The Terrible Samaritan

The Terrible Samaritan is a first-person 3D action/adventure game which sets you (you, the first person) down in a world as big as the Earth, and twice as cartoony. It's not as death-intensive as a high-speed shoot 'em up, although you can pretty easily get yourself offed if that's your thing, and it's not quite as vexing as a photo-realistic brain-buster, although there are more than a few chin scratchers scattered around. Without inviting undue comparison, it's sort of a cross between this and that.

As the story begins, you find yourself lost in a desert that stretches as far as the eye can see. All you have to work with is yourself--a dextrous set of fingers (five of 'em), a voice-box and, presumably, a working pair of legs.

Unless you're a complete lame-o without cunning of any kind, without access to the most basic human resources, you will eventually find a solution to this first riddle (the famous Riddle of Being Lost) and will sooner or later make your way to a lonely desert road.

    Following this road, you will encounter the first--and one of the principal--characters in the yarn; a man with the wings and tail of a bird, and the remaining features of a regular sort of guy (except for the eyes, which also properly belong to a bird). He's on his way, out, he explains. Pierced, fatally, by two golden lances--the piercing party is apparently still circling above. (Look up.)
    Being, as you are, a full-blooded Samaritan, his plea for help is hard to ignore. There's only one thing in this whole world that can heal him now--a piece of weeping willow fruit from the only fruit-bearing willow on the planet. (It's not your ordinary willow.)
    From here, the story is hard to pin down, on account of this is new media--interactivity and all that apply. Technically, the choices are infinite. Practically, as most of these result in an encore of the now infamous Riddle of Being Lost, the choices are countably finite. Roads will usually lead you somewhere interesting, so they're generally a good bet. (Sound advice for real-life as well.)

Here are some scenes you might encounter:
A quiet village.

Some shady characters.

An architectural oddity.

A sturdy beast.

An ominous abbey.

A giddy knight.

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