While the PLATO RPGs of its time seek to replicate thr systems of Dungeons and Dragons, Colossal Cave Adventure seeks to preserve its humanity. It is a proto-Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. It is a DnD one-shot wherein the DM is infinitely patient, but barely speaks your language. It is one of the most important video games ever made. Beside the adventure sits a parallel game... one of communication. Accept that relaying your intentions to this robot can be a fun challenge in itself, and find yourself enjoying two games at once.

Colossal Cave Adventure is, at least in my opinion, the first game that is actually about exploring a place. Not just mapping out a level, but searching its crannies and understanding its inner workings. As you can imagine, some of the puzzles in Colossal Cave Adventure are stupid. There are a great number of passageways that only SOMETIMES randomly work, and the "solution" is literally just to try them over and over. In this original text adventure, that means typing a command over and over, not just holding down a button to walk in a direction.

Despite the clunk, this is an admirable first outing with many interesting little twists and turns, and if a slow-paced, dry-witty, more-exploratory, historically-essential version of Kirby Superstar's Great Cave Offensive sounds interesting to you, I'd say you'll probably have a good time!

But I'd also say that you should definitely play the 2023 graphical remake Colossal Cave over the original though, because we live in a society.