Reviews by jmmelko
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Jeu court et amusant, se déroulant dans une seule pièce, dans le même principe que le génial Aisle.
Un seul bémol : certains verbes synonymes ne sont pas implémentés, ce qui fait qu'on peut passer à côté de certaines solutions. Et certains objets, comme (Spoiler - click to show) la chaise sont décrits mais pas implémentés.
Too clever or too smart?, September 28, 2015Of course, this game is very well written, and there is a lot of findings and innovative ideas, even two imaginary languages have been created, making the gameplay quite unique. There are some humorous comments, there are parts which are very realistic while others are oniric (and sometimes absurd).
Nevertheless, the game greatly suffers from the fact that it is extremely difficult, requiring the help from a walkthrough, and absolutely unfair to the player, up to the point that the author seems to have forgotten that a game (or a novel, or whatever) must not be done for oneself but for others to enjoy. Let me sum up the weakpoints:
* too many puzzles are of the "guess-the-verb" type. Sometimes the verb is common, but the action is absurd. Some examples are (Spoiler - click to show)go port, say time, say yellow, turn noise, tighten the skull, push cat to, jump, wave branch, blow whistle, "hole,!go west", etc
* the command "look at" is poorly implemented ("you see nothing special about...") where it could have been used to give a small hint to the player and make the game a lot more enjoyable. This is also the case for other commands and objects, as explained in another review of this game on this website.
* the order in which you visit locations is vital. If you visit them in the wrong order you can get stuck without knowing it! The problem is that you are not allowed to teleport twice to the same location using the device (Spoiler - click to show)the projector using cards, so you are not free to explore, and guess the solution by some trial-and-error. And there are no clue of what is the right order, or the clues are very obscure.
* some objects are absolutely mandatory to finish the game, but these objects must also be magically converted at some point to other objects(Spoiler - click to show)(rods). The problem is that they can not be converted back, so you get stuck long after having wrongly converted the object, thinking doing right, with the only option to restore a previous saved game.
In conclusion, unless you like twisted and cruel games, and don't bother saving/restoring a hundred times and restarting from the beginning several times, don't play this game!
Good, but an update would be nice, January 11, 2015I like the atmosphere of this game very much and for this reason I recommend playing it.
However, this game has a big flaw, which is the incomplete implementation of many verbs. For instance, common verbs such as "kick, push, pull, touch, drink, eat, jump, scream", are either not implemented at all, or merely answered to by a laconic "you can not do that". Also, the author has chosen to use a lot the verb "use" which is common in point-and-click games but usually avoided in IF games because it is ambiguous. Even though using the "use" verb avoids the pitfall of guess-the-verb situations, it gives the impression that very little freedom is allowed to the player, while freedom is actually the most attractive illusion offered by IF games. Also, this lack of interactivity deprives the player of many possible hints, for instance sentences such as "you can not force this door in, you will have to find another solution". Worse, the verb "say" appears at first not be implemented since the game answers "I can not understand your command", but in fact it is an essential verb for one unique occasion! I do not think it is fair to the player.
Excellent game, January 11, 2015Good story, good puzzles, good implementation of verbs, hints are given when appropriate.
Actually, I only have a very small criticism to make: in at least two situations, we can get definitely stuck without knowing it. The first case is when trying to take (Spoiler - click to show)the miracle-grow jugs in the worksheet one by one, then the game only says "you should have done this when you had the chance", but lets you continue, which is ambiguous. More generally, one object is essential to the game, and should not be disposed off too early in the game, which is not very clear at first ((Spoiler - click to show)the wheelbarrow). The second case is when (Spoiler - click to show)you jump into the window without anticipating on how to get out after that. I think it would have been nice if the game had said something like "you should have thought of this before doing that, now you seem to be stuck".
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