Posted December 13, 2008
The first game in the Simon the Sorcerer series starts with a blend of 'point and click' and word-
parser game play. As with the genre at the time, actions are not context sensitive, instead, you
select an action via its 'word' and then an object or two to interact with.
Simon, (voiced by Chris Barrie), starts off as a teen who appears in a fantasy/magical world after
reading a book (Found by his dog Chippy), written by the Wizard Calypso, in his attic. The quest? To save Calypso, and the world from the evil wizard Sordid.
Instead of a generic setting, the game world is a comical parody of fantasy and children's fable/moral stories.
All done in good ol' British humour.
While not as well written as some other games, and the time-period culture references will leave many
non UK residents scratching their heads (or looking up wikipedia), it rarely falls completely flat
and manages to keep people playing and smiling .
Puzzle wise, there is thankfully nothing too insane and stupid as solutions. However you will
experience a lot of backtracking (Made easier by a fast travel postcard), and picking up many items
before anything can get solved. While the genre at the time is very linear, a number of these
puzzles can be done in any order if you feel stuck.
There are two versions on GOG, a talkie version and a subtitle version. But sadly nothing with both, as Adventure Soft did not release one. While hearing impaired players would be better off with the subtitles, a fair number of others would as well due to the speech/music bleeding in to each other.
The solution here is to play via ScummVM with either the enhanced soundtrack, or by using the Audio Overrides and altering the speech volume.
All in all, a good start to the series, be sure to check out at least the sequel after playing, as it refines the game to a higher level.
parser game play. As with the genre at the time, actions are not context sensitive, instead, you
select an action via its 'word' and then an object or two to interact with.
Simon, (voiced by Chris Barrie), starts off as a teen who appears in a fantasy/magical world after
reading a book (Found by his dog Chippy), written by the Wizard Calypso, in his attic. The quest? To save Calypso, and the world from the evil wizard Sordid.
Instead of a generic setting, the game world is a comical parody of fantasy and children's fable/moral stories.
All done in good ol' British humour.
While not as well written as some other games, and the time-period culture references will leave many
non UK residents scratching their heads (or looking up wikipedia), it rarely falls completely flat
and manages to keep people playing and smiling .
Puzzle wise, there is thankfully nothing too insane and stupid as solutions. However you will
experience a lot of backtracking (Made easier by a fast travel postcard), and picking up many items
before anything can get solved. While the genre at the time is very linear, a number of these
puzzles can be done in any order if you feel stuck.
There are two versions on GOG, a talkie version and a subtitle version. But sadly nothing with both, as Adventure Soft did not release one. While hearing impaired players would be better off with the subtitles, a fair number of others would as well due to the speech/music bleeding in to each other.
The solution here is to play via ScummVM with either the enhanced soundtrack, or by using the Audio Overrides and altering the speech volume.
All in all, a good start to the series, be sure to check out at least the sequel after playing, as it refines the game to a higher level.