Reviews by Jizaboz
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Maybe better as something simpler or static?, June 27, 2013I gave this game a shot when it appeared in the recent stuff here on IFDB today. I've played maybe 1 Twine game before this one. I'm partial to parser-IF, but some point-and-click games I've played were pretty fun, and all of them are very accessible.
There doesn't seem to be any real point for this one being interactive though. The questions (Spoiler - click to show)only have one correct response. I guessed the first two questions wrong, and it was then obvious why those were the wrong responses. With the routine finished, I end up with (Spoiler - click to show)Do I still have my money left because I didn't spend it on prescription drugs TRUE/FALSE? and that's it.
I believe I get the "point" of this release, as far as what it's trying to get across.. but why try to use a fancy interactive interface for this? There aren't even a lot of words here.
However, I would have given this 1 and 1/2 stars if I could for not having any typo and implementation errors.
Some tech issues, not my sort of game, but still worth playing, June 24, 2013Perhaps it's because I haven't read detective stories outside of old "Detective Comics" and a few Sherlock Holmes stories, but the actual plot and what I was investigating was rather boring to me most of the time.
The only thing I was honestly curious about was if someone was lying to me and what caused the (Spoiler - click to show)"mutilations". More insight into that (Spoiler - click to show)didn't come until later (which from what I understand is a common element of this type of game). When that happened, I was into the story again.
Then, I got stuck. Without a walk-through to follow, I asked the author for hints a few times. The author was happy to give me hints, but after revisiting the game 3 or 4 times a few weekends, I gave up.
The remarks from the cab driver were not funny to me, (in comparison to something like the GPS in Hangar 22) but the scene involving the (Spoiler - click to show)"gruff man by the fire escape" was very funny to me.
As far as actual game interpretation quality, there are various nuances that probably assisted in my final outcome with playing this. That is the main reason for the 2 stars. While the story wasn't for me, I did in fact read it and had some interest.
Now what?, August 26, 2011I also couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I really liked the theme and the setting. Good writing. It felt as if I was in some bad nightmare or something. I just couldn't make the game progress, which was disappointing.
Excellent Game of Weirdness, June 16, 2011I wasn't sure what to expect when trying this game. I hadn't played any of the author's previous works.
The first thing that appealed to me in the game was the general feel and atmosphere of it. The graphics certainly were a great addition towards this effect. At first though, I felt as if some of the more upbeat songs included in the game's soundtrack felt out of place in the first few rooms. However, this wasn't an issue for me as the game progressed more and I heard all of the songs multiple times. I found myself humming a few of the tunes to myself at work the next day.
A big plus to the game is the NPCs, which are all done very well. My only complaint with the conversation system is that I kept trying to "Talk to Grimloft about X" out of habit. Basically, I kept attempting to skip a step when talking. The characters are all fleshed out very well with their backgrounds and personalities.
The difficulty of the game was varied to me. For the most part, I just seemed to float through the story, while enjoying the amusing exchanges between the NPCs. Some of it was truly hilarious to me. Then, I would hit a snag and would spend roughly twenty minutes trying to figure out what to do next, but it rarely came down to a "guess the right word" issue. At one point I became very stuck, and still could not figure it out when coming back to it the next day. I ended up sending a message to the author asking if perhaps I had found a bug or I just didn't get the puzzle. While it ended up being the latter, as I had tried to use a different verb with the right noun, he mentioned that he would add the verb I tried to the next version.
The system of creating and fighting creatures is pretty addictive. I found myself trying all sorts of combinations. (Spoiler - click to show)My only regret with the way I had played the game was that I had not built up my cryptids a bit more for the final showdown. I just barely won, and an all-out annihilation would have been most satisfying.
Overall, a great game and I would recommend it to just about anyone, especially those new to interactive fiction. You can tell the author put a lot of heart and time into it. I'd be very interested in seeing more of his behind-the-scenes stuff. This game easily made my personal list of favorites.
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