YMMV / Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It

• Broken Base: Nord and Bert remains controversial among Interactive Fiction fans. If you like it, it's probably for the creative concept, varied level theming, and funny writing. Others feel that the game is too reliant on obscure puzzles, has a lot of bugs, and feels inferior to similar word-based games that came later, like Ad Verbum or Counterfeit Monkey. Alternatively, some think that while the game has a few good segments, it loses momentum in the second half, leaving questions as to whether it remains good overall.
• Disappointing Last Level: "Meet the Mayor" can be this, especially with the A Winner Is You ending that occurs after you literally "rest on [your] laurels".
• Once Original, Now Common: When Nord and Bert came out, it was an Infocom oddball, being an entire game based around language and word puzzles. It tends to get more criticism nowadays because later games have taken the concept to much grander places, with tighter theming, less bugs, and generally being better received. Games like Counterfeit Monkey and Ad Verbum handle puzzles that make you think about what words to use, PataNoir use figurative language as a part of the game world, The Gostak and For A Change take the idea of using made-up words to work out what they mean, and Hulk Handsome's In a Manor of Speaking and Pace Smith's Limerick games carry across the general style of comedy of Nord and Bert without the obtuse puzzles and bugs.
• Nintendo Hard: Nord and Bert is considered the hardest Infocom ever made. While there aren't many opportunities to get killed, some of the metaphors the player must act out in order to proceed are incredibly obscure even to native English speakers (how often do most people use the phrase "hammer your swords into ploughshares"?).
• Funny Moments: Try opening up the salt shaker in "Eat Your Words".
  "It's not designed to be opened. You should've seen how hard it was to put all the grains of salt into those little holes."
• That One Level: The last four levels can be this at times, but the most notable ones have to be "Act the Part" (in which you have to take the place of a comedic sitcom actor who's just left the show for other things; some of the mechanics, like the hot water bottle, the knife, and the "bottle in front of me" part, are too confusing, and there are some annoying knock-knock jokes you have to solve on the way) and "Visit the Manor of Speaking" (which is also a little boring and very confusing, like the part with Karl Marx in the Kremlin who needs to get out of the way via "insurgencies"). More on these can be found here.

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