For my first official interactive fiction game play there was really very little question about which text adventure I would choose. Douglas Adams has been my favorite author since I was about 11, and when I realized that The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy was also an interactive fiction, well...I was hooked.
Unfortunately, the game immediately made me begin to doubt my role as a supreme Douglas Adams fan. I mean you know you have to rethink your life when you score a 10/400 on a game based on your favorite book which you've read at like 15 times, right? Yeah.
Regardless though, I persevered, and it began to take longer and longer before I was destroyed by a fleet of Vogon Construction Ships which "hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't."
The only problem that I have with this game is that it could only be considered fun if you've not only read the book, but read it ALOT. For instance, how would someone who just stumbled across it figure out that you need to lie down in front of a bulldozer for an extended period of time in order to even advance past the first level of the game? Pretty much impossible. Or at least infinitely improbable. ;-)
I think Douglas Adams sums up this game perfectly with what is possibly his most famous quote:
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."
I imagine this to be precisely the way many people feel about this game.
Anyway, I give this interactive fiction a 7.5 out of 10, but only because I really really really like the book.
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