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Number of Ratings: 106
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- francisthe3rd (Horseheads, NY), January 23, 2014
- Floating Info, December 1, 2013
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6 people found the following review helpful:
Definitely Recommended., July 2, 2013This is just one of those games that you should play if you're into IF. It's interactive, there's plenty of exploring to do and the vivid and interesting explanations aid your imagination. The plot is certainly interesting and the game is highly responsive to various commands. The hermit is a wonderful if quirky character and the game overall is a good play. the puzzles are tough enough, and get you thinking:)
Well done overall!
- Kuffen Bach (Brno), June 4, 2013
6 of
6 people found the following review helpful:
Underwhelmed, April 23, 2013Based on prior reviews, I was uncertain whether or not to try this game. I got the impression I would like some aspects and dislike others, and I have to conclude that I was correct. But in the end, taken together, it's not really a satisfying ride. Smooth enough to keep me playing to the end, but I found a couple rather glaring bugs which made the game pretty much unwinnable if you didn't have a restore before that section. One of them actually printed a weird error message that should have been caught in beta testing. Travel by landmark was a nice touch, but conversation was sometimes clunky, giving odd responses or errors that a character was unavailable when you're standing in the same location.
I will say that the setting was remarkably rendered. It was neat to play a game where weather and time of day actually matter, and though the interface took some getting used to, I found it convenient and well-implemented for the most part. The vividly imagined environments were described clearly, but not overdone. Specific but not verbose or dull to read.
However, as great as the setting was, the characters and themes were wishy-washy, inconsistent, and frustrating. It was like the author couldn't decide who anyone was. While I understand about the importance of imperfection in crafting compelling characters, this was more like behaving based on whatever feels right at the time. And that's just not enjoyable. (Spoiler - click to show)For example, Rume chastises the player character for painting, for following her own nature, but it's not her fault. If the player tries to have her wake him to explain properly, there's a message that Rume's asleep and you'll say goodbye later. Okay then. So you paint and then Rume just assumes you weren't going to say goodbye at all. And let's say his impassioned plea for you to give up who you are for him is granted. Well, twenty years later, after your daughter abandons you to pursue her own life in anger and impatience, the player character is in turn abandoned by Rume, who says he must follow his own nature. And he doesn't say goodbye. No. He's gone and leaves a letter. Hypocrite much? And the same goes for Progue. Sometimes, he's submissive and deferential and sometimes surly. At the end of the game, it's even more jarring because the game tells you his attitude is submissive but he's willing to attack the player on his own initiative. He also scolds the player for not helping him when earlier, he said he hadn't Called her, and then uses the fact she didn't help him when he needed her as some twisted justification for why he deserves to get his way. It's flat-out emotional blackmail. It's true that people don't always act predictably, but
actions and words really should match up better. If you say a character feels a certain way toward you, that should be borne out consistently unless something dramatic changes the mood. And I don't just mean disagreement. That's not enough. It was like the characters had to do things to make the plot go a certain way, so weird contrivances without proper explanation or foreshadowing had to be used. If the player cannot tell the character they're controlling to do something, it is unfair and annoying to then blame the player for not doing it.
(Spoiler - click to show)And then there's the weird dichotomy between art and love, which I don't think are mutually exclusive. Love or hate, art or science, friend or foe. These make sense. But it's very possible to be capable of both love and art, and if anything, I think they enhance each other.
The endings, too, didn't work for me. I think they might have worked better if I could actually respect and like anyone, but as it was, everyone was selfish and manipulative, to a greater or lesser degree. They either ran away from their problems, blamed the player character for not doing as they wanted, or abandoned the player character when they no longer needed her.
"Lacuna" is worth playing at least once, for the game world and innovative interface. But don't go in expecting to connect with anyone or to have your horizons expanded. And definitely don't go in thinking you can change the story. You can move through it at your own pace and with your own play style, but you really can't influence how events play out unless you play as a manipulative, dysfunctional person.
