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	Title: (ST New Products) Beyond Zork
	Author: Harvey Bernstein
	Source: Antic, v7(3)
	Date: July 1988
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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**Beyond Zork** attempts to improve upon Infocom's time-honored text
adventure style by merging it with fantasy role-playing elements.

This game does not take place in Zork's Great Underground Empire,
but in the Southlands of Quendor on the other side of the river. Aside from
occasional references to Zorkmids, grues and the like, this in no way follows
the storyline set in Zorks I-III -- Infocom's first big hit.

The storyline is that magic is failing throughout the Southlands and
only one brave adventurer (guess who!) can brave the pitfalls and
dangers to recover the fabled Coconut of Quendor. Beyond Zork monitors
your character's advancements in six key qualities -- Endurance,
Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Compassion and Luck as well as
weapons and armour strength. And as in other role-playing games there
is combat galore. It seems as if every other room contains discipline crabs,
dornbeasts, etc. This "hack-and-slash" approach is not what we have come
to expect from Infocom game.

Macros on the 10 function keys are now provided for the common commands
such as examine, drop, take, etc. The text is in color (red, white and
blue). The most obvious addition is a self-mapping feature. As you explore
the world of Beyond Zork a map (without labels) is updated in the upper
right-hand corner of the screen, with rectangles representing nearby
rooms and lines indicating possible exits. This eliminates the need to type
in direction commands. You can either use the mouse to point and click
on a line indicating the direction that you wish to travel, or use the arrow
keys. Wonder what will happen if you jump off the bridge? Now you no
longer need to save the game first. Beyond Zork comes with a handy
"Undo" command that back-steps you one place if you find you did
something disastrous (or just plain stupid).

Bat all the changes I've outlined take *memory* and something had to
be sacrificed. Unfortunately, Beyond Zork sacrificed exactly what Infocom
writers do best -- lots of descriptive text with a loving eye for detail that
adds a sense of realism to good adventures. Where once there were
paragraphs of description when you first entered a room, now there are
two or three sentences. Want a description of a creature you've
encountered? The game refers you to the *picture* and text in the package's "Lore
and Legends of Quendor" booklet.

It's not intrinsically a bad thing to take advantage of the larger memory
in today's personal computers by adding all sorts of bells and whistles to
the established Infocom format. But if adding those bells and whistles cuts
into the heart of your product, is the trade-off worth it?
