Infidel

The Good
The puzzles were interesting and unusual, especially since many of them involved decoding hieroglyphics. Because it was a text game, all the hieroglyphics were managed with punctuation symbols: #$%@ and so on.

The setting and quest were a nice change from science fiction and fantasy. Some (but not most) aspects of the game were accurate to real Egyptology, too.

The Bad
There were effectively no other characters at all, you spent the entire time alone. That's OK but not nearly as interesting as interacting with people as in The Witness and Deadline. Since it's about exploration, maybe that's inevitable; but it didn't really push the boundaries.

The ending made a win feel like a loss. It was intended as a kind of comment by the designer, but if so it was a trivial one and rather offensive to the player's feelings.

Worst of all, however, was the dumbest trial-and-error puzzle in any game I've ever seen. 24 possible combinations; no clues at all to the solution; and each time you got it wrong, you died and had to reload. On a floppy-based PC, this was exceedingly annoying. (This was a one-off, most of the other puzzles were OK.)

The Bottom Line
Worth playing for the setting and puzzles. Real pyramids don't have a complicated maze of rooms inside -- it was a cross between pyramid, tomb in Valley of the Kings, and Egyptian temple. But that's OK, it used the stereotype cleverly and the location made for some interesting puzzles. Moderately amusing writing, but not laugh-out-loud funny; comedy wasn't really the point. Play it for a bit of light entertainment, but if you're serious about interactive fiction, look elsewhere.

The Good
Moving through an pyramid, solving puzzles. Good atmosphere, good puzzles. A solid game.

The Bad
The ending is awful. I cannot give away much without spoiling the game. Needless to say it is an very interesting idea in interactive fiction, but MAN did it bum me out, as well as just about everyone else who played it!

The Bottom Line
A good adventure game, but don't cry to me about the ending!