Plundered Hearts

Proof that interactive fiction could have a broad appeal with a Mills and Boon style romantic pirate romp. Its up to Infocoms usual high standards with super writing and fiendish puzzles. At this point I might as well just reiterate, play all the Infocom games, they are the Gold standard of 80s Interactive fiction.

This is my favorite Infocom adventure (yes, indeed, maybe Trinity is slightly better). Why?

First, it’s not too hard and has a great setting. Pirates, arrr! Then there’s the clever twist of letting you play a girl who can NOT fence, has to disguise herself and must find solutions to seemingly obvious problems. This makes many puzzles feel well integrated into the plot.
I loved the writing, which is really funny, witty and yet informative, but the best thing is that there is a real cinematic feel to many moments. It’s not just a treasure hunt (nothing wrong with that, though), but has the feel of reading a story. Really brilliant considering the time it was written.

There is one really nasty puzzle, which made me consider downgrading it to 9, but then again, it’s a pirate adventure! And it has it all. You’ll have to wait till the release of Monkey Island to see something better in this setting and genre (pirates + adventure).

The first infocom adventure I played and solved. It captures you with its superb writing taking you far away in time and space, told from a woman's point of view, and it's moderate difficulty. Just great!