It is the year 883 GGE. T and the great Wizard Megaboz is angry. His favourite trees now lie in the shadow of a giant shadow put up by Lord Dimwit. He curses all of Flatheadia...

Dimwit's magicians analyse the curse which has been placed upon Flatheadia, and soon announce that they have managed to delay its effects for 94 years...

Ninety-four years later, the inhabitants of Flatheadia are leaving in droves. You, however, turn to a piece of parchment which has been handed down to you by your ancestors. It is the same parchment that fell from Megaboz's pocket on that fatal day in the banqueting hall, and contains parts of his notes on how to cancel the spell...

Your travels will undoubtedly be interrupted by sudden appearances of a Jester, who, talking constantly in rhyme, has the annoying habit of posing riddles before allowing you any further progress. Most of these require pure logic, and can be deduced after a few minutes of careful thought.

But the pestering jester has more up his sleeve that mere riddles! He has a collection of games of logic, at which he is expert, and at which he will challenge you to beat him. In game mode, the screen clears to graphics, and the games can be played entirely by mouse.

So what of the main part of the adventure? Here is an adventure in the best traditions of Zork, said to be bigger than the combined Zork trilogy, all on one disk, and still with save for *save files*! With Infocom's first graphics, it is not so much a graphic adventure, as an adventure with graphics.

On-screen mapping is available on a separate screen called by the command MAP. The map is divided into sections, and shows only locations previously visited within each section, the current location being highlighted with a flashing border. Movement from room to room within a section can be achieved from the map, by clicking along the route.

On-screen hints are also provided, a feature I have intensely disliked in some previous Infocom adventures. Somehow, this time they are arranged and worded in a subtle different way, and are not nearly so obtrusive.

The parser is new, and together with the vocabulary, is as near perfect as I have come across.

After some fifteen hours of play, with well over one hundred locations visited, I still had whole areas both geographically and problematically that I hadn't had time to touch...

The sheer size of this adventure, the range of complexity of its problems, together with the inimitable humour of author Steve Meretsky, must make Zork Zero without doubt the most entertaining and enjoyable adventure I have played to date. Welcome back Infocom! It's been a long time coming, but it was certainly worth the wait!

A superb adventure that places Infocom back in the number one slot. A must for all adventure fanatics.