External Links


Play online at itch.io
Play this game in your Web browser.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Playlists and Wishlists

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page

Limerick Heist

by Pace Smith profile

Crime
2019

Web Site

(based on 24 ratings)
7 reviews

About the Story

Rule 1 is that no one gets iced.

Rule 2: the loot's evenly sliced.

There's only two rules.

Now listen up, fools!

We're pulling a...


Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best Writing - 2019 XYZZY Awards

8th Place - 25th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2019)

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Member Reviews

5 star:
(4)
4 star:
(11)
3 star:
(8)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 7
Write a review


Most Helpful Member Reviews


5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
If you think you might like it, you will., November 20, 2019
by Andrew Schultz (Chicago)

"What it says on the tin" games often can run into trouble. They're limiting by the end. The risk is double with poetry. It can get sing-song or repetitive. But in this case, I enjoyed the presentation, and the size is just about right. Limericks do seem to have just the right amount of flexibility: not too short, and not too long, and they never feel too pretentious or too low-class. I like writing them. I've written a ton. You can say what you want, move on from them and not worry if they're any good.

But stringing even two together--well, I found this tricky indeed.

You've probably seen the tropes before, and the blurbs fully admit to this: the leader of a heist gets people together, there are conflicts, things go wrong and ... well, because this is a choice-based game, you do have endings. And the bad ones are indeed rewarding. I certainly enjoyed them more than costly special effects at a movie, ones that are meant to draw out the drama but just overload me. A limerick's five lines, though, feel just right to me.

With rhymezone.com and various programs to track the meter, I suppose we can be picky and say, ok, that's something the game SHOULD get right. But the more subjective stuff, like plot, pacing and throwing out rhymes that are clever but not overdone, obviously require care on the author's part. And that's evident here.

I think the most telling testament I can give to the game's quality was that, on getting a bad death, I expected a good limerick for the "undo/restart/restore" option--and I got one! So it's very detailed. It has the usual technical stuff like letting you track all the different endings, but perhaps my favorite bit was how (Spoiler - click to show)one successful ending laid out the possibility of a sequel. And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'll leave you with this...

How quickly a game like this could
Grate awfully, it's understood,
Or stop feeling new
About halfway through
But don't worry. This one makes good.

I had an idea to write
A game like this but did not quite
Or really at all
Find ways to enthrall
With plot, humor, fun or insight.

The game's title thus brought to light
Ny shelved plans. So, quickly, despite
A wish I'd have spun
A tale half as fun
I'm thrilled THIS work got things so right.

(Oh, hey, look, this game helped me finally string a few limericks together!)

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Unique and delightful, November 17, 2019

This is a standard heist plot with a soupcon of goofiness, told entirely in limericks. The limericks all scan (thank goodness, because there is nothing worse than something in verse from someone who thinks meter is optional) and there are some thoughtful touches such as coloring each heist member’s name and dialogue in a different color to make it easier to tell who’s saying what, which, as a nice bonus, gives the project a distinctive palette. And while there aren’t exactly puzzles, per se, there’s a couple of spots where you need to make a correct observation to reach a successful ending. This one is witty, fun, and doesn't take much of a time investment - give it a try!

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
It's a limerick heist!, December 27, 2019
by Stian
Related reviews: IFComp 2019

Limerick Heist does impress,
its story impresses no less.
I thought I was smart
but then must restart,
finding myself in a mess.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

See All 7 Member Reviews

Limerick Heist on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Limerick Heist appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Crime and Heist games by MathBrush
I've played a lot of these recently, so I'm making a list. A contrast to my Detective and Mystery games list and similar to my Espionage and Spy game list, where I put Spider and Web, for instance.

Games with Witty Wordplay by palindrome
I love words! I wanted to make a list of interactive games with wordplay. Most of these are English; since it is my only language.

Favorite wordplay/puzzle/code games by MathBrush
Games whose main 'genre' is wordplay. This list does not include games like the Edifice or Suveh Nux which have significant wordplay elements, but which are not the focus of the story.

Polls

The following polls include votes for Limerick Heist:

Poem-based games with puzzles/endings by Andrew Schultz
I enjoy seeing people trying to mix poetry and puzzles. Even if it doesn't work, it still is fun to see people try, and quite bluntly, it's brave to attempt at all. I'd like to remove works like Phenomena or 100000 years from...

Exactly What It Says on the Tin by Lance Cirone
Titles are a complex art. Sometimes they're deep and metaphorical. Sometimes they're catchy and fun to read out loud. Sometimes they're named after a quote or item in the game. Sometimes they don't even have any relevance to what's going...

For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Best Writing of 2019 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2019 which you think might be worth considering for Best Writing in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination.This is not an official list. The point of poll is partly to suggest...

See all polls with votes for this game




This is version 7 of this page, edited by Zape on 16 October 2020 at 8:57pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page