<!--
	Title: (New ST Entertainments) Nord and Bert
	Author: Jim Pierson-Perry
	Source: Antic, v7(1)
	Date: May 1988
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-right" src="/public/img/articles/antic-nord-and-bert-review/nord-and-bert-box.png" alt="Nord and Bert box">

**Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail Of It** is the long-winded
title to the latest offering from Infocom, the reigning masters of
interactive text adventures. To put it mildly, Nord and Bert is a major
departure form Infocom's previous adventures. Success in this game
relies on solving word games, having total recall of cliches and believing
firmly that the pun is mightier than the sword.

The underlying thread in Nord and Bert is that a verbal disaster has hit the
town of Punster. Normal speech has taken on magical qualities, causing a
variety of problems that you have been called in to correct. There are
eight separate hot-spots, each an independent mini-adventure, that need
to be solved to save the day. Each site requires a different form of verbal
magic to make progress. For example, calling a root a *route* could open up
a trail through an impassable forest. In another case, finding the most laps
would actually reveal lost maps.

Game play is also different in that all possible directions are posted on
the screen. No need for mapping, the puzzles are reserved for word games.
There's also an online hint feature -- a necessity for this game, given some
of its more obscure references. The starting point for each scenario is to
determine what type of word game is being played. These are consistent --
one scenario is all homonyms, another is spoonerisms, etc., with no
overlapping.

Novelty aside, I cannot recommend this game. Its biggest flaw is inconsistency
of play from one scenario to another. The puzzles are fairly trivial,
compared to standard adventure games, but the word play ranges from
easy to difficult. I love puzzles but when success rests on recalling every
cliche in the book there is little challenge and less interest. The element
of fairness is gone: either you know it or you don't, with no hope of
finding a logical solution. I give Infocom an A for originality but will spend my
money on something else.

$39.95. Infocom, 125 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140. (617)
576-3190.
