– Adventure; Text-based
a spoiler free review

Rating: Recommended


Some games give you what you pay for. Others disappoint, leaving you with an empty wallet and an unstimulated mind. And sometimes, once in a very great while, you get far more than what you pay for. Uninvited isn’t the greatest game ever designed, but for a non-sale price of $2.99, it delivers. For all you classic Mac gamers out there, you might have even heard of this game or its series.

– Now in Color! –
The original Uninvited was released for Mac in 1986; several ports to other consoles and OS soon followed. A neat feature of this package is the newer, color version of the Apple IIGS Port; I suggest playing this one, at least for your first playthrough or two. After you’ve got a handle on what’s going on, I encourage you to try the original; it’s in greyscale, but the effect is more unnerving when you get to the scary parts (also, sound effects are cooler in the original).

– A True Classic –
Uninvited is an early adventure game that helped shape the face of modern adventure games, a “Missing Link” in the transition from fully text-based to modern character control and exploration. Every object has a unique description and some smaller ones can be moved or picked up. This is a critical element of the game; items you find early on may be needed later on down the road.

– Story –
The general backstory is that you and your kid brother have crashed your car outside of a large, spooky mansion. As you rush to get out of your car, it explodes, leaving you stranded. Your brother is nowhere to be found; you must search for him on the estate grounds and in the mansion. Demonic forces are running loose – danger is everywhere. Save frequently; this game has numerous instant-death situations. And don’t dawdle. There’s a counter of how many actions you can perform (including moving stuff and examining objects) before your body is possessed and you lose.

– Difficult? –
I really liked this game, but, as with all adventure games from the eighties, it is nearly impossible at some points. If you get really stuck, Google search “Kiran S. Kedlaya Uninvited Walkthrough”. Should be on AtariArchives.

– What I Liked/Disliked –
This game is funny if you have a macabre sense of humor. There are numerous ways to kill yourself that are quite amusing; oftentimes you won’t realize it until it’s too late. Then you debate whether to get angry that you have to replay the last five or more minutes or laugh at how idiotic your character really is. The object descriptions are all very humorous in a condescending manner, further solidifying your subconscious theory that the protagonist is an idiot.

This game is really, really tough. There’s a ton of backtracking, loads of insta-death situations, seemingly useless objects are actually essential while others that look promising are just red herrings, lots of annoying thunder SFX scripted sequences that slow you down while exploring and, to top it all off, a “time limit” that kills you if you don’t figure out what’s going on in time. Aside from difficulty and annoying thunder, though, there’s really nothing to complain about in this game; it’s a fun, cheap brainteaser.

– The Price is Right! –
This game is only $2.99 offsale. If it goes on sale (especially under $1), you have no excuse not to buy it. It’s very worth it. Also, there are Steam trading cards, if you’re into that.

Not Recommended
Recommended With Caution
- Recommended
Highly Recommended
Recommended as Essential

The first thing this acknowledged "classic" 80s adventure game offered me was a choice between two versions: a black-and-white Mac version, and a simply-coloured Apple IIgs version. Not wanting to be a philistine, I thought I should play the "older"-looking of the two; and besides, if I ever replayed the game, I'd "upgrade" to the colour version then. So the Mac version it was.

Er...until I realised that blowing the Mac version up to full-screen didn't quite format correctly, cutting off some of the letters at the end of each line. Now, I'm sure there was probably some easy fix for this, but being a lazy, technologically-impaired kinda doofus, I just opted to immediately try the Apple version. Bingo! Looks good. Colour it is, then.

The UI is a bit confusing at first, with an awful lot of options presented, so I figured the best thing to do straight off the bat was experiment. Oh, look...what does this "self" button do, then? Erm, not much it seems, until I then press "speak" on a similarly impulsive whim, and voila! A new box appears on-screen, containing the words "What do you wish to say to yourself?"

Now, the human mind is a prickly thing, positively bristling with thorns. Being asked a question like this is like gazing into the abyss itself; and being requested to acknowledge one's innermost self so unflinchingly is a task fraught with no end of existential peril. My fingers poise hesitantly above the keys, genuinely afraid for what they might have to say about me; the TRUE ME, the one which I keep hidden, even from myself. Somehow, I find the courage, and tentatively, I begin to type:

"You are a worthless ♥♥♥♥."

