Fail-Safe

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Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here. A good problem!, May 9, 2019

I've always enjoyed games that take place in space, especially on failing space vessels (e.g. Mission Critical, Seedship). I fell immediately for Fail-Safe's hook, which entails playing the role of mission control talking to the lone survivor on a failing space vessel.

Ingold does an incredible job at building a tense atmosphere based entirely on conversation. His decision to disable most basic interactive fiction commands (save, restore, inventory, etc.) was perfect in keeping the player locked into the moment. It wouldn't work in a longer game, but given the brevity here it was the right move.

The only thing that pulled me out of the game a bit was that mission control had some jargon that mission control would know but were not obvious to me, making a couple of things less clear. However, the decision to have (Spoiler - click to show)an unreliable narrator is pulled off very well. It's a huge risk for sure, as it can seem like pulling the rug out, a cheap trick as it were. However, there are a few clues sprinkled in that I didn't pick up on that in hindsight I should have. All I could do was tip my cap to the author and replay.

Definitely worth a look if you're in the mood for something short and immersive.

Old-school, but in some ways still unsurpassed, June 6, 2017

The formal conceit of Fail-Safe is very clever, and in my opinion underutilized (not (Spoiler - click to show)the twist, I mean, just the PC-narrator split). Other than Deadline Enchanter, which was doing a bunch of other weird formal stuff as well, I can't think of a modern game that has really tried this in a longer form. I think "giving commands over a staticky radio" was a great formal conceit in terms of reducing the artificiality of the interaction, and made what would otherwise have been some pretty hum-drum sections much more engaging.

From a modern perspective, some of the puzzles in this game are probably slightly "unfair" (for example, at one point you have to remove an obstacle to moving in one direction, but even after you've successfully removed it, the text doesn't make clear that you can actually proceed). Normally, I can't stand stuff like this, and it makes it hard for me to complete a game, but Fail-Safe is so short and straightforward (puzzle-wise) that it wasn't a big impediment, even for me. This is a classic that absolutely holds up.

Remarkable atmospheric game is actually too effective, March 1, 2017

Although I did not enjoy playing Fail-Safe, I had to give it a good rating for its very effective and innovative narrative voice. Jon Ingold is really a master of this and it shines brightly in this early game. In fact I think the brevity of the game really accentuated the tantalizing and creepy atmospheric effect of the narrative.

It would be a shame to elaborate further on the nature of this narrative voice, for it would ruin the experience of playing the game, and as the puzzles and plot are fairly unmentionable, this would seriously detract from the merits of the game.

However: Fail-Safe, by so exquisitely rendering its eerie atmosphere, produces a distinctly uncomfortable feeling; there is blood, you are trapped, it is an emergency. I would not recommend this game to anyone who is not fond of such scenarios, because the game is, from its first line to its last, so instantly and totally immersive.

In this way, its greatest strength can be its own shortcoming (for some players) -- the narrative method is so effective that I sincerely disliked the feeling of being immersed in the world of Fail-Safe, as it felt so very real and urgent and disturbing.

A clever game with a sci-fi setting, August 6, 2015

Fail-Safe is my absolute favorite Jon Ingold game. The game has an unusual plot device which you discover quickly. I won't talk about it in this review, because the game is strong enough without it.

The game is set in a damaged spacecraft that must be explored. The difficulty and fun lies in trying to figure out how the spacecraft actually worked.

The game has some timed events (which are fun but hard) and some hard-to-find exits (which is annoying but fun if you can find them).

This game can be played enjoyably multiple times and has a several, interesting endings.

Maximum Urgency, January 15, 2014

Due to the gimmick, I found my sense of urgency ramped right through the roof. I've only played for 5 minutes, solved one simple puzzle, and it's not setting, writing, exciting puzzle-building, but (Spoiler - click to show)POV that's got my adrenaline pumping. Wow, 5-stars for originality, seriously.

Update:
The first couple times my timer ran out, I felt just terrible.
I think it was the third time that I saw the OTHER twist, which I did not expect for such a short game. This just gets better.

Update 2:
After reading the Club Floyd transcript and the comments at Jay is Games, I wonder, am I the only one who thought (Spoiler - click to show)the player might NOT be human, but AI/computer??

I love this fast, clever game, October 17, 2013

I loved this game. It is quick and clever. At first it is confusing, but slow down: read the text carefully and think about the situation you are in. This game makes very clever use of some classic IF conceits, including the notion that you the player may not be the character.

It is very easy to die and you will do so often, but you should be able to beat this game without any hints.

The only thing that was perhaps wonky boiled down to me misunderstanding how one command should work: I've put it in spoilers for anyone who thinks they are at the end who is getting frustrated. I was jumping to weird thoughts as I tried to figure this one out, and it boiled down to me just typing something incorrectly. I am not spoiling the story or any puzzle solution, just explaining the one bit of game interface that I missed.

(Spoiler - click to show)If you have to share information of some sort with someone, JUST TYPE IT OUT--don't preface it, don't include verbs, etc. Just literally type the exact info you want to share. If someone wanted your phone number, you'd just tell them the exact number. Treat this game that way.

I really think this is a terrific game, and well worth your time--even if you are skeptical, give it a try, and don't get frustrated if you have to guess the occasional syntax--while it isn't as robust as most games being made now, the parser will work great with a few tries.

Intriguing experiment in player-narrator relation, February 10, 2011

Fail-safe is a very short SF adventure, containing one big puzzle, some less than stellar (but by no means bad) implementation, and a very brief story. That may not sound like much, and it isn't much. But what makes the piece is how it experiments with the relation between the player and the narrator.

This is impossible to discuss without spoilers, so I suggest you play it before reading on.

(Spoiler - click to show)Fail-safe has an unreliable narrator. Not just that, it has a narrator that actively tries to trick the player (or rather, the narratee) into forming a wrong idea about the world. If she does form the wrong idea, the narratee will take an action that will be great for the narrator but disastrous for herself. The puzzle consists in the player (a) finding out that the narrator is lying; and (b) responding with an appropriate double bluff. Great stuff that I would like to see explored further in a more substantial game.

Innovative and Polished, July 9, 2010

This was one of the first games I played on my return to interactive fiction. I count myself lucky to have picked it first. Fail-Safe is very short, often confusing, and experiments with the player/protagonist relationship in interesting ways. It's a fascinating brief work that really only could work as IF, and when you finish it, you'll want (or in my case, _need_) to play it again. You'll understand when you get there.

Suspended's cynical little brother, January 11, 2010

Completely by accident, I played Fail-Safe in the same week that I played the Infocom classic Suspended. Fail-Safe is essentially Suspended's more cynical little brother. In both games, the PC is immobile and completely dependent on NPCs for sensory input, movement, and manipulating objects. Both are also set in science-fiction worlds where a massive calamity has just occurred, and the PC has to walk the NPCs through repairs that they have trouble describing and can only dimly understand.

Fail-Safe is very short, and as mentioned elsewhere, does not permit saves or restores, which is less painful than it might sound. Once you have figured out the basic plan of the game, you can quickly get back to the part where the crucial decisions are made (and where the game's black humor really shows itself). You'll definitely want to replay a few times to make sure you get all the endings. At one point, there's an unfortunate guess-the-verb problem, but for the most part Fail-Safe is entertaining, well-written, and definitely worth playing.

Perfect IF, March 27, 2008

What a great game. While I can imagine a straight fiction based on the same concept, this is a perfect example of a story that cries out to be interactive. The only reason it misses out on five stars in my book is that the endgame becomes slightly repetitious. However the game as a piece, as a whole, is IF born to be IF. Highly recommended.

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