Reviews by Tristano
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Short and Buggy, February 27, 2019The game is fairly short and there aren't many locations in it, so it's bugs and poor implmentation errors tend to stick out a lot (a room with an exit leading to itself, a supporter that is describred as still holding object even after taking them, and a faulty score system at the end).
I've found the playing experience a bit "passive" for my onw taste — you get to win the game by merely wondering around the adventure world and carrying out the most obvious actions that come to mind, some of them seemingly unsignificant toward the adventure goal. Maybe this was the greatest dissapointment, i.e. that you can "win" by apparently just wondering around, for I later discovered on a second play attempt that the game offers dialog commands too (something you'd not guess from the way the game is presented).
Ultimately, it's a puzzless scene presenting a small (but rich and rather fantastic) fictional situation. The descriptions are good and manage to quickly draw the player into the narrative world, and there's a pace to this small IF story. Petty for the poor implementation.
Short, Enjoyable, Re-Playable!, June 28, 2018You can finish this game in about 15-20 minutes ... but almost certainly you'll want to replay it at least once. Can't really say much about the story without spoiling it, except that I recommend it. Well written, simple and fast paced, but there are some twists to the plot that might not be obvious until replay.
After ending the game for the first time you'll realize how clever the author has been on delivering that sense of urgency that will trick you into overlooking those details which are important to grasp what's going on — but being tricked in this game is part of the fun of playing it.
Nice.
Dedicata agli amanti delle magia e del mistero, April 5, 2018Quando mi accingo a giocare una AT di Paolo Lucchesi le aspettative sono sempre alte, e Dietro l'Angolo ha decisamente ripagato tali aspettative. Si tratta di una AT che implementa un sistema di gioco tramite collegamenti ipertestuali, anziché parser dei comandi. Inizialmente, questo mi aveva un po' scoraggiato e deluso — non sono un amante del gioco a link perché trovo sottragga all'esperienza di gioco il piacere di esplorarne i comandi, e ha il difetto di esplicitare tutte le opzioni di gioco disponibili in ciascun turno — ma in seguito mi sono dovuto ricredere: il sistema a link è stato ben implementato, ed ha reso l'esperienza di gioco più veloce, a beneficio di una trama più fluida.
Ancora una volta, Lucchesi è riuscito a catturarmi nel vortice di intrighi e misteri di cui sono intessute le sue avventure. Se (come me) avete già avuto modo di apprezzare La Pietra della Luna, del medesimo autore, allora sicuramente vorrete giocare anche Dietro l'Angolo.
Quel che più mi ha colpito di quest'opera è la maestria con cui l'autore ha saputo dosare gli aspetti narrativi e quelli interattivi lungo il corso della storia, conferendo un ritmo proprio all'avventura in cui si alternano fasi in cui predomina l'aspetto letterario e fasi in cui prevale invece il gioco interattivo, rendendo l'esperienza fluida e non faticosa.
Per completare l'avventura mi ci sono volute tre ore e mezza circa. È stata un'esperienza di gioco molto piacevole, in cui l'interesse è mantenuto vivo dall'intreccio tra magia, eventi misteriosi e le occulte trame di potere che stravolgono la vita del protagonista, mettendo il giocatore costantemente di fronte a scelte difficili. Il finale ti viene incontro come una rivelazione nel momento inaspettato in cui comprendi di trovarti di fronte ad un'inesorabile scelta che, dissipando ogni dubbio residuo, scioglierà tutti i fili irrisolti della trama. Tanto di cappello per il finale ben riuscito.
Dulcis in fundo, al completamento del gioco verranno rivelati dei contenuti extra decisamente appetitosi (tra essi, anche delle vere e proprie scene extra, giocabili).
L'unico motivo per cui non ho conferito cinque stelle a questa AT è per la mancanza dell'interprete di comandi a parser — cosa che, lungi dall'essere un demerito, mi impedisce comunque di assegnarle un giudizio in merito all'implementazione del parser, come regolarmente faccio su IFDB — e, in parte, per il fatto che il sistema a link impedisce l'interazione diretta con certi oggetti, costringendoti ad esaminare il contenitore per accedere all'opzioni dell'oggetto o, nel caso di personaggi, ad esaminarli prima di poter interagire con essi (seppur cosa di poco conto, in diversi momenti del gioco si è rivelato un meccanismo la cui invadenza incrinava il regolare flusso narrativo).
