Ratings and Reviews by tggdan3
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Fantastic Bit of IF Fun, November 30, 2010One of IF's adventure tropes is kleptomania. The adventurer grabs everything he can from treasures to matches because you never know when it will be useless. 2HiH subverts this by forcing you to part an adventurer with all his gear. And, like most IF games, the guy is holding far more than he should everbe able to.
Luckily, you're stronger than him.
The writing is done very well, and I only saw a few errors, though there are some things that broke disbelief a bit, such as certain objects (if thrown away too early) which come back to you after having been thrown from the balloon.
Still, definately a fun and humerous game worth your time. My only regreat is that it's TADS- not playable online and I had to download in interpreter just to play this game.
Good for a quick play or learning IF, November 29, 2010First of all, I found few implementation errors, and only a few spelling errors. This makes the game easier- there were no guess the verbs, and many nouns were implemented. There were a items that didn't work like I thought they should (the bed is full of nails you can't hammer with your hammer).
As far as the puzzle, they're fairly straightforward and obvious, though some actions that might have worked weren't implemented. (Spoiler - click to show) You can't reach the donut from your bed, but can't turn your bed on it's side and climb it either. You also have to contend with a string tied around the donut. If you can't break the string, you'd think you can just eat around it or break the donut or something.
There were some side references that were cute (the fountain didn't have what I crave!), and the writing style was very informal, which made the game a little more fun.
The game took about 30 moves for me to solve, so it wasn't difficult, but for a beginning player, that would be great to introduce people to IF. For the more experienced, some easter eggs would have been nice. (Such as allowing you to think about "them" or something.) All in all, it's a good game and complete.
The Dreadful truth is, this is not a dream, November 24, 2010The title of this review is the default response to >WAKE UP. It's also the response this game gives. Okay, okay, the description of the game was dream-like, so that doesn't mean it's a dream.
>F***
Real adventurers don't use such language.
Am I an adventurer, or was this response never updated?
The reason I question this, is because you start in a dog house (with a dog in it). This gave me the impression that I was a dog. (Especially since I seem to want to get at that bone behind the sleeping mastiff).
Am I a dog? The game does not say so. (>X ME... As good-looking as ever!) The default responses imply no. I found one response that mentions fingers, so maybe I'm not a dog. However, leaving the doghouse is futile- I can see a swirl of leaves and eventually I am forced back into the doghouse.
One one hand, the writing is provocative, the leaves in particular. (They swirl around, getting me lost when I try going somewhere which is not north. However, perhaps UP and DOWN should have gotten different responses, as I suppose trying to enter the solid floor would not have failed only because of a swirl of leaves around me).
The game includes no hint/help/about file, which makes it difficult to see what to do. The only objects to be interacted with are the sleeping dog and the bone behind it. The bone you can't get, and the game warns about waking the dog (and ">LET SLEEPING DOG LIE" does nothing either!). Certainly "Violence isn't the answer to this one.". The tagline of exploration seems misleading, as there isn't much area to explore here. If I'm a human, why do I want a bone or to be in a doghouse? I'm pretty sure I'm not a dog too.
The game tells you that there is unfinished buisness in the dog house, though most interactions with the dog yield the same (or a default) response, there is no inventory, and many verbs you might think exist do not. (Don't expect to whistle or call to the dog).
With very little implementation here, I got frustrated after a while, and gave up. The writing here implies that the author put some effort into this, and it might be a simple guess-the-verb issue: including hints or a walkthrough could clear that up. Maybe it is supposed to be a dream. Maybe there's nothing to do here after all.
Very Very Short, November 24, 2010This is a short game with one puzzle: You want to walk your dog, but a tree is in your way.
The game can be solved in one move, and that move is probably the very move you would make in real life, so it's hard to call this a puzzle, any more so than encountering a closed, unlocked door is a puzzle, but this is what you have.
The objects are implemented, and there are a few things you can try that don't work, which is nice. This is definately a minimalist game, but it at least what it does, it does well.
The greatest blessing to this game is Parchment- the ability to play it online, since the effort of downloading it and downloading an interpreter would take longer than playing the game. With online capability, this is one of many short and sweet games that you can have fun playing in a few minutes.
Wonderful Short Escape Game, November 24, 2010The title says it: You are in a dark cell, having been captured by guards, and must escape it.
As far as difficulty, it's not too hard. My first try I got out in about 100 moves. There were some minor nitpicks with the parser, and one of the puzzles, but not much.
(Spoiler - click to show) You pick the lock, but can't open the door, something else is holding the door shut. Part of the puzzle is learning what that is. There is another cell with a prisoner opposite you. It seems like you could just look at HIS door to see what the problem is, but the game doesn't recognise his door. Further, you can't seem to ask the other prisoner about the bolt, you need to see it yourself. You also must use "GIVE [x] to [person]" instead of "THROW [x] to [person]"
The writing is appropriate, I noticed no glaring errors.
