I'll go out on a limb here... this is a bad game. I know Jack Lockerby has a lot of fans, and I've enjoyed other games of his, but this one, his last one, is just atrocious. It's random, it's clueless, you are expected to take actions (spec., dig) in places you have no idea where, there are many more locations than needed and what's worst is most of them look the same, there is no correlating story behind the puzzles, and you're never given an idea about what's what.

Jack Lockerby deserved to go out on something better than this mess.

It wasn't his last game, but I guess everyone can have an off day. ;)

This game is not vintage Jack Lockerby. I swam across a river and found myself outside a dark cave. The cave cannot be entered or referred to; it look like an unimplemented opening. The tiresome repetition of wear, remove, drop, and various combinations thereof quickly becomes more than tedious. You also end up digging in every single location as nothing suggests a likely place to wield a spade. Monosyllabic NPCs don't help. I have a fairly high tolerance level but I really can't be bothered with this one. Try one of Jack's earlier games if you want to be entertained and stimulated.