The Perfect Marriage Between «Interaction» And «Fiction», April 2, 2018Gameplay lasted about an hour, and I'v enjoyed every minute of it. I had already played Everybody Dies when it first came out, around 10 years ago, and for all these years it has haunted me as one of those memorable works of IF which I regreted myself for not having reviewed it.
I consider this game a masterpiece — I though it was one when I first played it, and I confirm it today. It's hard to review it without giving away anything that would spoil the pleasure of discovering by yourself what makes Everybody Dies stand out in respect to many other works of IF; but I'll try nonetheless.
First of all, it's very well written. The author manages to sketch a slice of life in a very vivid manner, bringing quickly to life characters and their surroundings, and he does so without excessive verbosity — dialogues and details are so skilfully brushed on the story canvas that the player has no choice but to sink into the narration with pleauserful abbandonment.
In this work, both the interactive and the fiction aspects of IF are highly honoured. Puzzles, characters and plot are so tightly knit together that in no single moment you're going to loose sight of the overall story. The story pace is amazing, and there are plenty of twists and turns that keep it relentlessly alive, till the very end.
As a bonus, add to that the pleasant illustrations which mark the various milestones of the adventure, adding atmosphere to an already rich environment.
The story also brushes with some contemporary social issues, leveraging the medium to subtly reflect them upon the player and the story from different angles. After completing the game, I couldn't escape a feeling that there was a wholistic flavour to the experience, where everything was connected to everything else in multiple ways ...
Can't say more without spoiling the story! Just dive into it.
Early Games That Left Lasting Impressions, March 30, 2018I've played "The Dallas Quest" about 34 years ago, on my C64. I must have been around 13, yet it's one of the early IF games I remember more vividly — well, at least there a particular scene toward the end of the game that stuck with me, most of the plot has faded away in my memory now.
We all have seen thousands of ads, played hundreds of games, yet there is always some ad that keeps popping up in our minds from the distant past, and some games that we remember most, despite the hundred of better games we've played after it. Why? Who knows...
I wasn't a fan of the Dallas show at all, but I remember enjoying this game a lot. I can't really say why this, of all games, survived stronger in my memory than others — and I had played a lot of IF games even back then. If it's true that "time will tell" and that in all things the test of time is a proof by itself, then there must have been something special about this game that made it memorable to me.
A Well-Balanced SciFi Tale, March 30, 2018You can expect a gameplay of about three to four hours to complete the whole story.
The adventure setting is remarkable and it's clear that the author has put great efforts into worldbuilding details. Without giving away too much about the game, you can guess from its title and cover that the protagonist is a teenager plant-creature; so you'll be both experiencing the story with the eyes of a young NPC as well as another species. This adds depth to the game because just about everything you'll come across is seen from the odd perspective of a universe where the main life forms are plant-like versions of our race.
I've felt like I was living through a fairy tale, but more on the SciFi end of narrative. Right from the onset you become aware of your main goal, the rest of the game is about working out how to accomplish it. You'll be facing a middle sized (and symmetrical) map, with new locations becoming accessible as you accomplish tasks. Puzzles are meaningfully tied to the plot (not the usual out of context puzzle, stuffed in the game just for the sake of making it "IF-likish"), so there is a balance between things you know you have to do, but lack the know-how or resources to, and tasks that when solved reveal more about the steps ahead of you toward the goal.
Having said that, the plot is a bit stale as puzzles solutions don't really drive the story forward, they just bring the end closer. The author could have enriched the plot a bit more, providing a few story twists here and there. There are some hints along the path as to unexpected dangers that might lay ahead, but these scarcely bring a true plot twist when you finally encounter them, and they have a weak impact on the overall plot.
Nevertheless, it was a delightful adventure to play. Exploration was gratifying because every interaction revealed a little bit more about the unusual world of the game. The puzzles are not too difficult, but you need to study carefully the environment to work out a plan of action. There aren't many useluss distractions in the game, and overall if you can interact with something it's because it's meaningful to the story (there are a few expections). The game is well written and polished, but it could have done with a few synonims implemented here and there, and better disambiguation rules.
