“Temple of Shorgil” is a medium-length, limited-parser game about solving the puzzles in the titular temple.

Gameplay: The gameplay focused heavily on the puzzles, although there are some optional diversions like making sketches of various art found in the temple. Those puzzles simply involve placing identical figurines onto or removing them from the pedestals in each room of the temple, triggering various effects. The clues for the puzzles are revealed in the legend the player encounters throughout the temple, and solving them involves mapping the details of the legend onto the setting. The game is essentially just a series of puzzles of this type, with sparse descriptions and a limited parser. 5/10.

Mechanics: The puzzles themselves are interesting but not particularly difficult, and they all rely on the same fundamental mechanic: placing and removing figurines based on interpreting the ongoing legend. The game isn’t long enough for this setup to get tedious, but there isn’t much variety in it. 6/10.

Presentation: The text is terse throughout; it just gives the minimum amount of detail necessary to support the puzzles. The author has put in considerable effort to embellish the game beyond that, though. The legend that’s developed over the course of the game is also mostly in service to the puzzles but is written in a more descriptive style. The other exception is the ending, which is clever. The sketches that appear in the game are quite well done. To avoid frustration, the author provides a walkthrough and several different in-game maps. 6/10.

You might be interested in this game if: You like abstract puzzle games and the Infocom game “Infidel.”

Score: 6