Zork: Grand Inquisitor is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Activision, and released for Windows in 1997; a second edition for Macintosh was released in 2001. The game is the twelfth in the Zork series, and builds upon both this and the Enchanter series of interactive fiction video games originally released by Infocom. The game's story focuses on the efforts of a salesperson who becomes involved in restoring magic to Zork while thwarting the plots of a tyrannical figure seeking to stop this. The game features the performances of Erick Avari, Michael McKean, Amy D. Jacobson, Marty Ingels, Earl Boen, Jordana Capra, Dirk Benedict, David Lander and Rip Taylor.

The game was a modest commercial success and received generally favorable reviews, many praising the game for returning to the roots of the series following Zork Nemesis. A promotional prequel titled Zork: The Undiscovered Underground was released with the game, written by one of the original creators of the series, alongside a poster portraying the chronology of the series.

Gameplay

Zork: Grand Inquisitor is conducted from a first-person perspective within each of the game's pre-rendered locations (dubbed "Z-Vision"), which allows full exploration of the majority of locations with a 360 degree view; in other locations the view is fixed, while some sites allow the view to look above and below their position. Like Zork Nemesis, players use their cursor to interact with the environment, including examining items, picking up and using objects and moving between locations. At times, the player will also assume the role of one of three supporting characters to explore additional locations. If the player conducts an action or mistake that is fatal, the game cuts to a computer terminal on which the player's fatal action and its consequences appear in prose form, much in the fashion of the original Zork trilogy, complete with a score and the player's rank.

The inventory system allows players to examine items they collect, as well as making use of spells to solve puzzles - many of those found are maintained in a spellbook, while others are single use, with several originating from the Zork and Enchanter games. Quick-use menus for spells and inventory items are also available for use by the player to find what they need.

Story

Setting

Zork: Grand Inquisitor takes place within the fantasy world of Zork, across the kingdom of Quendor and the Great Underground Empire, and is set 120 years after the events of Zork Nemesis It was developed on an enhanced version of the Zork Nemesis game engine. In something of a return to the series' roots, the game in rough form was written in Inform (a programming language for text adventures) before work started on the graphics, The original release included a feelie poster with a timeline of the history of Zork up until the events of the game, with pictures and short descriptions of major events, including the backstory of some of the characters; this encompasses all released Zork games except Return to Zork, which takes place 580 years after Zork: Grand Inquisitor.

Reception

According to Matt Barton of Gamasutra, "Zork: Grand Inquisitor did not sell as many copies as Activision hoped." The game received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Destructoid wrote an article about it in the site's Games Time Forgot series, commenting "Not only is Zork: Grand Inquisitor a clever, well-written adventure game, but it's also one of the most singularly rewarding games a fan of Zork could ever play."

Next Generation stated that "Overall, Inquisitor is definitely a step up for the series and puts Zork back on the right track after a serious stumble with Nemesis. Hopefully, this will continue. Well done." A brief review in GamePro commented, "The graphics look gorgeous (unless they're animated), plus there are plenty of inside jokes and a good sense of self-mocking humor, delivered crisply by Tinseltown talent. The interface is a dream, and believe it or not, the game supports multiplayer for joint brain power."

Zork: Grand Inquisitor was a runner-up for Computer Gaming Worlds 1997 "Adventure Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to The Curse of Monkey Island. The editors called Grand Inquisitor "a wonderful return to form, with the best humor this side of Monkey Island." Similarly, the Computer Game Developers Conference nominated Grand Inquisitor for its 1998 "Best Adventure/RPG" Spotlight Award, but this went ultimately to Final Fantasy VII. It was also nominated for "Most Innovative Game Design", but lost to PaRappa the Rapper.

Legacy

Two sequels to Zork: Grand Inquisitor were announced in August 1997. According to the staff of PC Gamer US, the games would "continue the adventure and round out the series as the final two installments in a new Zork adventure trilogy."

In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Grand Inquisitor the 12th-best adventure game ever released.

See also

  • The Space Bar
  • Legends of Zork, the next game in the series

Notes

References

  • Return to Hotel New Zork - Mirror of the Activision promotional mini site 'Hotel New Zork' (as archived at the Internet Archive)
  • Zork: Grand Inquisitor summary and review at Adventure Classic Gaming
  • Zork: Grand Inquisitor at The JAVE
  • How to install ZGI on Windows XP
  • How to install ZGI on Linux with Wine