The overall pace is peacefully slow, and there is a sense of timelesness to the atmosphere. Toward the very end, the story suddenly accelerates, and the ending seemed a bit out of tune with the previous part, a bit too fast and abrupt.
This is one of those games that will leave a strong and lasting impression in me, and it's strong and cute imagery is not going to fade away easily from memory. Yes, it's a memorable game.
Una AT «Spuntino», March 29, 2018Come da descrizione, questa AT è intesa come "un esercizio in Inform" dal suo autore, si tratta quindi di un'avventura molto breve, giocabile come «spuntino» in una decina di minuti. Singola stanza, pochissimi oggetti ... ma non per questo meno piacevole da giocare.
Roberto Grassi è riuscito a condensare in un'avventura brevissima una storia che (nel suo piccolo e nella sua brevità) è compiuta. Il tuo personaggio ha una chiara missione di fronte a sé, e tutti gli attributi per completarla — e, detto per inciso, se non fosse per un incidente di percorso, il personaggio non avrebbe bisogno del tuo aiuto.
La vera domanda è se tu, in veste di giocatore, sarai all'altezza di metterti nei panni del maestro dei ladri di diamanti, e rubare dai gioelli della corona nientemeno che il Koh-i-Noor, il più grande diamante bianco al mondo!
The Dark Side of Kabbalah, March 26, 2018I truely enjoyed this game (about three hours play, using hints now and then).
Denfinitely, an unsual work of IF. The atmosphere is dark and feverish, the plot explores the dark side of Kabbalah. Thrown into the main character's shoes, you'll be playing this adventure through the eyes of Jack Pudlo, a young jewish boy whose precarious health turned him into a cynical misanthrope. It's very well written, every part of the text reinforces the main character's mental state and his (sick) relation to the surrounding world.
The map is not huge, but in order to explore it in full you'll need to unravel many puzzles. The game is claustrophobic, crude and profane; reality is constantly blurred by a mixture of Jack's paranoia and hallucinations, on the one hand, and occult manifestations and magic, on the other. This is as much as I can say without spoiling gameplay.
The implementation is smooth, and I've only stumbled in a single disambiguation problem during the whole game. There are no "guess the verb" situations and commands parsing is implemented rather mercifully; smart implicit actions replace tedious commands sequences, sparing the player endless typing when it's obvious what he has in mind. The commands set in not huge, and non standard commands are either obvious or hinted at in the text. I advise you try out any action that comes to your mind, for the atmosphere of the game will push you in directions that are worthy to explore (especially the dark side of Jack), even when these actions might not have a direct impact on the story course.
Jack Pudlo reminded me of Francis Orme, the main character of Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions, who's own narrative (like Jack's) is distorted by his own personality and selfishness, and chronic disease becomes an excuse to moral superiority and misanthropy.
The story ending is quite unexpected, and I still can't decide what to make of it. The ABOUT text is very strange indeed, and I'm left with the impression that it contains clues to decode further layers of narrative meanings — for example, the theme of "war" is mentioned in the ABOUT, and constantly leaks into the story background, from the distant sounds of the outside world, growing in intensity as the story approaches its end, but it's never explored or directly connected to the plot. Kabbalah being a central theme (and device) to the story, I suspect that there is more to the plot than meets the eye at first sight.
Great Fun, Nice Story, May 18, 2015PataNoir is an unusual type of IF game. I can't really say more without spoiling the game experience. So ... just open it's story file, turn off the tutorial mode and enjoy it as it comes. Within a short time you'll realize what makes it different from other works of IF.
It can be solved in a couple of hours, and there is a good (and cleverly devised) hint system if you run out of ideas.
I've found the story dull enough to give up on the game, May 9, 2015I've given up on this game before completing it, so my review might be impartial. What prevented me from finishing it was the general sensation of fragmentation I got from playing it so far: switching from one point of view to another didn't really provide an enhanced view of the story, as some other multiple-viewpoint IF works did.
Interactivity is rather limited in this game, it's more on the story side of IF than the traditional game-puzzle sort. Therefore, all expectations shift from mechanics to storytelling.
