Escape from the Forbidden City by peter edwards

Review by Stella S.

It's amazing! One of the best I've played. Nicely done!

Review by Tamzy

Fun game, hard enough to make you think, some good puzzles.

Review by jojois74

This was one of my first text adventures, so I knew, coming into this, that I would have a hard time. But I was pleased to see that there weren't many moments that I found "unfair." The descriptions had a nice way of subtly making sure the player is aware of the important pieces of scenery in the rooms so that the player can figure out for themselves where they need to go to get an item. The game author was also very nice and helpful.
My favorite puzzle was the wooden door -- this is the kind of puzzle that you can solve for yourself without needing anything other than your own creativity.

Review by DavyB

I really enjoyed playing this game! It was my second by Peter Edwards and the first he posted to the site. It is very well written, tightly scripted across a relatively small number of locations and has strong puzzle-solving content. There are three clear stages to the game, with a piece of paper picked up at the start of each stage, encouraging progress in poetic terms! It was a bit inconvenient that each had exactly the same name but that's a very minor quibble.

In this first game, Peter establishes his 'style' in terms the look of the game in a reasonably large handwriting font, accompanied by beautiful illustrations for selected scenes. He also included the Quest control panel though it wasn't necessary to use it, and indeed has been dropped in his more recent adventures.

The puzzles are sometimes demanding but you can, like me, dip into the associated comments to pick up clues and, in some cases, straight solutions! This game is perhaps the recommended place to start the sequence of Peter Edwards' games, and is a highly recommended game overall.

Review by DaNiX88

An extensive and complex game where a wrong step could send you to your doom or unwinnable situation. The risk, coupled by several different "ends," make this game very enjoyable to play. My only problem with this game is that it seems to lack story, especially near the end where it would add another dimension and a sort of satisfactory conclusion to the game.

All in all, the game won't disappoint!

Review by Elymnesis

Such a wonderful little game! It was great fun, and difficult enough to be rewarding when you finally did figure it out. The only reason I give this 4 stars instead of 5 is because I found myself running into syntax issues. This game is a little bit narrow with its accepted commands. I have not found this to be true of Peter's other games, however. It was fun, challenging, rewarding, and had good atmosphere. Thank you Peter!

Review by markydennis

another fantastic addition... brilliant story and brainteasing puzzles.
great work!

Review by Sue

I really enjoyed this game (as I do all of Peter's games). All of the puzzles are perfectly logical (and kick-yourself straight forward once you've figured it out!). I particularly loved the dragon puzzle.

Like Sarah4, I had a bit of trouble with the graphics, but there are now transcriptions of all of the letters in the comments section (thanks, Peter), so that isn't an obstacle to gameplay.

Great work, Peter, and I can't wait to play another of your games!

Review by Charles Scott

What I enjoy about Peter's games is the way that so many intriguing puzzles are crammed into such a small space, so you don't have to travel miles to find the answers (though you do have to hammer a lot of brain cells to work them out). That isn't a criticism of the epic scale of Craig's games, incidentally -- they are also fascinating, but in a different way. Anyway "Escape from the Forbidden City" is well up to Peter's high standard and much recommended -- an involving story, attractive graphics, elegant narrative style, maddening puzzles. I've learnt a lot about tree species, too. Thank you very much, Peter.

Review by sarah4

A very enjoyable game with lots of fiendish puzzles and an intriguing setting. I enjoyed the way the story gradually unfolded and the gameplay was very intuitive. My only criticism was that certain areas of the game lacked atmosphere which made it a bit difficult to remain immersed in the game all the time. However, as this is probably due to not being able to see the images this is not a serious criticism. Well done again and I look forward to your future games!