Infocom's Deadline hearkens back to the glory days of playing text adventure games like the Zork Series on my old IBM PCJr. Oh wait, their fancy name was "interactive fiction." While not as popular as the Zork series, it was a well-thought out text adventure. The difficulty was set to expert and figuring out the solution is very hard.
You play a detective in a New England town, trying to solve the murder case of Marshall Robner. You are given 12 hours in his mansion with a wide variety of family and friends who are the suspects.
Infocom's Deadline hearkens back to the glory days of playing text adventure games like the Zork Series on my old IBM PCJr. Oh wait, their fancy name was "interactive fiction." While not as popular as the Zork series, it was a well-thought out text adventure. The difficulty was set to expert and figuring out the solution is very hard.
You play a detective in a New England town, trying to solve the murder case of Marshall Robner. You are given 12 hours in his mansion with a wide variety of family and friends who are the suspects. Timing is everything here, as situations happen within the 12 hours of game time that you can not miss or else you have to start over. If you miss George suspiciously
going into a room at a certain time you are screwed.
Game play consists of moving around the mansion and grounds in typical Infocom fashion (N, S, E, W) and interviewing the different suspects like Dunbar, Baxter, and even the gardener, Mcnabb. When people are walking around the house, it's a good idea to follow them and note any suspicious behaviour. Basically, lose yourself in being a detective. When enough evidence has been assembled, feel free to accuse certain suspects or even send back material to the lab for analysis. If you try to arrest suspects without enough evidence, the game will end as the jury will acquit the defendant. The nice part about Deadline was that there were multiple paths to the same conclusion about who was guilty of the murder.
One of the great things about these old text adventure games was, like reading a book, much is left up to the imagination. Infocom always did a good job with the boxed presentation of their games and Deadline was no exception. It was quite thrilling to open up Deadline and find all the evidence surrounding the Robner death, such as the lab report, photos, and even the anti-depressants Robner was alleged to have over-dosed on. Alas, these days, they stick a CD in a box and that's all you get. Without graphics, Infocom was more imaginative in selling its product. If you are looking for a trip back in time and a tough gaming challenge, try Deadline.
