Spider and Web

Baf's Guide

A futuristic spy story with a highly unusual structure. The bulk of the game consists of flashbacks, as you try to recreate, to the satisfaction of the man interrogating you, the events leading up to your capture. The strangest thing about this is that the protagonist knows more about what's happened than the player does. Gameplay is quite linear, but somehow works anyway (in part because your captor gives you so much guidance). Starts off very forgiving, but ends with a frantic race against time. Nice gadgetry, unexpected twists, ties together in a very satisfying manner by the end. A real gem. I'm still discovering subtleties just by thinking about it afterwards.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

IF-Review
Despite the linearity of the game, its ultimate meaning is entirely in your hands. Or perhaps entirely in your mind. There are a couple of endgame options -- *important* options, things that sum up the whole meaning of the story -- but you're not told how they play out, one way or the other. You get to choose, but you don't get to know all the final ramifications. People have found this unsatisfying, and griped. I myself found it unsatisfying, and griped. There's something about it that is nonetheless true to morality in real life: not only do we often have to make our decisions blindly, but we cannot always know for certain even after the fact what the outcomes were or would have been.
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Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 5 Write a review

Most Helpful Member Reviews

A New Implementor is Born, March 23, 2008
When I first discovered that interactive fiction had started a renaissance of sorts, I was mostly excited about the possibility of playing the old Infocom titles again. I had tried several games before Spider and Web, and, like so many of those before it, this game started out bland and uninteresting. Like the others, it seemed to be the product of someone with far more enthusiasm than skill as either a programmer or storyteller; its most interesting feature seemed to be the title.

Three minutes later, I was surprised to find that this game had a point and was interesting. Ten minutes later, I was awestruck.

I still hold the Infocom games up as the gold standard, but this game was the first I encountered that rated a "platinum" label. Daring in its conception and almost always brilliant in its execution of both programming and prose, Spider and Web shows the true power of the medium. This story simply couldn't be told in any other format in such an effective way.

I reserve five stars for works that are not just good, but that reach the epitome of a particular genre or otherwise earn a "landmark" status. Such works are the yardsticks by which all others are measured. I'm happy to bestow my first five star rating here on Spider and Web for its sheer genius in terms of premise and construction.

Kudos to Mr. Plotkin, who well deserves his reputation as a star in the IF community.

A tangle of deception, a web of fear, October 25, 2008
This game takes place in an unusual setting. Your at the mercy of an interrogator, replaying events that have already taken place. Your aim is to please him in the early going, to defeat him later on. This game uses some of the most interesting gadgets. Bond fans will love them. Learning how they interact with each other is the premise of the game.

How does it compare to more modern efforts? It stands alone I think, given the time at witch it was written.

Highly recommended.

Frustrating and Dull, October 18, 2007
Games like Spider and Web are why I've never understood the wide appeal that the author commands. At the beginning, the mechanism that drives the game lures you in. "This is different," you think. But then you realize that the entire game works that way, and the spartan storytelling style provides neither clues nor room for exploration. If you don't get every single detail right (and you have no way of determining the details ahead of time), you're sent back to start over. So you start over, and over, and over again.

I'd rather spend my free time any other way than being told, "You're wrong. Try again" repeatedly. That's just not my idea of fun.

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