Somehow the story didn't hook me in enough to stay in the game and play along with the author. I think there is a lack of background story, the player is just thrown into stage without much to work on, which gave me a sense of disorientation. Changes in viewpoint occur too often, without much really happening between each switch. Also, I would have expected POV changes to bring about some good cliff-hanging, leaving you wondering about the fate of the character you just jumped out of his shoes; but this doesn't happen simply because there isn't enough at stake in the story to care about any of the characters your playing in turn --nothing to make you either like them or hate them, they are just so flat and unfleshed that the only thing differentiating them is their names.
Maybe it's me who missed out some of the core points, but so far the overall sensation was that the most (and best) I could do was just playing along with the story plot as it comes. I didn't feel much choices and freedom of exploration, the world geography is rather claustrophobic and interaction with the environment very limited--and, surely, not encouraged by descriptions.
Maybe if I bore patient I might have discovered that the story changes and opens up later on, but so far I got bored and with all my effort I just couldn't feel a solid narrative grip that could keep me going along with the plot — even though the theme is of my liking and I had good expectations.
Possibly, the failure I experienced could be attributed to the attempt of conveying suspence through mystery: but where the plot should "thicken" it actually slims down, leaving an already rather clueless player even more clueless about the true motives that keep him going wherever he's meant to be going.
A Game of its Own Kind, May 6, 2015"Inside Woman" has really caught my attention for its originality. I've found it different from many IF works, in subtle ways. It's a rather long game, the map is not huge and the author devised it in a way that moving around is quite simple.
First, I want to point out that the game can be really tough to get through, and I don't think I'd have managed to get on with it without resorting to hints. Unfortunately, the hints file is not mentioned here, so I'll add a link to it:
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/solutions/WomanHints.txt
I think the author should have put a hint system into the game because some puzzles can get quite frustrating, forcing the player to quit playing. Even after peeping the solution in the hint file I've realized that some puzzles I simply wouldn't have solved them.
Yet, it was worth playing it (even with frequent hints lookup). The story opening is quite unusual: movement in space is strictly linked to puzzles and plot, meaning that to move forward you have to solve some puzzles, and since they relate to plot the experience is that of moving rapidly into the story one-step-at-the-time. This is something that I liked quite a lot because it forced me to focus a lot on every description from the inset, and it gave me a good story immersion experience.
Then, at at certain point the game takes on a more classical approach: you can move and explore and are faced with multiple puzzles that need to be solved in order to carry on with the story. Overall, the story is quite linear in that most of the puzzles must be solved in a specific order--although, I have to admit that guessing their order is not always easy, and as the story goes on it's easy to lose track of the objectives.
A strong advice: have a notebook of some sort to jot down notes from the beginning because backward references are a recurrent issue in this game. Also, writing down objective is a good way of keeping focused on the various missions and achievements.
Mechanics aside, I liked the futuristic setting and I appreciated the author's prose -- not only it's very polished, but it's also well balanced. There aren't many superfluous descriptions, and the author has managed to be concise but rich, and overall the story emerges quite powerfully. Some puzzles are really hard, but there is enough encouragement to go on because each solution adds some beats to the story and prevents the pace from dying out.
Also, this is a game in which words are carefully weighed and crafted, and they carry more meaning than one might think at first glance--indeed, you soon learn that every sentence contains important clues and is hinting toward the solution of the puzzle it refers to. I can't recall another work in which the text was so masterfully woven so as to embed in each sentence clues to playing, while at the same time establishing setting, plot, and pace all at once and in such a concise manner. Andy Philips is a good writer, beside being a good coder and game designer.
So, extreme attention has to payed to the game's text--but this has a downside also: you'll soon realize that previous description are crucial to solving some puzzles. So it's strongly advisable to use the transcript function in order to be able to read and sift-through past texts. This annoyed me a bit because in the midst of the game I couldn't recover some text from the buffer since I had saved and restored the game across sessions. The author should have put a warning regarding the need of transcripts or, even better, he could have implemented some sort of note-book or other way of recording important texts and events. Or, as mentioned above, just take notes on paper.
