"Okay, I did it. I gave a game a 10/10..."

I'm not going to try to hide it, I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan. I've read all the books (which is saying something considering the number of books I read), seen all the movies (even the Bakshi one) and played a good number of the games. I'm going to love any game that has "Lord of the rings" on the box, but there's one that stands above the rest as "greatest Tolkien-based game of all time." That game is The Hobbit Software Adventure by Melbourne House, 1982.

Gameplay: 10/10

Maybe it's because of how advanced the game was for it's time, maybe it's because the text-adventure style fits a book-based game, it really doesn't matter. This game is awesome. It simulates actually BEING the main character better than any other LOTR game. You play as Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit, on a quest to help your dwarf companions reclaim their gold. You are helped (sorta) by Gandalf the Wizard and Thorin the dwarf (the rest of the dwarves are missing, which is a blessing in disguise. When I first played I was mad that only Thorin was there, but it would have been a nightmare to keep track 14 NPCs) who have remarkable AI for 1982. They pretty much do what they want, from moving to obeying you (which can be very frustrating) but they will listen to you if you're on good terms with them.

The replay value is high here (assuming you actually manage to beat the game, in which case you're a far better gamer than I) since enemies and events are more or less randomly placed at the beginning of the game. NPCs will never act the same way twice, so you'll get a different play experience every time.

Control: 10/10

The game has a huge vocabulary, along with a very advanced parser that lets you tell the game to do multiple things at a time. Instead of typing a verb and what you want to do the verb to (Unlock Door, Open door, and Go through door as separate commands) you can simply punch in "Unlock and open the door, then walk through it" and the game understands. "Tell Thorin to do X" won't always get you the result you want, but it makes the game much more realistic when the characters can decide whether or not they want to listen to you (no matter how much smarter you are then them)

Music: N/A

The only thing here is silence. It's a text adventure, give it a break.

Storyline 10/10

Tolkien fans will be pleased to see that the storyline is left completely intact. Just about every important place and character from the book is here, from Elrond to Gollum.

Graphics: 10/10

Deciding that plain text wasn't enough, Melbourne House decided to go the extra mile and add pictures into the game that show the room you're in. While not as good as the pictures from the MS-DOS version of the game, the graphics here manage to look obscenely good for 1982.

r8ing: perfect in every way.

Buy this game no matter what.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/21/06