Beyond Zork's title suggests that it continues the Zork series, but it actually has little in common with the originals--the heavy reliance on magic suggests the Enchanter series, and the sense of exploring a populated land rather than a series of caverns gives the game a different feel. Most obvious of the innovations in the gameplay is the role-playing game element, an element that produced decidedly mixed results for Infocom on each try (Quarterstaff, not that this reviewer would know, and Journey), and while Beyond Zork succeeds, the combat element is far from the highlight of the game. It's a bit hard to explain why this is so--like most RPGs, the player can choose between swordplay and magic to fight the battles, and acquire increasingly sophisticated weaponry (okay, okay, a sword over a battleaxe over a shillelagh, maybe not all that sophisticated) to dispose of the enemies. The difference may lie in that opportunities to increase skill levels--strength and dexterity and such--are rather haphazard in Beyond Zork, whereas many RPGs increase character qualities with each level attained, meaning that one can improve one's character without necessarily getting anywhere in the game. In Beyond Zork, though the character qualities are occasionally relevant, there are few instances where the player increases his or her intelligence or strength merely in order to be smarter or stronger; usually, the increases are directly linked to solving puzzles. Though that approach seems preferable, it made the few times when a puzzle's solution was unavailable because the requisite character attribute was too low a bit irritating. (In other words, there may be times when the player needs more of a certain attribute to solve a puzzle, and goes out hunting for a way to increase that attribute. This sort of thing strains the idea that the attributes are supposed to measure your development, since increasing them is an end in itself.) More fundamentally, though, Beyond Zork is far more plot- and puzzle-oriented than the bulk of RPGs, and the combat scenes feel like the game stops while the player tries to get rid of the obstacle.
Another factor separating Beyond Zork from Zorks I-III is the NPC element--there are as many of them here as in the first three games combined (perhaps more, depending on whom one includes on each count), and most of them are well developed and coded. (The minx may still be my favorite Infocom NPC, even though her usefulness in the game is limited.) Encounters with the cook, the sailor, the cardinal, and others help reinforce the feel that the territory is populated, rather than a deserted maze, and while this lends a schizophrenic feel at times--does no one care that you pick up everything that isn't nailed down?--it makes for an intriguing game environment.
The plot--retrieve the Coconut of Quendor to safeguard the existence of magic, or, I should say, Magick--is nothing particularly special; it suffers from the usual disease of a big game, specifically that one muddles along solving puzzles with very little sense that they have anything to do with the larger objectives, besides that the game designers surely wouldn't bother throwing in irrelevant puzzles (unless they included Steve Meretzky, which they don't here). I can't say that this bothers me much anymore, but it seems particularly obvious here--one does not learn anything about the whereabouts of the coconut until well into the game, and finding it at the end amounts to stumbling over it. What plot Beyond Zork has is often entertaining, but it hardly makes a coherent whole. The game takes place concurrently with Spellbreaker, and it occurred to me that it might have been interesting to dovetail the plot with that game a bit more--magic, except for when you find Orkan of Thriff's journal, doesn't appear to be failing. Certainly, what plot Beyond Zork has is well beyond collect-the-treasures, but I still wanted something more.
The puzzles are original and entertaining, though somewhat maddening in a few cases--though many puzzles have multiple solutions, there are some apparently logical solutions that don't work. There's a time-travel puzzle that provides an original spin on a much-used convention, though, and the butterfly puzzle employs magic in a novel way, and both are among Infocom's best. Most of the puzzles aren't particularly hard, though a few require semi-suicidal actions for motivations that aren't particularly obvious--and the final puzzle is so easy that it hardly deserves the name. (Tangent: many of Infocom's fantasy games seem to either have an absurdly easy or an absurdly difficult puzzle at the end--Enchanter, Sorcerer and Wishbringer (even for an introductory game) are easy in that respect, and Zorks II and III are difficult to the point of unfairness. Spellbreaker, I think, is just right, and Zork I and Zork Zero don't really have ending puzzles as such.) Several of the puzzles revolve around the combat situations; a few aren't really combat situations at all, but rather puzzles in disguise, enemies to be dispatched by ruse rather than by brute force. Those moments highlight the tension between conventional IF and RPG that's going on here--and, naturally, the IF element usually seems more compelling.
The writing is, as usual, first-rate--the room descriptions show why no self-respecting game author should be allowed to get away with "You are in a forest...you are in a forest...you are in a forest" for a series of similar rooms. Consider:
Twilight An ancient oak tree turns the day to twilight beneath the impressive sprawl of its branches. Pine Grove A carpet of amber softens your footsteps between the rows of tall, sweet-smelling pines. Eerie Copse A nameless blight has twisted the surrounding elms into sinister forms that creak and groan in the dry breeze.These and other well-written sequences (an amusing riff on The Wizard of Oz, for instance--did this have anything to do with the plan kicking around Infocom to write a full-length Wizard of Oz parody?--and the visions of other Infocom games in a crystal ball of sorts) make Beyond Zork much more than wandering between puzzles, even if the story is a bit weak. The humor vital to so many Infocom works is plentiful here--playing as a woman and asking the shopkeeper about the Potion of Might is one of the best Easter eggs in any Infocom game--and there are lots of entertaining moments: one of the enemies you encounter is a "cruel puppet" whose form of combat hinges on creative insults: it twists its appearance into a caricature of yours, or "accuses your mother of shocking improprieties." This is all the funnier because it feels like a dig at RPG combat, which usully requires either impressive weapons or an elaborate system of magic; battling via insult (it would be even better if you could answer) comes as a sly "sticks and stones" sort of jab at those conventions. Experienced Infocom players will recognize many little responses or objects, from Wishbringer ("A concealed bell tinkles merrily" and the vapor) to Hitchhiker's (being teased for a typo) to the Zork series (the sailor, of course), and a sequence involving the Implementors adds the obligatory element of self-reference. But perhaps the best moment in Beyond Zork is the archway puzzle and the point of view of the game's setting that it provides--it puts the game into a perspective that I found sobering. (Very few fantasy games are endowed with as much pseudo-historical background as the Zork series, and Beyond Zork, more than the original series, puts the history to good use.)
On the whole, Beyond Zork is well worth the playing; truly difficult puzzles are few, the game atmosphere is effective, and the ending--even if it points to a sequel that never happened--is thoroughly rewarding. Even if RPGs aren't your style, there is plenty more in Beyond Zork than hack-and-slash; it deserves consideration among Infocom's best.