Instantly, a reply pops up in the main text window:

"What would Freud have to say about that?"

Gotta say, I'm instantly impressed, especially for a game from the mid-80s. Didn't think they'd even invented that word way back then. Ooh, I am so deliciously naughty. My Mum would be ashamed, to say the least.

Fortunately, all shenanigans and early explorations aside, the game as a whole proved to be quite impressive "for its time" also. For starters, the writing itself is rather nice and borderline poetic at times: e.g. "you pry yourself free of the steering wheel's embrace". An impressive quality, especially in this era where eight out of ten horror games are made by Europeans whose idea of "speaking English" is employing the talents of Google Translate.

Secondly, the way you interact with objects by first choosing an instruction like "examine" or "open", then clicking the part of the image which you wish to perform said task upon, was simple but effective; and the minimal size and non-photorealistic detail of each image further made this game a little "easier" than those dang-blasted MODERN point-and-click adventures, in which you have to spam virtually every inch of the screen with clicks to find each and every detail that you're missing.

Perhaps my problem is that I never really played these games when I was a kid in the 80s, and haven't thereby steadily "evolved" with this style of game design to be good-and-ready for the more sophisticated modern equivalents. Damn all those youthful hours spent playing Asteroids and Moon Patrol!

Inventory. Have you ever, like myself, wondered just how your Silent Hill or Resident Evil character just somehow KNOWS, in a room full of potentially desirable objects, which one or two items to pick up; somehow psychic about which item will come in handy later on? No need to puzzle over that one any longer, 'cause for better or worse, this game lets you pick up almost EVERYTHING in sight! So it's not nearly as obvious which items you may need to solve a particular puzzle. Shock-horror, you may even have to work things out a bit for yourself (yeah, okay, so I'm not sure this is an entirely "positive" thing, especially for dumb-dumbs like myself...but it's a praise-worthy premise just the same)!

Sound. Ah, yes. Cheesy, but charming. Simplistic, not-exactly-convincing simulations of thunder, breaking glass, punching and so forth. And when you die, you get an image of a skull and the words "I've got you!", the aural uttering of which sounds for all the world like Stephen Hawking reimagined as an evil undead sorceror. There is, however, a regrettable lack of creaking doors and wooden floorboards; but hey, you can't have everything I suppose.

Now for something I definitely DIDN'T like: the time limit. Throughout the game, there are ominous allusions to a storm getting closer, and a generalised "evil" slowly closing in. And sure enough, if you don't finish the game quickly enough, it's boo-sucks for you. I had to Google this lovely little feature to make sure it wasn't something I specifically did wrong. Nope, it's just a slowly encroaching, inexorable thing, best as I can tell. So in other words, unless you're especially brilliant at these types of games, you probably won't get through it the first time, or even the TENTH time; and will in all probability give up long before reaching the end just like I did.

For the time that I humoured it, though, I actually quite enjoyed this. It was like revisiting a childhood I never quite had, and almost made me yearn for "simpler" days. Definitely not a game for the A.D.D. generation (of which I am only an honorary member, thank God, but an honorary member just the same).

Verdict: 8/10.

My favorite of the MacVenture series (though Shadowgate is very close) The game is still spooky after all these years and is worth a play through. It gave me nightmares and I watch a horror movie a day on average and that never happens.

If you were alive and well in the 1980's, and you owned an Apple IIGS or Macintosh computer, chances are you remember the MacVenture games. They were a series of excruciatingly punishing point and click titles released throughout the mid-to-late 80's, with The Uninvited being the second in the line-up; coming out originally in 1986 for Mac, and 1988 for the IIGS, the two versions included in this Steam release. Ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Famicom, NES, and Windows 3.x were all completed between 1986 and 1993 as well. Needless to say, this was a game that got around.

In a time before elaborate cutscenes and thrilling plotlines, the MacVenture series relied on reading like an old, yellowed book. You know, the kind that has been sitting in an attic for a while, and therefore each turn of a page fills your nostrils with a very familiar musty smell. The text is intricate, and it serves as a compelling reminder and sustainable source that atmosphere can sometimes come purely from exceptional, immersive writing. The story itself is very basic, you play as an unnamed adventurer who is travelling with their brother. You see an object in the road, swerve to avoid it, and end up in a wreck. When you wake, your brother is nowhere to be found, but you spot an old Victorian mansion in the distance; he must be there, and thus you set out on your adventure.

