Eric the Unready

Eric is a poor, bumbling (or cursed) knight who is required to go on
various quests.  This may be a simplistic plot, but it game works
wonderfully.  Here's a game which I can't praise enough.  There were
places where I actually had to stop playing for a while, because I
was laughing too hard.  The humour is rather lowbrow, but I am a
sucker for that sort of comedy.  As an example (and perhaps a
warning), Eric's first quest requires that he catch a pig and kiss
it.  Of course, the pig jumps down the privy hole at the first
opportunity, so you can imagine the tone of the jokes that follow.


Controls:
	Eric the Unready is a mixed text/graphics adventure game,
	where the normal text input screen has been enhanced with a
	small graphics window where you can see a picture of your
	current location, or a map if you desire.  You can use your
	mouse for gameplay, but most of the time it is easiest to use
	the keyboard to enter your commands.  I really enjoyed the
	interface; it seemed to be the best combination of text and
	graphics games that one could ask for.

Bugs/glitches:
	None.  Worked perfectly on my Windows98 machine.

Graphics:
	Considering its age, not bad at all.  Good enough to enhance
	a pure text game experience to something quite a bit better.

Plot:
	You are a bumbling knight who perform various quests, the
	major one being the rescue of a princess.  Mind you, you
	also have to kiss a pig to turn it back into a farmer's
	daughter.

Characters:
	Funny, articulate, amusing.  These characters would make
	Terry Pratchett's characters look staid and boring.
	In other words, a lot of fun.

Voices:
	None (text only).

Puzzles:
	Nothing extremely difficult, but the best of them
	added immensely to the humour of the game.  There is one
	puzzle sequence (in the fair) where my wife and I were
	roaring with laughter.

Lows:
	You die if you don't complete one section by 7:00 P.M.
	No warnings, and no way around it, except to restore from a
	long ways back and replay the game without taking your time.
	I <REALLY> wish that game designers would quit trying to
	add excitement by putting time-limits on my game play.
	All it does is irritate me (to put it very mildly).
	Legend took a game which was as close to perfect as I could
	ever imagine, and then made it worse by this stunt.  Humph.

Conclusion:
	With the one exception, a perfect game.  A funny game where
	the characters and puzzles both contribute to the humour.
	Proves that high quality graphics and sound aren't required
	to create a truly great game.  I only wish it went on for much
	longer.  One of my top ten.