Castle of Doom (Bad Dog Studios)
The description of Castle ofDoom in IFDB is tempting: Multiple endings! Riddles! Monsters and
booby-traps galore! Can you survive the night in the Castle of Doom? This a game anybody, even those with very little skill in gaming in general, can play
without much trouble. This is interactive fiction with the same ease of use as Photopia, Lost Pig,
The Dreamhold, and 9:05.
Castle ofDoom is a CYOA game made on
TADS. (CYOA games are best for beginners, as
there is no need to type commands into a
parser.) It can be played on its own as a GAM
file or as an EXE where the interpreter is
provided within, which makes it very easy for
people who doesn't have HTML TADS or
Gargoyle in their systems.
Another positive is the quick shortcuts that
appear during the deaths and wins to restart,
restore and undo. Just typing a specific letter
shown like (R) for restart makes thing much,
much easier, considering that you might die
constantly during your first playthrough. It's a
good thing that the undo button is always there
for you.
Most of the text and choices seen on screen
are pretty short and simple, making it easier for
beginners to read what is bestowed among
them. Half of the crucial choices shown will
cause instant deaths, which
might seem frustrating to some, but
the death scenes are funny enough that
most players won't mind. With the quick
undo function, they will be moving too
fast to even care about it. This makes the
:puzzles” almost no challenge at all and if
you happen to die, you can just go back
to your previous point of death and retry
until you strike the jackpot.
Castle ofDoom is a very, very
simple game, so easy that you can
probably complete it in 5 minutes or
less. Think that is horrible? Don't worry.
There are many choices and endings that
you can attempt to achieve. This brings
its replayability level up compared to
other many other CYOA games.
If you are curious enough to learn
about how the castle came to be, there is
a book somewhere in the game where
you can read about it. Unfortunately, that
part happens to be a minor puzzle where
life and death is important and choices
have to be made carefully, though how the
castle was formed and the terrible things
that plagued the fortress were interesting.
But if you are going to play this game,
I have one piece of advice. Imagine me
saying it in a wise old man's voice:
“Wanderers and adventurers, the accursed
castle must you not visit. But if you do,
trust not the hints and words read. The
truth they seldom speak. Be careful,
brave wanderer.”
OK, now that's done with, I took all
my effort to count the number of good
endings to expect in this game, which
is four. You might be able to find more
hidden endings somewhere in the
game, though I thoroughly explored
the area. Secret areas have their own
mysterious ways of showing
themselves to players dedicated
enough. For the bad endings, well,
there might be too many for me to count.
Perhaps there will be a players one day who
will be kind enough to hunt for them all.
Castle ofDoom might be too short and easy
for some players. It is clearly meant for
beginners, so IF veterans expecting a bigger
challenge might want to look
elsewhere. If you want to
introduce the world of interactive
fiction to someone else, maybe your kids
or your close buddy, and they happen to be
horrible at these type of games, show them
Castle ofDoom. They might learn a thing or
two about how much they can achieve with
these types of games.
Summary: A small bite-sized game made for
beginners ofIF, who have no experience with
parser-based games and enjoys old CYOA
Verdict: 6/10
