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by David Welbourn

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Dreary Lands

by Paul Lee profile

Surreal, Religious, Fantasy
2005

(based on 3 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

A surreal game that starts you out amnesiac in a brightly colored cell and turns swiftly into fantasy thereafter.

Placed 29th in the 2005 Interactive Fiction competition.


Game Details


Awards

29th Place - 11th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2005)

Editorial Reviews

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

There are lots of different ways to write a bad comp game... I’ve played all the flavors, many times over, but sometimes I get fooled as to which is which. Dreary Lands, for example, looks at first like it’s going to be a surreal Rybread whirlwind, but turns out to be a first game not only broken in English and puzzles but also seemingly attempting some clumsy evangelism as well.
See the full review

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Number of Reviews: 2
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Self-reviewing, September 5, 2008
by madducks (Indianapolis, Indiana)

The most striking feature of "Dreary Lands" is the awful spelling. I can't imagine that it was proof-read even once. Towards the end there is a nearly game-stopping bug, but the game can be completed.

I was going to say quite a bit about the writing, which had some promise, but the following quote from the about text of the game pretty much removes the need to add anything to this review:

"I know this game is not very good; It even disappoints me.
[...]
I am not going to release a better version of this game, though."

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A shortish parser game with color effects and a fantasy/Escape story , May 26, 2016

In this game, you play someone who has lost their memory and finds themselves in a room with nothing but a mysterious colored rod.

6ou go through a sequence of escapes with some genuinely creative and fun puzzles before transitioning to another genre.

There were some bugs and many typos, but I enjoyed it overall, especially the first half. The author was 14 at the time of writing, and this game is a significant accomplishment for someone of that age.

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Dreary Lands on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Dreary Lands appears in the following Recommended Lists:

My new walkthroughs for March 2020 by David Welbourn
Quite late on Sunday March 29, 2020, I published new walkthroughs for the games and stories listed below! Some of these were paid for by my wonderful patrons at Patreon. Please consider supporting me to make even more new walkthroughs...

Polls

The following polls include votes for Dreary Lands:

A Poll About ... A Poll About ... Hm. That's Funny. I Can't Recall. by Ghalev
As of the founding of this poll, the IFDB has only seven games with the "amnesia" tag. I don't buy that for an instant. Please vote for games where the player-protagonist-person is dealing with a bout of forgetfulness (usually about who...




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