The King of Shreds and Patches

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Most Helpful Member Reviews

Not flawless, but ambitious and substantial, July 20, 2009
King of Shreds and Patches appears in a genre, Lovecraftian horror, that already contains some of the best IF out there -- perhaps because IF is such a good medium for telling a story of exploration, hidden rooms, and dark secrets. What sets this particular game apart is its setting, Elizabethan London in 1603, which is vividly researched.

As a game, King has some real strengths and some annoying weaknesses. Positives include the THINK command, which allows the player to review what quests he might work on next -- a valuable feature in a game with such a large map and so many characters to interrogate; the game map, which provides an overview of what London looks like, and expands with new locations whenever the player receives a commission to go to a new place, which conveys well the experience of moving around a city the protagonist already knows; and a number of puzzle solutions that build on previous solutions, giving the impression that the protagonist is gaining certain skills and habits as the story goes on.

Several of the puzzles, however, turn on precise, fiddly manipulation of what I assume are realistically implemented Elizabethan objects. On the one hand, this makes the player engage more completely with the period, which is not a bad thing; on the other, the experience could be frustrating, especially when the proper use was under-clued or a timed scene was in progress. (Spoiler - click to show)In one case, the object I was struggling to learn to use was the printing press the protagonist used for his livelihood -- surely something he would be able to manipulate with confidence.

Another issue is that the game relies heavily on knowledge flags to determine what the player is allowed to do, and sometimes these triggers are more finicky than I would like. On several occasions I found myself looking for a building I knew should be present in a location, but because the game didn't think I'd "learned" about its presence yet, the parser stubbornly disclaimed all knowledge.

As story, King of Shreds and Patches is again somewhat mixed.

There are some very memorable scenes, and (as often in horror IF) the first hints of the truth are genuinely creepy. It also uses very effectively the idea that the player constantly risks madness by too great a contact with the cult he's investigating. IF provides a great context for that, too -- every time the game hinted that I was on the verge of knowing Too Much, I'd go ahead and do the fatal action, and then UNDO: both succumbing to my own temptation and allowing the protagonist to remain innocent.

I was less satisfied with the ending, where unspeakable horrors become speakable and in the process turn out more banal than their earlier manifestations.

This said, King offers a rare depth of experience, with a long and eventful plot, detailed historical setting, and a large cast of characters. Conversation sometimes becomes a bit longwinded (characters have a lot of backstory to disclose, and you really need to ask about every topic that is listed as an option), but the extensive character interaction provides a feeling all too rare in IF, that of being in a heavily-populated area. Like Anchorhead, King also implements days and nights, giving the player a better sense of passing time than most IF offers. King of Shreds and Patches is a substantial work and well worth playing.

It flows like the Thames, September 7, 2009
In one memorable scene (though the associated puzzle is somewhat irritating) of The King of Shreds and Patches, the protagonist is rowing on the Thames, attempting to make headway against the stream. Playing Maher's game is nothing like that. It is, in fact, the exact opposite, a smooth ride along with the flow.

Maher has a satisfying tale of Lovecraftian horror to tell, and tell it he does. The player is along for the ride, although she encounters enough (generally easy) puzzles and has enough influence over the order in which the story unfolds to keep her from feeling powerless. The result is an enjoyable game that is the interactive fiction equivalent of a page turner: it may not always be of the highest literary qualities, but you want to keep on reading nonetheless.

Apart from the often excellent puzzle design, the main reasons that you can keep on turning the pages are the helpful map and "go to..." commands, and the self-updating list of goals. These together ensure that the player cannot get lost, either in space or in story-space.

In other words: this game is not incredible, it does not "advance the art of interactive storytelling", but it is very enjoyable and one can learn a lot of craft from it. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets one or more XYZZYs.

The game that makes me believe in IF..., March 10, 2013
First of all, this review was made by a newbie of the genre, don¡¯t expect any comparison with other games, just a honest review from someone that was scare of IF just a few months ago. This review is mostly for newbie players. Also, I hate spoilers, so I will not talk much about the story. My 1st language is Spanish so yeah, lotz of typos.

What got me to play this game was, the map¡­ yeah, a piece of paper with names of places make me play this game until the end. For newbie players, sense of direction, is very important. Walking randomly just hoping to arrive where you want to, will lead to frustration, unless you got a very . memory (I¡¯m talking about new players, an expert of IF I suppose can get around without a map) or incredible luck. The story was very interesting, is about this man, Robert, trying to figure out what happen to his friend after finding him dead, any more info will spoil the fun of it. Its play kinda like a detective game, finding clues, talking to people to discover who or what did this to your friend. This games is not as graphic as I will like it to be, only one scene really surprises me, otherwise I will have love if the game would have gotten more mature and disgusting bloody scenes. The puzzles were very good, maybe one or two will lead to frustration, (especially new players like me) but there¡¯s a very good hint system, its follow your progress and give you the tiny bit of info to keep solving the puzzle on your own, or give you the full solution, I really love this system, and I think many IF uses this. The game uses very easy commands, you will never will find yourself typing random verbs just to ¡°cut the paper¡±. And in the conversations the game give you the topics beforehand, just in case you forgot what you have to ask to a certain person. The conversations feels lively, the writing is very good in my opinion.

I really recommend this game to newbie players. One of the first IF I played what this game that was supposed to ¡°teach me¡± how to play, and it did the opposite, its make me afraid of ¡°games without pictures¡±, its make me feel like ¡°if I can¡¯t resolve this puzzle in this game for ¡°new players¡± without typing hint, its mean I will never be able to beat any other IF on my own". All those IF expert players learned by trial and error, playing multiple games at first, without even beaten half of them. Also, play a game with a story you like with normal places. Houses, shops and a city, this is easy to imagine and to get into, not like a castle with a supernatural wardrobe that you have to use to light a candle in the first 10 minutes of the game. This game should be in the top list of games to play for people that think that IF is an error in writing and have to be in lower case¡­ like I once did.

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