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Stunning 3D adventure with incredible sense of humour

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 16, 1999
Author: Amazon User

From my point of view one of the best adventure games ever.Get deep inside the zork underground empire,full of mysteries in order to release the empire from the evil dictator and return the magik.

Zork has returned

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 16, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I played Zork back when it was only text and it got me started on Adventure games. Once the graphics were added and playing Return to Zork and Zork Nemisis I thought the Zork I grew up with was gone.

It's back! Z:GI has the same sense of humor and playing style of the orginals. I especially appreciated going back to the little white house where it all started. I laughed until my sides hurt.

Hilarious, addictive and totally engrossing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 27, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Where can you find an underground garden with real egg-plants, a six-armed sword wielding invisible bridge guard, a spell book with a chant to make purple things invisible, a machine that turns people into small metal objects which can still talk and a wise-cracking but disembodied Dungeon Master? It can only be Zork, where Activision has wisely returned to the traditional humorous format of gameplay. With stunning graphics, a complex but enthralling puzzle system and a script which has you in stitches, Zork Grand Inquisitor is easily the best insight into the Zork world yet.

a wonderfull game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 02, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Absolutely one of the best pc games I've ever played. Funny, intelligent, absorbing. The problems and puzzles are well designed, so your stratagies and problem solving yield results which move you forward in the game. I never wanted it to end. I'm waiting for the next Zork.

More Zork

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 08, 1999
Author: Amazon User

If you've played any of the Zork games, you know how much fun they are. Grand Inquisitor is no exception - funny, challenging, and intelligent. I just wish they would make another sequel already.

One of the Best!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 21, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I play tons of adventure games and found this game to be one of the most well balanced games around. I don't like alot of fighting in my games, and this didnt have that at all. It was funny, great storyline and made for people who want to do more with games than blow things up. I played Zork Nemesis and wasn't too inpressed, but this one is pretty dang cool.

Enjoyable, but lacking in many areas

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As a longtime player of Infocom's original Zork series and other text adventures and having played a number of other graphical adventure/problem-solving games, I enjoyed Grand Inquisitor a lot. In retrospect, however, I found the puzzles to be a bit obvious and forced in many places (would Activision dare to release something as challenging as "Spellbreaker" in graphical form?). I also wish there was a bit more terrain to explore. Quite honestly, I found Zork Nemesis more challenging despite it being sinister and not in the spirit of Zork.

The interface is part of the problem. While necessary to some degree, I sometimes wish the changing/highlighting cursor interface could be downplayed a bit. The 360-degree motion is a nice improvement over typical "slide show" adventure games such as Myst and Riven, but the graphics and rendering are still a tad subpar. If there was fluid motion throughout the environments (i.e., true forward and back motion), well that would truly be something. The pop-up "menu bars" for inventory and spells is useful.

The humor in Grand Inquisitor is about right: a bit corny at times but always with its tongue-in-cheek sarcasm intact. The use of low-key actors such as Dirk Benedict, Rip Taylor, Erick Avari and Michael McKean as the voice of the Dungeon Master were all well-chosen and the video sequences were good.

Here's hoping the Zork legend continues...this time though, I hope Activision strives to make the next one bigger, more challenging and with an improved interface.

The best Zork game Activision has done yet...

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

The first Zork game done by Activision was Return to Zork, which looked cheap in many spots and although had some innovations it wasn't very impressive. Next was Zork: Nemesis, which was worlds better but also very dark and serious. The only thing that made it a 'Zork' game were a few familiar names and locations thrown around. It lacked the humor of a true Zork game.

Grand Inquisitor is both high quality and a true Zork game. The humor is there, familiar locations are there, and the mood is most assuredly Zork. From a Brogmoid eating rocks to shoving a river raft in a dragon's nose to getting a house drunk... the game is pure Zork humor.

The visuals are from first person perspective much like Myst and Riven, with video of various characters (CGI and live action) interspersed throughout. It's a 2 CD game with one Cd devoted to being above ground and the other below. As an added bonus, you can also play ZGI in multiplayer. As far as I know this is the only multiplayer first person adventure game in existance.

The premise is that magic has been banned by the Grand Inquisitor and the head wizard has been trapped in a lantern. Said lantern makes interesting wisecracks as you play ("Your sword is blowing glue! I mean.. er... glowing blue!") and helps keep a light edge to it all.

If you like the humor of Monkey Island and are a fan of zork you'll enjoy this game, or even if you just want to play an adventure game with a light mood and good quality graphics.

Midnight in the Underground Underground

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 30
Date: February 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The storyline: Zork has been conquered by a failed former wizard with MDD (Magic Deficit Disorder). This Grand Inquisitioner (tyrant) is hand-in-glove with the Frobozz Electric Company, and is using force to replace all magic with Frobozz technology. The game takes you on a fantasy quest-adventure in the famous Underground Empire. Your mission: to restore magic to all of Zork.

Pros:

1. Highly inspired zaniness of the best kind. A six-armed, invisible monster with an Irish accent. A walking castle that whistles "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." A way to lose the game that exiles you to New Jersey.

2. Colorful, archaic, fantasty-land-type graphics. Journeys through time and through the looking glass. A spell system that reverses itself, with hilarious results.

3. Some unique ways to die and to be transformed. An opportunity to become something akin to a paperweight, or perhaps an ash tray. A chance to find Love in a bottomless pit.

Cons:

1. If you don't turn the text option on, you're likely to miss some of the funniest wisecracks in the game. (To do this, click at the top of the screen on Prefs, then flip the Captions switch to "On.")

2. A very cynical view of the phone company.

Bottom Line: A delightful place to adventure, loaded with crazy characters and some fun, wacky puzzles. You need not have played any previous Zork games in order to have a grand time with this one.

Zork Grand Inquisitor - disappointing follow-up

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I thought that the previous adventure, Zork Nemesis, was one of the best puzzle/adventure games I've ever played, compelling storyline, atmosphere, mystery and challenging puzzles - took 6 months of intensity to complete. I couldn't wait for Zork Grand Inquisitor, rushed out and bought it as soon as it hit the shelves, but was disappointed by the lack of depth and simplistic puzzles. Nice graphics, great humour but only 18 hours total gameplay to complete wasn't worth the $$.

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