This isn't my "favorite" but if you're going to mention generative AI and text adventure games and you don't know about AI Dungeon, well, now you do: https://play.aidungeon.com/
I was always terrible at text adventure games because my brain does not run on the style of logic that they do. I mean that without any particular judgment. I observe that it at least sometimes makes sense to other people. But I have sometimes read the solutions to things like Zork and many of them still make no sense to me... not, like, I can't understand the written text, but, like, even knowing the solution I still would never have thought to try that.
Completely different sort of game. And also one that may be the Infocom text game hardest to make into any other sort of medium. It could only work in text, and absolutely nothing else. (Though there are a couple of other contenders, I know.)
Although if you're on the younger side, you may not have heard of some of the idioms that the game uses, which may raise the difficulty quite a bit. The 37 years since the game's release has seen language shifts. I played it a lot closer to its release time.
Except for Planetfall, I agree puzzle solutions were non-deducible especially for a teenager. Hitchhiker's and Zork, despite their immense popularity, were impossible without the cheatbooks which were a bustling business.
I was always terrible at text adventure games because my brain does not run on the style of logic that they do. I mean that without any particular judgment. I observe that it at least sometimes makes sense to other people. But I have sometimes read the solutions to things like Zork and many of them still make no sense to me... not, like, I can't understand the written text, but, like, even knowing the solution I still would never have thought to try that.
So the only Infocom game I ever completed on my own without a guide is Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/nord-and-bert-couldn-t-ma... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_and_Bert_Couldn%27t_Make_...
Completely different sort of game. And also one that may be the Infocom text game hardest to make into any other sort of medium. It could only work in text, and absolutely nothing else. (Though there are a couple of other contenders, I know.)
Although if you're on the younger side, you may not have heard of some of the idioms that the game uses, which may raise the difficulty quite a bit. The 37 years since the game's release has seen language shifts. I played it a lot closer to its release time.