The real challenge to this game is its hidden, unforgiving time limit that will brutally beat you down no matter how many save files you decide to make. This concealed mechanic only ticks down when you perform actions; whether that be using an item, opening a door, looking at objects, travelling to a different screen, or speaking. Every single action has the consequence of eating up precious time, and once all of the time has been used then the mansion possesses you and it's game over. New for its time and still cruel some 34 years later, the time limit mechanic forces the game into the corner of trial-and-error exploration, and may even reduce some people to pulling out old fashioned pen and paper to map their right and wrong interaction routes. The puzzles are easy enough to solve, as all of their solutions are found plainly somewhere in the game, but actually finding and using them before time depletes completely is the biggest obstacle, as there are so many elements that can be interacted with.

Despite its punishing nature, aged gameplay, cheesy sound effects, and lack of an actual soundtrack, The Uninvited manages to still hold up over three decades later. The atmosphere is truly compelling, propelled by Choose Your Own Adventure style graphics, and poetic storytelling; surprisingly, the black and white Macintosh version is actually offers more ambience than its color counterpart, so it's nice that it was included in this re-release. Although it doesn't look like much by today's standards, the game was actually praised for its innovative mouse-based gameplay, complex puzzles, and user-friendly interface back upon initial release. Of course, all of that, with exception of the puzzles, is now inordinately dated and those who were born closer to the turn of the century will probably not find much novelty in going back and attempting to solve the mystery of the mansion. In essence, that's really what these re-releases are at this point; a novelty, whether it be for nostalgia, or for the sake of saying that you played it.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore

This game is fantastic and suprisingly horrific! I played this the same day I first played "Dying Light" and jumped way more at this! I hope Zojoi remakes this as they did with Shadowgate!

Old-school adventure gamers will like the style and feel of this game, which has colour pixel graphics and barebones sound effects, as well as plenty of easter eggs to discover. But many of the puzzles are not set up very well, and you'll most likely need to refer to a guide on how to solve them. This is coming from someone who's solved many an adventure game (including the original Monkey Island) without hints. Some puzzles just leave you frustrated with how asinine they are (e.g. you have to open a bottle in order to effectively use it on something), while others simply don't make sense (e.g. ferocious, hungry-looking dogs not wanting meat but instead being afraid of lightning?!) On top of all this, the game has a time limit, seriously limiting exploration. You can also die numerous times, simply because you do not have a particular inventory item on you when faced with a puzzle. As for the story, well, we do get bits 'n' pieces here 'n' there of what happened in the mansion you're trapped in, but it still doesn't explain a whole load of stuff that you actually encounter.

Long story short: The game punishes you in ways you shouldn't be, and wastes a lot of time via multiple permadeaths and/or having to redo things simply because you didn't have the right items at the right time.

If you'd still like to experience this game, I'd suggest watching a playthrough instead.

I remember playing this on my ♥♥♥♥♥♥ PC back in the day and not having an understanding on adventure games.
Now I know what the go is and man it still is one eery piece of gaming. Hopefully it gets a remake.
One thing that makes no sence, like most adventure games is the logic behind some of the actions.
Either way, 7/10

Used to love these kinds of games as a kid, so this was quite nice to see on here!

Brutally unforgiving (I missed an item near the start of the game that made it impossible to progress), but still fun to figure everything out! Playing a New Game after knowing what to do up to a certain point goes by quick, as most of the game is trying to figure out what to do next.

If you liked these kinds of old adventure games, I highly recommend this for a small distraction!

It was probably good back in the day, but didn't age well. Feels more like designers having fun with the player, rather than players having fun with the game. Lots of arbitrary trial and error, little you can learn to outsmart the game beyond remembering what each screen/action does across retries. Not my idea of a good game by today's standards.

Much like Shadowgate, I think The Uninvited is still worth trying out if you’re interested in seeing old adventure game roots. I think Shadowgate is slightly better and more interesting, though. This one also shows its age and it’s certainly not going to be something that everyone will enjoy.