Now the puzzle itself is beautiful. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the puzzles, I can't say too much about them without giving something away, but suffice to say it isn't quite as easy as using your lockpicks to get out. (Though lighting up the room is very easy and straightforward). The game does provide a false hint. (Spoiler - click to show) It suggests making a projectile to share items with the other prisoner, though no projectile is needed, you merely tie items up for safety and throw them, which had me wasting time trying to make a slingshot or something . I'll be fair and say I'm generally not a fan of IF escape games: I've played plenty of flash based ones that were garbage, and plenty of text ones seem to involve trite tropes or nonsensical scenarios, but this one makes even the done-to-death escape a jail cell fun.
Once you escape the cell the game ends, though the endstory makes reference to the need to get past the guards and steal horses. It would have been nice to see this part of the story (either as part of this game or as a sequel).
In conclusion, the scenario is trite, but that was the contest: a one room escape game. And the author did this one beautifully.
Not AS Minimal, November 24, 2010The minimalist game 1 was a simple yes/no question asking you if you want to win.
This has 2 rooms, each room with one implemented (barely) item, and 6 turns before you die.
I get it: it's minimalist, but even still, there are a few things that need fixing in it.
>ENTER CAR
You mount that car.
Not sure if this was on purpose, but you should probably get in a car rather than mounting it in order to drive.
>NORTH
You can't.
You are supposed to drive (ride) the car north, maybe a different default message.
Then the two items are That Car and That Door. (Probably should have not been capitalized).
The intro tells you that you can go to that door and win or wait until 9:05 and die. In this case, it might be nice if the status line gave us the time of day instead of the turn count. (It turns out you die after turn 6 FYI).
There's still that issue as to whether practice games should even be released or put on this site. I don't want to discourage you from writing more... but delay your desire to release things until you have a working game you can be proud of.
I rate this low, not to discourage, but because you just can't put this up to other games, even very short "minimalist" games, such as Aisle, Pick Up the phone booth and die, and similar games. If the author insists on short games like this, I suggest he play those those games for inspiration.
Not Quite Useless, November 22, 2010I first read some of the other reviews on this site. Apparantly the game is supposed to be unwinnable. It's not- I won it on the second playthrough.
Your cat is ticking. It must have swallowed a bomb. I thought this was funny- such a simple premise: survive the explosion of your cat. The parser keeps the tension up by reminding you of that damn ticking throughout the game.
There were some implementation issues: listen to ticking doesn't exist, bed is not a synonym for mattress, and so forth, but nothing horrible. (Some more testing would have handled this).
Of course, there's a twist to the puzzle, which is why it may seem unwinnable at first. When you figure it out, you smack yourself. There are some nice touches- such as when you try to get rid of the cat out the door or window, great reasons for why this is not possible. And the sparse apartment is well described.
To those reviewers, I suggest they try a re-play of this game. I gave 3 stars, some cleanup of the implementation would earn 4.
Ug..., November 22, 2010You are in the 0th dimension. Sounds promising.
The description of the 0th dimension is: Welcome to a Zeroeth Dimension
Then there's a list of what you see. Many of these containers are empty (an empty fridge and drawer, a cupboard full of mugs).
As far as the writing, it is intended to be in the 1st person, but it continually switches to the 2nd person (when default messages come up).
>BREAK MUGS
Why would I attack a group of mugs? I see no reason.
>TURN ON LAMP
That's not something you can switch.
>GET OFF COUCH
I get off the couch.
You get off the couch.
These little things kind of grate on me. The game is intended for first timers, it seems, as it constantly prompts you.
>GET REMOTE
if you want me to get off the couch, say EXIT
Watching the TV instructs you to keep watching the TV if you want the advertisement playing on it to continue.
As is, this seems to fall into the "my apartment" trope, despite the fact that it takes place in some 0th dimension. There's no indication of what you should realy be doing, or why.
The hint tells me to watch TV, but the same message plays each time (at one point it just stops continuing the progression of events and starts over- a glitch?). Some of the hints have writing errors.
>Z
Since there's else to do, then I believe the only thing to do is watch TV.
Since there's nothing else to do?
And that's it- there's nothing else to do. The game has no in game hints- waiting is supposed to provide a hint, and that hint does nothing, so I guess I'm giving up on this one.
Beautiful- but linear, November 22, 2010I love the premise here- an angel who is bored with heaven taking niceness lessons from gabriel.
The game starts off slow, but that's the point: heaven is boring. Once you've explored it a bit, gabriel shows up and has you attempt to tempt some mortals to evil, while he overrides you by forcing them to be nice.
There were some frustrating lack of implementation:
>POLITICIAN, KILL THE LOBBYIST
>
No error message, just a new blank line, meaning it understands that I'm asking the politician to do something, just not one of the things it understands.
The premise and writing are very good, and a lot of other actions seem to be implemented, just the most important area of the game- the commanding of mortals, seems to be missing some key implementation which is frustrating in the puzzle solving. There are some standard error messages (Gabriel has better things to do.) but there are also plenty of error messages customized to an angel in heaven- very nice.
Still I'm giving it 4 stars, with that bit of fixing, I'd probably go up to 5. It's a simple and fun game with an interesting premise. The ending is very good also, no surprises, but it's nice how this game twists expectations.
This is the game that "The devil made me do it" should have been!
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