<!--
	Title: (PC ARCADE: Ultimate Sorcery) Sorcerer
	Author: Phil Wiswell
	Source: PC Magazine, v3(16)
	Date: August 21, 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

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***Sorcerer***<br>
Infocom, Inc.<br>
55 Wheeler St.<br>
Cambridge, MA 02138<br>
(617) 492-1031<br>
**List Price:** $49.95<br>
**Requires:** 64K RAM, one disk drive.

</div>

The folks at Infocom have a literary style that infuses their text adventures with
a wonderful sense of humor, and *Sorcerer* is no exception. When I boot a game for
the first time, for example, I expect to see traditional title and copyright screen.
When I booted *Sorcerer*, however, the screen read: "You are on a path through a
blighted forest. The trees are sickly, and there is no undergrowth at all. One tree
here looks climbable. The path, which ends here, continues to the northeast. A
hellhound is racing straight toward you, its open jaws displaying rows of razor-sharp
teeth."

I hadn't done anything yet, but I was already in big trouble. I figured the hellhound
would overtake me if I took the northeast path, so I typed in the command
CLIMB THE TREE and hit the Enter key. The computer countered with "You are on
a large gnarled branch of an old and twisted tree. A giant boa constrictor is slithering
along the branch toward you! The hellhound leaps madly about the base of the
tree, gnashing its jaws."

Gadzooks! Then a series of progressively more worrying sentences were followed
by a lighming bolt striking my character's chest, causing him to wake up in a
cold sweat and realize he had been dreaming! *Then* came the expected copyright
screen. Before I had even entered the game, Infocom was controlling my heartbeat.

## Enchanter series

*Sorcerer* is the second game in the *Enchanter* series. If you’re familiar with
the first, *Enchanter* itself, you’ll feel right at home with the setting. In *Sorcerer*, Belboz,
chief cheese of your Enchanter’s Guild (who was always there to resurrect
you in *Enchanter*), has been kidnapped. You don’t know who did it or where Belboz
is being held. It would be nice to have some help, but when you wake up in a
cold sweat from your dream, you find a note from Frobar, another enchanter,
which says he has taken everyone else into town to go shopping. There is no one in
the eerie guild hall but yourself, and leaving is no easy task. Sorcery is a lonely
business.

The world outside the Enchanter’s Guild Hall is expansive, consisting of hundreds
of interesting, strange, and well-described places. You'll explore dungeons
and torture chambers, read to your heart's delight in a seemingly endless encyclopedia,
examine intricate wall carvings, paintings, and statues, cruise an underground
highway, negotiate a three-dimensional maze of mirrors, and take the wildest
roller coaster ride of your life in an amusement park that seems to have been
created solely for *your* amusement.

## Nonviolent

What really makes *Sorcerer* stand out from the crowd of text adventures is its
predisposition against violence. You won't find any guns or knives or clubs
with which to battle your enemies. Instead, your tools are scrolls that contain
spells and vials that hold potions with which you can cast spells. You begin the
game with three beginner's spells and a magic book into which each new spell
must be written before it can be used.

There are three modes of play (or skill levels) in *Sorcerer*: superbrief, brief, and
verbose. The game defaults to the brief mode, which gives you a full description
of every scene the first time you visit it. On return to that scene you will only get a
description of pertinent objects or things that have changed. The verbose mode
gives full descriptions of all rooms every time you visit them. And superbrief is just
what it sounds like; you get the name of the location only and must ask for fuller
descriptions of any items in the room. These modes may be changed any time
you feel you’re getting too much or too little information.

*Sorcerer* often presents several ways to accomplish a task, and while one way
might make your next task easier, another might make it more difficult or even
impossible. So when you feel stuck, backtrack and try another approach, carefully
noting any differences in the results. The puzzles of *Sorcerer* are quite difficult and
intricately woven together, and no help is available without writing to Infocom.
(The fictitious Bilk & Wheedle Fiduciary Insurance Company, set up by Infocom,
will mail you clues for $3.)

*PC*'s three-part, one-to-six rating scale is not quite fair to a text adventure game
without graphics and sound, but *Sorcerer* conjures up impressive scores in the other
two categories:

<table style="margin: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td>FUN:</td><td style="text-align: right;">5.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>CHALLENGE:</td><td style="text-align: right;">5.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>GRAPHICS/SOUND:</td><td style="text-align: right;">Nonapplicable</td></tr>
<tr><td>TOTAL SCORE:</td><td style="text-align: right;">10.5</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
