Adventure Corner ~ Molly the Werezompire & Epiphany in Spaaace!

Welcome to Adventure Corner, a column where members of the RPGamer staff can give their thoughts, impressions, and pseudo-reviews for various adventure titles that don’t come under our usual coverage. Adventure Corner is aimed at delivering opinions on a wide range of titles including visual novels, point-and-click adventures, investigative mysteries, and so forth.

In this edition of the column we take a look at Zeboyd Digital Entertainment’s Molly the Werezompire & Epiphany in Spaaace! text adventure double pack on PC.

Molly the Werezompire & Epiphany in Spaaace!

Text adventures have a long and rich history, dating back to the 1960s, but truly didn’t hit their stride until the 1970s. Classics such as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Zork are staples of the genre, as well as the basis for what interactive fiction would go on to become. In December 2009, Robert Boyd released his first game through Xbox’s Indie Games platform, and that game was a text adventure titled Molly the Werezompire.

Players take on the role of Molly, a post-graduate who finds a portal. Upon going through it, she is killed immediately and reconstructed into a “werezompire” — an amalgamation of werewolf, zombie, and vampire. It’s such a crazy premise, and while Molly now has amazing powers from each monster, they come at a cost, whether it is being hunted by murderous townspeople or realizing that communicating with zombies is surprisingly challenging.

Meet Molly. She is going to die a lot.

Molly the Werezompire is the beginning of Zeboyd’s trademark humour and use of puns. Since this is a text adventure, it has to convey every element of the story to make it not only engaging, but to ensure that each choice the player makes flows into the next. It’s very clear how well thought out the decision-making process is throughout the game, and while I died in multiple playthroughs, they were all hilarious and my fault. Part of the fun that comes from classic text adventures is working through the story, seeing how the decisions connect, and recognizing that what one may think is logical is sometimes anything but.

Given this is a remaster of the Xbox version of the game, there’s a lot of care in the presentation, even with the limited backgrounds. The music is also very charming, fitting the story well. This version also comes with Epiphany in Spaaace!, another text adventure produced by Zeboyd around the same time.

Presented without context.

Epiphany has players taking on the role of Philemon K. Bort, a young man who has just graduated from G.A.S., the Galatic Academy of Space. Philemon will learn if his grades are good enough to become a starship captain or get stuck as a lowly trash collector. This first decision the player makes truly sets the tone for the game and it can be a doozy. There are multiple ways to die, and each death is fairly entertaining. Epiphany in Spaaace! is both hilarious and strange, and worth checking out even with the short run time of less than half an hour to complete.

It is such a treat for Zeboyd fans to have these new versions of Molly the Werezompire and Epiphany in Spaaace! While their run times may be short, as both games can be completed in less than an hour, there’s a lot of fun and humour that is well worth the dollar price tag. Being able to enjoy these titles with fresh graphics, editing, and music only adds to the experience, and if you are a genuine fan of all things Zeboyd, these two games are worth grabbing.