Ratings and Reviews by Christina Nordlander
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Great set-up, good execution, September 25, 2016Here is the plot of Zero Sum Game: you are an adventurer who needs to go back and undo the puzzles you've solved, decreasing your score as you do so.
This is still an unusual conceit, and even more so in 1997. However, the puzzles are fairly traditional, without particularly relying on the "undo your actions" idea: finding keys to locked doors, killing or placating enemies who block your path.
Some reviewers have criticised the game for being violent. In my opinion, this is a bit exaggerated: it's hardly the IF equivalent of American Psycho, more like a fairly gory episode of Family Guy. That said, there is indeed (non-graphic) violence against innocents on the part of the PC and others, and some (non-graphic, comedic) sexual content. What I came away with was a sense of shallowness and slapstick. I found most of the major characters funny enough, but extremely one-note. The most developed one is probably your non-speaking animal companion, which might be significant. There is a type of fantasy parody story where everyone is stupid, sociopathic and horny, and Zero Sum Game fits into that bracket.
Most of the puzzles are logical and decently clued, and some are very clever. (I particularly enjoyed how you (Spoiler - click to show)resurrect the dragon.) However, some are unintuitive. Most blatantly, at one point you need to hide in one area when an NPC comes in and drops an item: miss it and you lose the item and your chance to complete the game. There is no massively compelling reason that the player should decide to hide in this place and rifle through the NPCs belongings, and I didn't figure it out without a walkthrough.
There is some world-building, but in general, the game's world is extremely thin, throwing together a number of settings (an orphanage, a troll bridge, a castle) because they fit with the puzzles. The writing is uneven. Most of the time it feels bland, but there are also passages of slightly overwrought beauty (such as the description of the oak in the glade), and some of the jokes are very good.
A funny parody adventure for an evening or two, if you're not bothered by violent characters and immature humour, but don't expect to still be thinking about it for weeks afterwards. A game that uses the same conceit, but with (in my opinion) better writing and more inventive puzzles, is Janitor.
Okay horror story, but never becomes greater than the sum of its parts, June 27, 2016I had high hopes for Ecdysis: the title and cover are evocative, and I am a fan of both Lovecraftian and body horror, and have found other entries in the Lovecraft Commonplace Book Project extremely enjoyable.
In the end, though, it didn't live up to my expectations. It feels harsh saying that, because the game is not a failure by any means. The writing is above-average, doing a good job conveying pain, disorientation and dread, as well as the occasional glimpse of wonder. While it's short and linear, it's polished, putting in quite a bit of information that you might miss on your first playthrough. (For example, try examining the stars when you can see them.) While the NPCs never get any characterisation, the PC's love for them comes through. The core situation with the PC's stepchildren is one that is pretty rare in this type of story. It's all... good, rather than great.
Time for the downsides. Perhaps it's just that I've consumed a lot of horror, but I found it easy to guess from early on where the plot was going, and it didn't surprise me much.
The writing seems to aim for Lovecraft's style a bit too slavishly, without hitting the things I like about Lovecraft's writing. Also, there are a couple of vocabulary blunders: for example, "diaphanous light" in the bathroom. (I guess the writer might mean that the light is faint, as if the darkness is showing through it, but it looks like a plain misused word.) As I mentioned, the game is short, linear, and almost puzzleless. (I say "almost", since there's apparently an alternative ending I haven't been able to get.) That's fine for what it is, but a longer game with a bit more freedom might have had more impact.
Perhaps most damning for a horror game, I didn't find it scary. The situation at the outset is certainly unpleasant, but as I said, after a certain point I could see too clearly where the story was going, and the central scene where we realise what is going on felt a bit too pulpy, rather than cosmic.
Not a waste of time by any means, but not as memorable as I was hoping for. Still, if you're after a quick, very polished horror/SF read, check it out.
Lovely magical girl RPG, May 28, 2016Bubblegum Slaughter uses Twine to create a solid RPG about exploring and fighting enemies to build up your strength for the game's climax. Plot-wise, it's a magical girl story, but towards the darker end of the genre. While most magical girl animé and manga tend to focus on a team, the start of this game sees you all alone: your friends and beloved mentor have vanished, as night falls and demons are breaking into the material world. You are not defenceless, you still have your superhuman powers, but you have no idea where to find your friends, or whether they are still alive. And you are on a time limit.
I had a blast. The writing is very good, especially when describing the crystal items you can craft to enhance your abilities. The attack descriptions do a good job transmitting the feel of action animé into prose: you feel like you are effortlessly unleashing hell upon your foes.
There is a strong ambience of darkness and menace. Heading into a new area tends to keep you on your toes; there is an element of trial and error (though not to the extent of learning-by-death) when facing a new phenomenon for the first time. The fighting is rather simply implemented, but not simply enough to feel perfunctory, and a more complex system might have slowed the gameplay. The game element lies rather in the tactics of choosing your battles and deciding whether to use your resources or save them for greater effects later.
(Spoiler - click to show)While the plot may be darker than that of the average magical girl story, it steers clear of the more unremitting tragedy of, for example, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Your mentor turns against you, but the evil is vanquished and your team is saved.
