Enchanter is a "must play" for anyone who loves text adventure games. Released in 1983 by Infocom, the king of interactive fiction, Enchanter was arguably their finest game, and pushed the genre to new heights with a few key innovations.
The first innovation you'll notice when you play Enchanter, is your unprecedented ability to interact with the game world. You play a novice spellcaster with a wide range of spells that you can cast on objects and NPCs all over the world. This is a welcome relief and diversion when you reach a blocking point on puzzles.
The results are often humorous and engaging, and you'll sometimes find that you can use your spells to solve puzzles in ways the developers never dreamed (even though you won't get the full allotment of points, you can finish the game this way).
Contrast this with the first three instalments of Zork, where you are a swordfighter with an "exquisite Elvin sword" that you can use on a grand total of four targets throughout the trilogy (only one of which you can kill with your sword). In Zork you were 1% swordfighter, 99% mapper and puzzle-solver; in Enchanter your are at least 50% spellcaster, and this is a welcome breath of fresh air to the genre.
The second innovation you'll notice in Enchanter is the fact
that it's a living, breathing world filled with NPCs. Most adventure games to this point were desolate and abandoned lands, with one or two NPCs you barely interacted with. Enchanter, on the other hand, puts you in a functioning enemy stronghold teeming with hostile NPCs, and potential allies you have to coax into cooperation. There is a real rush that comes with avoiding enemy NPCs following day-to-day routines, and luring allies through a dozen rooms to perform elaborate tasks.
The final innovation is in the puzzles themselves. Puzzles in earlier adventure games were often obscure and whimsical, relying on extreme leaps of illogic or specialized knowledge. Enchanter's puzzles are well-grounded in common sense, and the developers sprinkle hints and alternate routes to success throughout the game. As mentioned above, the wide arsenal of spells will sometimes let you solve puzzles in unexpected (by the developers, at least) but sensible ways.
Enchanter is text adventure at its finest, and helped catapult the genre forward to new heights. Any fan of the genre who missed this game should definitely take the chance to rectify their error. They won't be disappointed.
