LAIR Of The CyberCow
Harry Wilson (2008)
LAIR Of The CyberCow is a strange game at best, with a collection of eclectic characters borrowed from fantasy and science fiction. The game is poorly implemented to the point that the player has to frequently turn to the walkthrough to get through it.
The first problem I ran into is that the file won't play under the latest ADRIFT Runner, and I had to convert it using the ADRIFT Generator. Not a good sign. Apparently even converting the file is a bad thing, and you'll have to find an older interpreter to run it.
Well the game starts out at a bus stop, but gives the player no real direction to go in. It should at least mention that the PC has received a letter, but the letter is no real help either. The layout of the game is small enough that you don't need a map, and it was kind of fun to wander around checking out the surroundings, but when it came to actual game play it feel apart real fast. For example, the description for the chapel yard is useless:
Chapel Yard.
It is daytime. You can move north, east, south and west.
It doesn't describe what's around, let alone that fact that there's a well right in the middle of it. I had to go to the meadow in order to see the well. This makes the game all but unplayable. The game also needs to have better responses for negative actions. "The parser didn't understand that..." makes it sound like the action can't be done, but under the right circumstances it can.
Overall the game is practically unplayable, and you'll have to turn to the walkthrough to get through it. The story makes no sense, and leaves you asking questions like: what is a CyberCow, why is it at the bottom of the well, and why does it have a well furnished, teak modeled, lair. In the end, I'd give this one a pass.