly absorbed a fair bit of the fictional world of the Great Underground Empire. Zork is renowned as some of the most wonderful fluff ever coded.

Nemesis, however, is much more than an amusement. It provides a serious storyline with well acted movie clips; graphics that were stunning when the game was released, and are still not half bad a few years later; puzzles that will tie your brain in knots, and have you giggling maniacally once you see that the solution was staring you in the face; a gorgeous soundtrack; and stereo environmental sound, so that if you dim the lights and wear headphones, you feel truly immersed in this fictional world.

As a bonus, the creators have done serious research into their source materials. The "alchemy" presented in the game is entirely based on real, historical sources. Most of the artwork and diagrams on walls and in books throughout the game are scans of real-world documents. If you're an esoterica history buff like me, this will add greatly to your enjoyment of the game. If you like Umberto Eco, especially _Foucault's Pendulum_, then this game is for you. (And if you haven't read Umberto Eco... what's wrong with you?! You're at Amazon! Go look him up!)

Enough talk. Go play it already!

A superb LOW REQUIRMENT adventure game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Continuing in the steps of the great adventure series of Myst comes this black sheep of the Zork series. First of all, I have never played a Zork game other than this, and I hear from others that the game is so tenuously linked to the Zork universe to not really be a member of the series. So there is no scoring on how "Zorkish" this game is. That said...

Graphics: For an older game with low requirements (my 486-100 ran it as good as my PII-350), they really are stunning. All the graphics are clear, emotionally stirring, and important to the game. There are some puzzles that can't *be* solved without examining a picture in detail so make sure you at least meet the minimum specs (which, again, aren't high).

Sound: I was a high school Junior playing this game in a well lit study, and the sound, story, and graphics combined to give me the worst feeling of dread I have ever had in my life. The sound brings out the chilling mystery of the game, and Alexandria's theme should be awarded a Grammy, IMHO.

Plot: The strongest point of the game. You'll first visit a masoleum where Alexandria pleads with you to help her. Then you'll enter the temple, where you'll find four people lying in their graves, being tormented by a being named the Nemesis. Your goal: figure out what happened. You must use the clues that you gather while trying to aid the alchemists to construct a picture of what has gone on in the Temple of Agrippa. My award for Best Plot Twist goes to Micheal Douglas's "The Game," but ZN takes a close second.

Gameplay: The 360 view gives you trouble when trying to look for information, but other than that, real smooth. Puzzles are inspired, and depend on logic, sight, and sound. be ready to keep a journal for the more important symbols (you're gonna learn a bit of alchemy here.).

Overall: This game still stands out from the crowd even so long after its release. Although the ending is weak, it really does provide for a good story and a GREAT time (even if you die!) I recommend you find and buy it, because no matter how much you pay, it is worth it.

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