Magor Investigates … (aka Magor the Investigator) (Larry Horsfield)
What it is about: You are Magor, the head detective and wizard of the kingdom of Hecate. Now the king and duke have consulted you about a case of some aliens (or something like that) on one of the southern islands. But it’s not really about how to deal with them. It’s about helping the rest of the people in the castle about their tasks.
The good: Since this one has to be played offline, I was expecting more of the same, or to have problems with the UI. Hooray for autofill! We have a task list (like in Stormrider and Bat Lady Quest). The descriptions are clear- if a desk has no drawer, it will say so, avoiding the needless option of opening the drawer. We have a lightbulb on our head, and have yet another lab (we are a detective wizard, after all). The missions- like making tea, watering the plant, searching the archives- sound simple enough, but soon you realize that there are plenty of other stuff underfoot. The missions themselves are not too hard. Despite it being a fantasy genre, it has a good amount of humor, for example, ‘Keep Calm and Consult the Archives’ (compared to something like The Witch and Have Orb). The blend of magic and technology is incredible- you can keep a desalination plant running on magic with very low costs. Descriptions are enough to keep you going- not too sparse to make you confused, not too much to make you bored.
The bad: First of all, Comic Sans is not a good font for parser games. There is not much dialogue- you can’t talk to somebody or ask about something, despite the fact that you go round solving problems. There were only two major problems to solve- brewing tea and searching the archives, so I would have wanted it to be longer.
The Huh: This is part of a larger series, but enough backstory is implemented such that it can also work as a standalone. Wait, how do you water that plant of yours?
Grade: 72.5%