Some mechanics here and there could have been polished a bit more, but it's definitely an IF work of high quality--I don't recall stumbling in many typos.
I hope the author might one day take this work on once more and add to it a hint and note-taking system and refine some puzzles that, being too hard to solve, might prevent many from completing it. Also, there are some places where the player has to repeat a sequence of actions over and over again ... those parts should be revised with an implicit-actions system (else it's just cumbersome).
Short, Frustrating, Entertaining., October 31, 2014I really enjoyed this short work of IF. The story is set in a very small world, yet the narrative manages to build-up into the player's mind as he explores the environment. Usually I find frustrating IF games horrible to play, but in this specific case frustration and challenge go hand in hand.
After a few moves you realize that you've explored all there is to explore in the story game, and you realize that there are few items to interact with. At all times you know that the solution is right in front of you, but you just can't work out how to unravel the puzzle.
There is a beauty to its prose, it manages to be simple but evocative, and the player straight away realizes that clues are hidden in plain sight as far as descriptions go.
It'a a kind of all-or-nothing situation--you either solved the puzzle or you are still stuck with it. The solution naturally builds in the player's mind as he keeps attempting various actions and starts to tune-in with the story and it's peculiar use of language.
Well worth playing it, and not giving up to it! Avarage player should solve it within half an hour. Keep re-reading descriptions and weigh every word in the text. Nothing is marginal.
A Nice Game With Good Twists, October 28, 2013«Taco Fiction» is a well implemented adventure that can be won in about an hour. The setting has strong emphasis on suburban poverty, desperation, crime and corruption. And there is plot to it, with interesting twists.
The player starts with a clear objective presented by the game itself, but as the game procedes you come to realize that things are not quite like you were lead to belief. Choices are to be made, and the plot takes sudden and unexpected twists that ... well, let's say you'll be taken into a shadowy world of power conspirancy.
There are multiple endings, worth trying them all. Gameplay is fun, prose is good and balanced, game mechanics are well implemented and not frustrating at all. Puzzles are good and intriguing.
Not Worth Playing!, October 24, 2013Surely it is a speedy IF — took about 3 minutes (40 odd turns) to complete.
But fun? Not at all. There is no story, just a bunch of poorly described rooms of abstract nature. Can't even say there are puzzles in the game: you just move around, examine the very few items you stumble upon and then, by chance (ie: if you carry out in the right place one of the very few actions you can actually accomplish) the solution presents itself to you — out of the blue.
It isn't clear to me what was the intention behind this game — all I can think of is a mere exercise in code. And even now, after having «won» I'm left asking myself: what have I won? There was no challenge in the game, nor was the prose stimulating in any way.
A Great IF Adventure, October 18, 2013I really enjoyed playing «Guilded Youth». It’s not the usual IF adventure for in some ways the plot tends to be guided by the game itself thus offering a smooth interactive story-like experience more than a brain-teasing guessing the next move experience. Yet, the experience of immersion into the story is very strong.
The game creates right from its start a strong setting, it has a fast pace and the player flows with story without bumbs and doubts. Accativating graphics and sound contribute to the successful worldbuilding of «Guilded Youth».
I strongly advice playing this game both to IF veterans as well as newbyes — newbyes will profit from a non-frustrating game experience, and veterans will enjoy a neatly build story which is fun and easy to play.
It took me overall about half hour to complete the game. It was fun and challenging (not in a "guess the verb" way but rather in a "what's next" way).
Well done Jim Munroe
One of my Favourites Ever..., June 30, 2013This game is one of my all-times favourites. The plot is simple, the atmosphere relaxed, the prose capturing. It's quite a long game, but since it's packed with puzzles there are no dead times in the game.
If you like big maps, Return to Ditch Day offers a generous environment. And, if you are a puzzles lover, you'll find planty of puzzles in this game — some minor, others more intricate.
Surely, it's more puzzle oriented than plot-oriented, yet the well polished prose and mechanics grab the player's attention, fix the plot in the mind and keep the game pace alive.
A game that won't let down lovers of classic IF.
When You Have Great Fun, Can You Ask For More?, June 30, 2013This if game is really worth 4 stars. It's fun, it's intriguing and keeps you going.
