Varicella

5 star: (63) 4 star: (33) 3 star: (22) 2 star: (9) 1 star: (0)

Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 127 Write a review

- Emily Short, October 19, 2007

I give 5 stars because even with absolutely no interest in palaces or royal family stuff the game got me interested from the start thanks to the exceptional writing (fun to read, fun to explore, simply fun to be there and to be Varicella, how unseemly!).
But this fun had a limit, and it was a time limit.
I played only once and died with no clue. What a shame, I was having so much fun exploring everything at my pace, I even surprised myself asking all the questions I could think of to the prince Louis just for laughing at his answers.
Why would a so enjoyable game have a time limit? Is it some kind of attempt at suicide-design?
When I realized the game was in fact to be explored many time through many lives I lost interest, mostly.
I thought it then looked more like archeology than actually enjoying a game.
Another "Guess What The Author Had In Mind" type of game, how unseemly!
What a shame since it is maybe the best IF game I have been given to try(not finish).

PS : I had liked the map to pop up in the game when typing 'map' instead of having an external file.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  

More Options

Promote this user

Demote this user

Plonk this user

Flag spoilers

Flag as inappropriate

Direct link

View my user filters

Explain these options

 | Add a comment 

Although Varicella regularly gets high marks, I've never been able to enjoy it: it's of the "die many times in order to learn what you have to do" genre, you'll die many times not learning anything first because you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, and even knowing what you have to do you'll die many more times figuring out how to execute it correctly. As such, there's too much drudgery here for me to enjoy the play of the game, and the time pressure takes away from my ability to appreciate whatever worldbuilding has been done. To many people's taste, perhaps, but not to mine.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  

More Options

Promote this user

Demote this user

Plonk this user

Flag spoilers

Flag as inappropriate

Direct link

View my user filters

Explain these options

 | Add a comment 

Baf's Guide

Twisted, bleak, and filled with dark humor, Varicella is perhaps the most disturbing work of IF ever written--but it's also one of the best. You're the Palace Minister in an Italian court, the king has just died, the prince isn't yet ready to take power, and you have to cement your hold on power by bumping off your fellow aspirants to the throne. The PC is a fascinating character, a cross between Machiavelli and an interior decorator, and while the various NPCs aren't quite as interesting--most of them run the gamut from very evil to very very evil--unraveling the various palace intrigues makes for plenty of nasty fun. Varicella is not, however, meant to be solved in one try; there are so many things to do in so little time that saved games are unlikely to be useful (though it's not a major drawback, since the game lasts less than 100 moves). The writing is top-notch, the puzzles are ingenious, and the game's world is vividly conveyed, but it's the ending, which forces the player to take another look at everything that's come before, that makes this an instant classic. Unedifying, to be sure, but brilliant.

-- Duncan Stevens