Zork Zero is another computer game in the Zork line from Infocom. Zork Zero was released in 1988 by Infocom and changed how adventure games were done. The entire game felt completely different the the original Zork games. Gone were the sword and lamp that many players associated with the old Zork game.
The first difference in Zork Zero is that there is no longer just a black and white parser but a multicolored screen. The screen changed colors with each zone you would move to, where being outside might give it a woodsy feel, in the castle has a regal feel, and so on.
When the player starts moving around the beginning prologue, they find there is a story, unlike the simplistic original games. The story revolves around a wizard named Megaboz cursing the kingdom and the 12 kings. The player starts the game 94 years after the original curse was cast on one of the 12 famous kings of the kingdom, killing them all. This year is supposedly when the curse is set to destroy the kingdom.
Soon after the player starts moving around the actual game, a jester will come and pester, help, annoy, and confuse the player. The interaction with the jester and players is simplistic but different. Many puzzles are asked by the jesters and all of them must be answered to win the game.
In addition to the jester there is the Encyclopedia Frobozzica. The Encyclopedia is a wonderful illustrated reference to help the player look up interesting, useless or fun facts about various objects, people and puzzles. It is also needed to solve a few puzzles.
Pieces of the game are actually cleverly disguised copy protections, so rather then getting annoyed at the questions at the beginning of the game, you feel that it is a integrated part of the game.
Puzzles in the Zork Zero are often blatant, many of them are obvious where there is one as the Jester will tell you the riddles. In addition many of the game's puzzles are simplistic tricks of phrases, but with so many items the puzzles tend to get complex if you start thinking about the wrong object.
There is also some excellent logic games, such as the famous peg game, and a stone collection game. The logic games will sometimes test you mind or test your skills with the user interface. Every game is solvable but some like the stone collection game needs the player to notice something special about the game.
While this game doesn't always feel the same as the original Zork it is a great remembrance, and was the first stepping stone to reaching the complete graphical interfaces that the final three games of the series contained.