The story unfolds itself in a balanced manner, each important move unravels something more about the plot — soon you'll find yourself immersed in a true horror tale.
The map is not too big as to be tyring, yet not too small as to be claustrophobic. The author cleverly managed to create an environment which changes as the story progresses. Also, there aren't too many objects to handle, yet each object requires deep thinking about its possibile uses and applications.
Also, the story hints play a fundamental role in guiding the player toward a correct understanding of the way to move about, the goals to achieve, and the significance of the various items he/she comes across.
There aren't any really frustrating bits in the game, though some puzzle solutions are not easy to guess. I've managed to solve it in an afternoon, but I admit I had to peek at the walkthrough twice because I couldn't come up with any more ideas — yet, if I had payed more attention to the hints hydden in the descriptions, I could have worked it out myself.
Some hints are deceiving, the author plays on the player's hopes and fears and lets him/her derived conclusion which, later on in the game, will contribute to the plot twists.
The narrative atmosphere is great, it start soberly and quickly builds up. The worldbuilding is rather fantastic, unusual, rich.
The game has more than one ending, not all of them being the best one.
The game mechanics could have been slightly more polished here and there (some pareser responses are confusing, evidently due to unpolished responses controls) yet they don't interfere with the actual gameplay. Also, some synonims are not well implemented, and overall the player as to stick to items names as presented. I often experienced switches in the referred object, ie: I examine an object but further commands then refer to the previous object handled, which did cause some misunderstanding in some rooms.
Still, the game was original, entertaining and fun all along, what more can you ask?
A Sci-Fi Fairy Tale ..., August 11, 2010Nothing But Mazes is a strange piece of IF: there are parts of the story in which the player doesn't really play but reads along, screen after screen. So it's part fiction, part interactive fiction.
Both the game and its language are simple but polished, so it suits also kids. The author has put a great deal of fantasy in the story and I've found it really interesting. As a game, I have to admit that the puzles are quite simple, but I enjoyed them.
The game has sound and hand-drawn graphics (very nice indeed) which add atmosphere to it.
I got to the end of Nothing But Mazes: it's "to be continued". So I hope that Greg Boettcher will bring it to completion because it's worth it.
Excellent Puzzle, August 11, 2010I rated 5 this game because I found it to be an excellent piece of playable-IF to solve. A mind-bending puzzle that captures the player without a sense of frustration. Overall, it shouldn't take too long to complete it.
Since the very beginning of play you "sense" that something is strange ... that sensation kept me going ahead without frustration even though I moved around in circles for quite a while, but I knew that somehow I was on the right track. Then ... it "clicked" to me and everything was clear. Nevertheless, once the core of the puzzle is grasped it still takes some strategic moves to actually solve it.
No distractions, just a polished and well presented puzzle with all its elements in plain sight. Nice atmosphere.
Surely one of its own kind -- I don't recall coming across any similar puzzles.
If only it worked ..., May 5, 2010I downloaded and installed version 2.2 of Beyond Exile and ... it doesn't work. After game begins, and a first room (which has a single possible action to carry out: going north) I get to a place with 3 characters: 2 people and a dog. The only thing I can do is looking at the dog (which then leaves), all the other (few) available click-comands either display blank text or some short description.
Basically I'm stuck in the second room.
By visiting the game's Website, I've seen a screenshot of the second room I got stuck in, and there is some text-reply to a command I used which does not show up in my actual play.
I've tried it with XP SP3, and it looks like it incurred in a bug.
I personally don't like the Quest QDK interface, nor the few options offered by the click-menu of the game interface. Still ... I was curious about the story but seem like I can't get to play it.
Fun and Challenging..., May 5, 2010Having had the pleasure of betatesting this game, and see it growing through it's various stages, I had the chance to fully appreciate it.
Mordred did a great job in designing the intriguing puzzles that face the player in this "escape-the-daily-work-routine" game. The humor is great and gives pace to the adventure. Extra notes and comments broaden the context of the game, stimulating curiosity and making great use of the litte setting the game takes place in. The puzzles and tasks are original and quite unique.
I've found the story absorbing like a sponge, and the player is given ample space to try-out different approaches to reach the final goal -- which keep involvement high and frustration low. There are no dead-ends and the author deviced some "spontaneous hints" in case the player starts moving in circles.