- Stier, April 3, 2013
- Edward Lacey (Oxford, England), March 17, 2013
- Perry Simm (Vienna, Austria), December 3, 2012
- Sdn (UK), November 13, 2012
- AADA7A, October 8, 2012
- Katrisa (Houston), July 19, 2012
- zylla, June 12, 2012
- amciek (Opole), June 6, 2012
- Trif (Germany), May 17, 2012
- Kendi, February 8, 2012
- Jaxcap (Arizona), December 10, 2011
- Levi Boyles, July 17, 2011
- EJ, July 13, 2011
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23 people found the following review helpful:
Lacuna, a Blind Man's Textual Paradice, June 1, 2011I'll get the verdict out of the way first: Blue Lacuna is a wonderful, evocative piece of work, and you should go play it right now. I know I have to justify that statement, so here goes…
Interactive fiction games are wonderful for blind computer users, as they allow us to experience settings and scenes we might not otherwise, perhaps more so than for the sighted people in this world. That was a large attraction of Lacuna for me, the richness and vibrancy of its island setting are unparalleled in the annals of interactive fiction. Other games may have similar esthetics or similar talent for description, but none I know of simulate day and night and tide with such loving detail. The world and how the player perceives it changes radically with each passing hour, and it was a joy just to wander around the island, soaking in the ambiance of a place too beautiful to be real as it changed over the course of my playthrough. I was beyond pleased to look up at the night sky and notice that the moon was implemented, and that it had phases which changed from day to day, as irrelevant as that might be to the actual plot.
What, I'm two paragraphs in and just starting to talk about plot? Yes, the game has a plot, and it is a big, sprawling thing just like the setting I raved about so much. Sprawl here is used in a loving sense--the length is not too long in my opinion, though I may quibble, just a bit, about the pacing here and there. Being IF, naturally there's potential for choice, and while the broad strokes of the plot remain the same throughout every game, there is much potential for interpretation and outright variation. A lot of that last comes from interaction with the single main NPC, who deserves a place all his own.
The single main NPC--you'll know him when you see him--is very well done. He has his own backstory which is central to the overarching narrative, and does his own thing in a manor to make you forget for a moment that he's a mass of programmed instructions. Conversation is topic-based, and sensitive to the mood of the characters--there's some Galatea-esque tracking going on in there, certainly. All told, he's a wonderful companion throughout, or was in my playthrough.
Bugs? I feel ashamed to mention them, but there were a couple minor ones. Most significantly, the NPC will occasionally go invisible--you can still talk to him, but finding him is difficult when he doesn't appear in room descriptions. I've reported this one to the author, and hopefully a fix is forthcoming. Tiny typos were perhaps a bit more noticeable thanks to my screen reader, but none jarring, and honestly they pale in comparison to the constant mispronunciation of a character's name, but that's my reader's fault and probably fixable on my end, anyway.
So, once again, play this game. Explore its setting, indulge in the plot at your own pace and according to your own whims, be swept away by the many good qualities here and enjoy a modern masterpiece of IF. I can say no more.
- RandomExile, May 19, 2011
- Iris Wood (Vancouver), May 12, 2011
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31 people found the following review helpful:
A tedious chore, February 2, 2011A similarly structured narrative to Reed's previous game, For Whom The Telling Changed, with highlighted words that you can enter to move the story on as well as the normal IF command syntax. The high-fantasy elements are amped up, as is the scale of the thing. So fans of FWTCC should be well served. If, on the other hand, you found FWTCC a dull, over-written, choose-your-own-adventure in fancy clothes, this one won't sway you. The opening intro is so overwrought and half-baked it takes real perseverance to continue to the game proper, which turns out to be little more than a surreal fantasy-quest.
- Juleske, November 17, 2010
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9 people found the following review helpful:
a truly accessible "interactive novel", November 9, 2010We've all heard the (occasionally justified) complaints about interactive fiction: the controls are impenetrable, the puzzles rely more on figuring out how to make the machine do what you want than actually figuring out what to do, etc. After Blue Lacuna, nobody should have an excuse not to try IF. The keyword system and extensively integrated in-game tutorial, as well as adaptive hints that never take you out of the story and two difficulty modes, make this a must-play for newcomers. Of course, the intriguing story, the living, dynamic environment, and the amazingly detailed conversations don't hurt matters. Even if you don't think you have time to devote to a novel-length IF, you should take the opportunity to explore this lush, animate environment.
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