Last Days of Doom + Hezarin

A spiritual successor to Topologika's earlier Acheton and before it, Colossal Cave, Hezarin is a decent dungeon romp that casts you as a sworn-in member of the Adventurer's Guild who is tasked with overthrowing the tyrannical sorceror Anjith and freeing the land of Hezarin from his reign.

In the spirit of Colossal Cave, there is plenty of treasures you can uncover and pocket along the way, accounting for many optional points you can win out of the whopping 1100 total score. Unfortunately, most of the puzzles feel like they have been borrowed liberally from other games, e.g. the Zork trilogy, and lacks any exciting new twist to keep adventurers interested. In contrast to other Topologika games (especially those written by Peter Killworth and Jonathan Partington), many puzzles are not just difficult-- they are illogical. Fortunately, many puzzles are optional, so if you can stand the thought of finishing the game with less than a perfect score, playing the game is tolerable.

Hezarin is definitely one of the weaker Topologika games, and is best avoided unless you simply must play every IF on the market.

Review By HOTUD