Game completion can take anything from half-an-hour to less than 2 hours.
Really worth playing.
Puzzles within puzzles ..., May 4, 2010I enjoyed completing this game, it took me just less than an hour.
A one-room game which takes place in a transforming virtual-reality environment. The player soon starts to grasp the logic of the game and to handle the symbolic environment to induce changes and shift of levels.
I've never played anything like it, and I was surprised and amused. Not too hard to solve but requires concentration and thinking -- it litterally sucks you in the game's interwoven symbolism. It requires basic commands, and a lot of associational intuition.
Really worth playing!
An Intense One-Room Adventure ..., May 4, 2010It took me over an hour to complete the whole game (and I confess that I had to peek into the PDF walkthrough a couple of times) -- by BTW, the PDF-Walkthrough is great because it gives procedural hints but not the exact steps to solve puzzles, so it's not too much of a spolier to peak in it when stuck.
The game is intriguing and NPCs are lively shaped. Puzzles are well crafted and not too hard to solve, and even though there is a specific order in which puzzles should be solved, the story unfolds in a way which makes clear what has to be acomplished first.
Also, there is no "guess-the-verb" struggling: intuitive alternative comands to complex operations seem to be reckognized straight away -- I didn't experience problems in achieving any particular task.
I liked the humor of the game, which is present all along the story. Surely, fantasy is another main ingredient of the game -- it isn't a stereotyped game, it has a flavour of it's own.
I'd say this is a recomended game for IF-veterans and newcomers alike.
Well done, worth playing.
Beyond Flashback: Forking plot paths, January 8, 2010This adventure is great fun: plot progression has a good pace and rarely stalls. The setting is intriguing and well crafted. A good number of puzzles, some quite hard to solve. But the real puzzle is coming to grips with the plot.
It's difficoult to review this game without spoiling its enjoyment. So, I'll rather stick to some general hindsight considerations about what makes it really innovative.
The game uses flashback in a way which reminds of Borges Garden of forking paths: the player has to go (must) through a series of choices that will divert plot until a dead end ... an restart from scratch and seek an alternative plot path.
Each replay benefits from the previous game experience, which is the key to step in the alternative paths. Yet, a point comes were a last path joins all the previous loose plot threads and leads to the winning situation.
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!"
So, not just flashback as mere information retrieval: flashback as a time-space gate. If you've seen Donnie Darko movie, you'll know what I'm speaking about.
I warn you: the final path is not in plain sight as it might seem. The author doesn't make it easy at all: subtle techniques are implemented to make you believe that you got into a dead end.
Just a little hint: Jon Ingold leaves no bugs behind him! So, if you think you've stepped into a game bug: think again! Exploit whatever the game offers you.
I really hope that Jon Ingold will be exploiting this narrative technique in future games, it could make really thik plots.
A Smooth Game With A Nice Plot!, September 26, 2009I've found this game really smooth to play and enjoyed a good afternoon playing it untill I solved it.
The plot is good and it unfolds in a manner which keeps enthusiasm to proceede alive. I did not encounter any dead ends so, even though it's easy to die in the game, an undo operation is sufficient to get back to the game and try something else. Puzzles are well made and don't lead to frustrating situations where one gets stuck and worn out. There is an overall logic in the unfolding of the game which makes it rather clear which puzzles have to be solved first in order to proceed and what is expected from the player.
The game is not overwelmingly verbose yet it manages to say all that is needed to know provided you also look carefully at pictures! Some important objects are not mentioned in text descriptions but are to be worked out from the pictures which depict every room. Simple graphics make this game lively.
The game contains many secrets to be discovered - and it's great fun.
The overall plot is long even though the map is not to huge to handle. Basically, whenever you solve a puzzle the whole environment is to be revisited in a new light in order to solve the next one.
There are specific steps to solve the game, but it's order comes natural as you get in the game.
A good adventure if you like to play a game that doesn't get you in frustrating situations; all you need is being patient and resort to the most obvious lexicon implied by the game. Objects names are very well implemented with a good variety of synonims that make it easy to guess the right term to address any object.
Worth playing!
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