The Triskelion Affair by Clyde Falsoon
This is a longish parser game set in a time with horses, wagons, and captains but not electricity. In it, you play as a soldier who is ordered on a special mission involving the Triskelion, a powerful weapon.
The game is divided into two parts. First, there is a long linear opening sequence which the author has designated as ‘training’, and that’s a good description, as it gets you used to basic verbs and actions. Then there is a longer exploration part in a graveyard.
The puzzles can be tricky at times but not too bad. I used the walkthrough a couple of times, but only one puzzle would, I think have been really hard without it (finding a certain key).
There are a lot of red herrings. I found numerous items that presaged more puzzles and adventures but which were ultimately useless. It did add to the worldbuilding, so that’s a tradeoff.
Some of those items could be implemented a bit more. I had this exchange in one late part of the game:
What do you do? x cannister
The green cannister is three feet tall, six inches in diameter, and made of heavy metal. On the side of the cannister is a red warning label. The cannister has a turn-valve on its top but the handle is missing. The valve cannot be opened without the handle.
What do you do? read label
That is not something to read. Try examining it instead.What do you do? x it
A bright red square with a picture of a yellow flame on it. Beneath that is the wording “Hazard: Extremely Flammable”What do you do? take it
That’s hardly portable.
Somethings can only be EXAMINEd while some can only be READ.
The ‘>’ prompt has been changed to ‘What do you do?’, presumably to help new players, and I thought that was neat. Many error responses have been changed, most of which I liked. The one I didn’t so much was the error for when you type something that’s not there; the game says things like Seriously?? and You must be joking! which is mildly funny the first time, but wears thin over time.
The game did a good job with pacing the puzzles, as I didn’t usually feel overwhelmed or not having anything to do. The exits bar at the top is key; many puzzles can be solved by exploring all exits.
I thought the ending was a little anticlimactic, but maybe there will be more Triskelion in the future; I’d like to see it.
Note for author: I found one testing thing still in the game: when you start combat, this prints:
Now strippable list in random order contains 22 entries:
amulet, left lieutenant bar, steel key, small Bible, gash, small wooden box, bear trap, strange-looking key, unknown pelt, one silver coin, stole, rosary beads, jaunty hat, candlestick, bell, crossbow, crumpled paper, single sheet of parchment, iron key, right lieutenant bar, little book, and blue candle