Thunder Mountain Passage - Review

Oh boy what a stinker this game is! Your quest, should you choose to accept it, is to wander blindly through the 30 location setting of this game, spending your time dying at virtually every turn you take. Even a hint left behind by a previous adventurer points you towards your death. The two authors who created this game obviously had a nasty sense of humour.

However, with a lot of persistence you'll finally have a map drawn with all the safe routes, and the game will become a bit more pleasant to play (or you can save your sanity and use mine, which you'll find on this site, without spoilers).

Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 2/10)

So, you have a dagger and you want to kill something. You'd think maybe 'use', 'throw', or 'stab' might work, but no, the verb you should be reaching for is 'swing'.

Atmosphere (Rating: 5/10)

For a small type-in game with sparse descriptions, the atmosphere is going to be whatever your mind dreams up.

I'd recommend reading the introduction for this game, found in the Castles and Dungeons book from which this type-in adventure came.

Cruelty (Rating: Cruel)

24 of the 30 rooms have one or more exits that will kill you instantly. 1 of the rooms you'll never understand why you're dying until you look at the program code.

Puzzles (Rating: 3/10)

Simple puzzles of the type: Object X solves problem Y.

Overall (Rating: 0/10)

Good luck, you'll need it.