Galatea

by Emily Short profile

Mythological
2000

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Ivory , March 26, 2016

If there's a more convincing NPC in all of interactive fiction, I've yet to come across her. (I do dearly wish that Emily's updated Versu version in which one can play as Galatea had been made available.) Conversations don't get more plausible than this in a parser format.

It's also worth noting that, along with Aisle, this game introduced me to the peculiar strength of multiple endings in IF - that it's a format in which one needn't assume that any particular reading of the text is the correct one (let's face it, your average Choose Your Own Adventure has a great many bad endings, and tends to implicitly prioritise *winning* ones). This is a delicious storytelling technique for anyone even the slightest bit intrigued by metafiction, and I'm surprised it isn't used more often. Well-written to boot - a joy to play with.

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- BeerIF (MA), March 25, 2016

- Deka, March 16, 2016

- Dhary, March 10, 2016

- Mergath, March 5, 2016

- E. W. B., February 24, 2016

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
One of the first great conversation games, February 3, 2016
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 1 hour

Galatea is set in an artificial intelligence exhibit. Galatea, a stone woman brought to life, has mistakenly (or purposefully) been placed here.

You are a journalist, interviewing her to determine how good her "artificial intelligence" is. The answers can lead to anger, romance, supernatural effects, and a host of other possibilities.

It is a fun game to play through a few times. The conversation system is just asking her about more and more things, but the variety is endless.

This game was groundbreaking when it was first released, although later innovations have improved on it (such as the major NPC in Blue Lacuna). This game remains an enjoyable classic, because it isn't just technically impressive, it's enjoyable.

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- IFforL2 (Chiayi, Taiwan), January 29, 2016

- Guenni (At home), January 24, 2016

- Veraloo, January 20, 2016

- branewurms, December 24, 2015

- thang30, December 22, 2015

- gaite, December 19, 2015

- Aryore, December 13, 2015

- Trobairitz (USA), October 28, 2015

- nonnamethankyou, September 29, 2015

- Juhana, August 15, 2015

- leanbh, July 30, 2015

- wwenches (Florida), June 5, 2015

- ibelongia, June 5, 2015

- chux, May 20, 2015

- blue/green, March 19, 2015

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Echoes a previous relationship in scope and power, March 18, 2015

Being that I played this game fifteen years after its release, interacting with Galatea is truly like speaking to a relic from a by-gone time. And just like her, that sense of an ancient creation is also misleading. The words she uses in this game, the descriptions, the sensations granted by interaction, everything about this game is amazing. Never on my life had I expected to run across a game that felt exactly like speaking to a person I had met in real life. In both real life and through chat our relationship was like many of the different paths a player can walk with Galatea. That in itself is haunting, and a testament to how powerful this game is. It's also fun and I had a great time with it. This game is beautiful.

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- Thrax, March 12, 2015

- CMG (NYC), February 19, 2015


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