Aayela

Baf's Guide

An interesting experiment in the presentation of darkness. To save your kingdom, you must find the legendary Stone of Aayela (a crystal that imprisons a powerful spirit of light) by exploring the dark cave where it lies by sense of touch and sound. A small game that exposes some of the untapped potential of the medium.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SPAG
[...] The atmosphere created by spending most of the adventure in the dark is moderately effective, but the use of other senses is too limited to do the situation justice. [...] (John Wood)

[...] I liked "Aayela," don't get me wrong. I simply didn't find it as clever as Magnus' previous work, particularly when compared with so many other outstanding entries this year. (C.E. Forman)
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5 star: (1) 4 star: (8) 3 star: (5) 2 star: (0) 1 star: (0)

Average Rating: Number of Reviews: 1 Write a review

Nice, short story; wish there was more, November 5, 2009
Aayela is a short story spent mostly in the dark. The opportunity to concentrate on verbs besides look and examine is appealing, but it turns out that smell, feel, listen, etc. don't do much that's interesting unless you're advancing the plot.

It's a fairly engaging tale. I like for instance that the PC is off questing half because he cares for the kingdom and half because he's young and expendable. I also found it intriguing to see how he reacts to the things he hears, though every now and then the sensory descriptions are over-the-top. Perhaps most noteworthy, not until I considered what action would fit the PC's character (as opposed to what I would expect from many other PCs) did I discover a happy ending.

The story will let you get into irreversible trouble, but it's also pretty kind about it: anytime you miss a key step in the plot clues start to appear. Even if you reach an ending you don't like, the tale's brevity means you can restart without losing much time. There's no reason for a walkthrough to be published.

I can only be really critical of three things: there are a few objects out of place, there are a couple of typos, and the story is perhaps too short and transient to be as compelling as it should be.

So, in summary, Aayela is a quality short read, definitely a solid four stars. For the fifth star, I would have had the author do more with smell, feel, listen... and expand the narrative.

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