Game

Continuing our Apple II text adventure playthroughs, we have another game by Sierra, this one coming out two years later. It uses much of the same system as Cranston Manor, it’s a text adventure with an image at the top. The main differences here are that it’s a property you know about, and the art is a LOT better. But still not great.

This is a review of the game and not the movie, but I really quickly wanna say I was really disappointed by the Dark Crystal. It was pretty and I loved the puppetry but the story was nothing special and the characters were even worse. Here’s my at the time of watching it review:

“This is Labyrinth if it wasn’t having fun with itself. Jim Henson wanted to prove puppets weren’t ONLY for kids, so he made a very dour and serious movie about worldbuilding that wasn’t super engaging and didn’t grasp me. The puppetry, special effects, and designs, were STELLAR and I LOVED them. The characters were almost all dull (Jen, ugh, what. Hello, I am Cishet Protagonist Boy #45195, here to do nothing but get all the credit anyway), except Aughra, Goblin Grandma she is, and Kira, who is actually competent. Even the villains, like, the Chamberlain is built up so much but he feels like he has no impact. It all kinda ended VERY suddenly, stymied by what I think was a rough production. 5/10”

But how is the game?

Game

It’s no longer the late 70s. The era of Zork is finally fading behind us. Our text adventures are no longer a giant maze to drop us in and collect items to bring to the center. Dark Crystal is far more linear than most point and click adventures I’ve played, with notable parts. It follows the movie well enough, with some fluff between those parts. You play Jen, a Gelfling orphan who must save the world and something something Dark Crystal.

Basically, you got three to four distinct sections of this game, and you need to explore a small section of screens, find all the items and hints, then move on. If you try to move on without items and hints, you die, usually. Going to the swamp before meeting Aughra gets you killed because you show up too early for Kira to show up, for example. Then you go through her village, watch it get destroyed, and head to the castle. Then you fall into the castle, and have to explore in there, trying to find the Dark Crystal, and then you fix it like in the movie, and the game ends.

Game

This game’s fine. Not overly memorable? The main take away from it is the art which is uh, Not Great. Sierra were no Jim Henson.