Blue Lacuna

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A PC that deserves its name, March 7, 2009
How long has it been since you played an IF game that really reacted to your actions and shaped itself accordingly, offering you a wide gamut of choices - some of them don't even look like choices - which allow you to shape the course of the story in uncountable ways? A game that didn't just try to be non-linear, or feature optional puzzles or multiple endings? A game where what you did and chose actually impacted the story?

I'd seen bits of this - in The Baron, and most of Emily Short's experiments with conversation-based games. But Blue Lacuna is the first time I see it applied to a full game. A full story.

The game's beginning is remarkable - even before the prologue begins, you are prompted for your gender and some other little things. The way you are prompted, however, is imaginative and rather poetic (if you're in that sort of mood), and the text at that point sets the tone for the rest of the game.

What tone is that? Exploration, essentially. Both of a fascinating, vividly described island and of an intriguing inhabitant, and of the past of two people and two races - at least.

This is a game for people who want to savor the journey, because not only it is well written (in my opinion) and tells a great story, it has a *lot* of content - worth seeing, worth hearing, worth smelling, worth experiencing... all of this while fine machinery is ticking in the background, in the shape of Reed's "Drama Manager", which guesses when you're bored and need a little nudge - and the nudges are simply brilliant. Let's just say that when you're playing and suddenly come across text like (paraphrased), "A small, furry creature darts through the bushes, heading northeast. It occurs to you that you have not yet explored that direction"... well, then you *know* you're in for a treat. You *know* the pains the author took to make this game a seamless experience, a wondrous journey.

There are some innovations, which almost make the game feel like a graphic adventure - the ones where the mouse doesn't change, and where you can just click on something to see what happens. There are highlighted items and exits in room descriptions; the game is played mostly by writing these items. Other interactions are always possible, of course - this is still IF, and not CYOA or a point-and-click-wannabe.

The game's main strength is that it encourages you to explore, in such a way that you will soon know the layout of the Lacuna inside out, feeling as though you're truly exploring a fascinating island. During the exploration, you will unearth the plot - at your own time, in your own way, and in your own terms. *You* make the story unfold, by *your* actions - and the relationship you establish between yourself and the other characters will directly affect the ending of the game.

Which will always be the right ending, I am sure. Reed has written it so that the end is the direct result of our actions. We will only be displeased with that if we didn't act the way we thought we should have. As long as we act according to our wishes, we can not possibly see an ending we did not want, did not like, did not wish, wanted to be different.

This is a game for people who want to savor the journey. This is for people who want to explore and discover. It's also for people who liked Myst - I kept imagining the scenery in Myst-style, for some reason, and am not surprised to know that Myst was one of Reed's main sources of inspiration.

A great story, a great playing experience, great puzzles (there was one puzzle(Spoiler - click to show), involving opening the pyramid, I absolutely loved), great characters, and a gripping dillema to boot. What more is there to say? Great game? No, the whole is possibly better than the sum of its parts - excellent game! Excellent experience! Bravo, Mr. Reed!

The way forward?, April 26, 2009
Blue Lacuna is one of those pieces of IF that will take it's rightful place in the history of the art. My own experience of any IF is one of lesser or greater interaction with the fictional setting. Upon walking down the street, I don't for one moment think, ah! a tree, 'x tree'. I simply think 'tree', and there with all the glory of my senses, I see the beauty of the tree. This is the methodology of Blue Lacuna, and it is one which I believe will become more and more prevalent in the future. It may seem like a minor detour from the traditional and accepted 'x tree' to Blue Lacuna's 'tree', but it does undoubtedly make a very significant difference in the way the interactive experience plays out.

The world of the title is large and expansive, allowing interaction with much of what you see around you to the extent that you are able to taste the berries growing on bushes and smell the flowers etc.

In many ways Blue Lacuna is one of the few pieces of IF that could be described as a novel in the truest sense of the word. That's not to say it's the perfect example of IF of course; I'm not a great lover of the idea that we might choose the sex of our character for example. It reminds me too much of the old RPGs, and I think that it sometimes leads to a dilution of the character that invariably adds little or nothing to the work as a whole or the experience of the reader, no matter what sex they themselves may be.

My overall opinion of this work is one of great hope for the medium of IF in coming years, particularly since so many notables are investing so much of their time to push the boundaries of what is at present a wonderful and exciting area of fiction, and hints at so much more in the relatively near future.

And a very impressive and expressive future it may prove to be if Blue Lacuna is anything to go by.

The future of IF?, April 24, 2008
Character customisation (at the start) offers better immersion but risks alienating critics - too similar life experience bores but too unequal is offensive.

Drama in the early scenes is affecting without the flaw of sentimentality and doesn't feel manipulative.
Criticism: Immediately after following the Call (leaving the domestic conflict behind) I wanted to express frustration but the parser only had ineffectual canned responses (however EXAMINE ME was appropriate).

Many advanced features:
Highlighting important nouns, location names. Support for screenreaders.
Subjective directions (type the name of a [visible] location to go there).
Subjective locations - locations change dynamically as you explore them. The author claims that time of day can change descriptions (dynamic world).
Colourful talkative NPCs. Conversation has linear moments but I did get a sense of presence eg (Spoiler - click to show)the old man repeatedly insisted that I answer his question.
Automatic priority selection for story or puzzles (player can choose preference in the second chapter).
Novelistic story. The menu provides access to optional novella-length background - fair writing (confession: I've only read the first background chapter [of three] so far, a print option would be helpful).

The current release is a "preview" - an unfinished sample version which declines in quality and completeness (eg puzzles) for later sections. Criticism: The third chapter has distinctly buggy parts which still need beta testing. In Zoom (On Mac OS X) SAVE didn't work.

The future of IF?
Perhaps some of these features have appeared in prior works but not integrated together so well in a free full-length game.
Interactive gaming is bigger than Inform but authors like Reed are pushing the boundaries.

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