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

#review #castleofdoom #mattgoh #tads