The Wand

by Arthur DiBianca profile

2017

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Reviews and Ratings

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Number of Ratings: 56
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- elias67, March 12, 2019

- seltzer, January 18, 2019

- Stian, January 18, 2019

- mrfrobozzo, November 27, 2018

- Vigorish (Bradenton, Florida ), November 15, 2018

- Snave, October 30, 2018

- IanAllenBird, September 23, 2018

- wisprabbit (Sheffield, UK), September 10, 2018

- Joey Jones (UK), August 25, 2018

- dgtziea, May 9, 2018

- IFforL2 (Chiayi, Taiwan), March 31, 2018

- nosferatu, January 18, 2018

- Guenni (At home), January 6, 2018

- Barfo, December 8, 2017

- hoopla, December 7, 2017

- mapped, December 4, 2017

- Tross, November 18, 2017

- Xavid, November 17, 2017

- Karl Ove Hufthammer (Bergen, Norway), November 17, 2017

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), November 17, 2017

- Robin Johnson (Edinburgh, Scotland), November 16, 2017

- Liza Daly, November 16, 2017

- Spike, November 16, 2017

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Two games in one, November 16, 2017
by Denk
Related reviews: inform

This was my favorite 2017 Ifcomp game. I don't see how to make a meaningful review of this one, without touching on the hidden content, which is more than half the game. If you cannot find the hidden content, check out David Welbourn's excellent walkthrough.

The Wand is a very polished puzzle-based text adventure, where the player seeks out a challenge at Bartholloco's secluded castle. The player is not allowed to touch anything in the castle, except from the wand, he/she is given at the beginning of the game. Luckily the wand is magical and can be set to 1000 different color combinations. The wand has different abilities depending on the chosen color combination. Unfortunately you do not know which combinations are useful, but clues to this are placed around the castle.

The apparent challenge of the game has a very nice level of difficulty and can be completed in approximately 2 hours. However, (Spoiler - click to show)if you restart and approach the game with your knowledge from your first play-through, you may find a much deeper and more involved challenge.

It is during this deeper challenge you will come to realize how well thought out the magic system actually is. Also, the ending of this deeper challenge is much better than that of the first challenge.


I don't think a pure puzzle game comes much better than this.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
An intense minimalist puzzlefest with magical color combinatorics, November 16, 2017
by MathBrush
Related reviews: 2-10 hours

This is one of the large puzzle fest games out there in recent years.

You play an adventurer entering a strange castle where all actions are performed by a wand: you set the wand to a color combination, then you go on.

It has a fun feel similar to Grandma Bethlinda's Variety Box, by the same author. Slowly, more and more combinations are revealed to you, often allowing you to go back and do things that you've been wanting to do for a while, but were unable to do.

HIghly recommended.

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