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rameses.zblorb
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
rameses.z5
original competition entry
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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Rameses

by Stephen Bond profile

Slice of life
2000

Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

Play This Thing!
On the whole, Rameses is a better game to remember than to be playing. I remember it as a masterpiece, but part of the mastery has to do with the ruthless way it imprisons the player in its protagonist. Alex Moran is one of the most nuanced viewpoint characters in my experience of narrative games, but he's not fun to be. And yet, through the constraints of the game play, Rameses does trick the player into some tiny sympathy with him. In static fiction this person would simply be intolerable. As an interactive character he's also pitiable, and that's a major improvement.
See the full review

>VERBOSE -- Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction Page

Playing this character is an exercise in frustration. Every command you enter that might stand up to a bully, or leave a bad situation, or just let the PC take charge of his life in any way is wistfully brushed aside with a message like "Yeah, that'd be great, wouldn't it? But I'll never do it." Annoying, yes, but it's also the very soul of the character, and the very point of the game. In a sense, Rameses turns you into Alex's real self, struggling to get out and be heard, struggling to make a difference, only to be smacked down by fear, insecurity, and sometimes outright paranoia. In his climactic speech, the PC voices the exact torment that the player feels at every prompt -- it's an agonizing experience, and that's the point.
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Page Update History

v.10: 30-Apr-2008 12:02 - Paul O'Brian (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed external review links
v.9: 03-Jul-2020 14:11 - jcompton
Changed development system
v.8: 25-Mar-2013 11:01 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.7: 25-Mar-2013 11:00 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.6: 29-Apr-2009 17:41 - Dave Chapeskie
Changed download links
v.5: 02-May-2008 12:38 - Emily Short
Changed cover art
  v.4: 30-Apr-2008 12:02 - Paul O'Brian
Changed external review links
v.3: 21-Apr-2008 10:04 - Emily Short
Changed external review links
v.2: 26-Oct-2007 11:30 - Stephen Bond
Changed author
v.1: 16-Oct-2007 01:47 - IFDB
Created page