There are a few flaws, though not enough for it to lose a star in my book. Firstly, your friends (your mentor excepted) have very little characterisation. I'm fine with a blank-slate PC for the player to project themselves upon, but NPCs, if they are important, require at least a little more personality.
As for the ending:
(Spoiler - click to show)I enjoyed that the game lets you choose whether to defeat your mentor-turned-enemy or accept her Faustian offer: if a game has the antagonist tempt you, you should be able to accept their temptation. However, I would have liked it even more if the "bad" ending had been as developed as the "good" one: after all, at the point where the PC accepts the offer, it's no longer a bad ending for her. Instead, we get little more than a "you have died" message, if an emotive one.
While not a negative, I have a few words about the time limit:
(Spoiler - click to show)It builds tension effectively, but in my two playthroughs, I never got close to running out of time: I always got to the endgame with around twenty in-game minutes to spare. I suspect a practical reason for the limit was to ensure that the player couldn't loaf around beating up demons indefinitely. Whatever the reason, it kept me on my toes, which is what matters.
In short, a good example of how to use Twine to create an RPG mechanic, while not skimping on the art or emotional impact. The mentor is a well-written NPC. Strongly recommended to fans of combat-oriented games or magical girls.
Note: the link to play online appears to be faulty. If the author reads this, could you please fix it? This game deserves more exposure.
The creator acknowledges that this is her first game and not particularly polished, so instead of criticising or scoring it, I'll give some hopefully constructive pointers on future game creation.
The good:
The writing is pretty good, though there are a few clichés, and there is a lack of paragraph breaks. There are also some technical errors that could be fixed with more beta-reading (for example, "here the sound" in the first room should be "hear").
The story itself has a nice dream-logic ambience to it. Especially climbing the tree in the darkness stuck with me. While the game is essentially puzzleless, I like that (Spoiler - click to show)the ending gives you a choice, even if one of the options just lets you replay the game rather than being a true ending.
Now, for problems to fix in future games:
Events in room descriptions. For example, if you walk out of the shed and then walk back, the cat gives you the same speech. Events like this should be put in a "say:" message. Likewise, room descriptions should either be written so as to avoid too much "story" information (for example, writing that the PC is shocked when they enter a room), or else be set to change after the first viewing.
There is also a problem with items being mentioned in the room description. This is not only redundant (since items are automatically listed on their own line); it also becomes misleading when the item in question is no longer around.
Some other implementation problems:
It's possible to return to the tree from the cloud by going down, which I think shouldn't work.
The switch isn't fixed in place, meaning that you can take it. Also, "push switch" or "pull switch" does nothing, but "examine switch" causes the PC to press it.
(Spoiler - click to show)If you choose to return to the garden at the end, "examine switch" no longer works.
At the end of the day, it's clearly a beginner's exercise. The story is simple, but nicely dreamlike; the world model, despite the problems mentioned above, is solid enough to make a winnable game.
We all need to start somewhere. Keep going!
Sweet, weird, comforting, February 5, 2016Mother is one of Porpentine's own contributions for her Twiny Jam, a Twine game jam with a 300-word limit. It's pretty much a shaggy dog story; talking too much about it would spoil the joke, but it's a clever joke. The story is (unsurprisingly) well-written and (perhaps surprisingly) sweet. (Spoiler - click to show)The titular mother isn't an ordinary parent, but it's clear that she and the PC care a lot for each other.
It's essentially a static story, but features some cosmetic choices.
Play it if you want a clever, sweet little story that features all of Porpentine's weirdness without going into horror territory.
I Can't Believe It's Speed-IF, January 13, 2016To start with: I am not going to review this as an Ectocomp game, because it is so well-constructed, in terms of both writing and gameplay, that there is no way I could have guessed that it was made in three hours. I am going to review it as if it were any other interactive fiction game.
Caelyn Sandel has a history of making Twine games with strong world modelling and well implemented puzzles, more like point-and-click adventures than CYOA stories. It Is Pitch Black falls into this category. The plot is simple, but engaging: you are a kid going into an abandoned hardware store for a bet, one of your friends accidentally locks you in, and you have to find a way to make the light last until help arrives. Because you're not alone.
The writing is excellent: clear, not fancy, transmitting both the setting and the PC's sensations perfectly and without melodramatic effects. The use of graphics (and lack thereof) adds to the ambience. The puzzles are solid; again, exactly what I expect from Sandel's work. It is not extremely difficult, but it took me a couple of tries to beat.
I have very little negative criticism. The world-building feels sketchy, including magic and monsters as well as a vague (but evocative) apocalypse some time before the start of the game, but as the outro text explains that the game is part of a larger setting created by the author, I presume that other works fill in the details. I could also quibble with the use of the Zorkian staple, the grue, in an otherwise serious and non-derivative story. Obviously, there is a reason for the monster being called a grue (and not, say, a gazzok): the game's main puzzle is finding light sources, the average IF player knows that grues are afraid of light, no further set-up is needed. It still brought me out of the game a little bit.
As horror games go, this isn't particularly horrific, but it is tense and atmospheric. Recommended if you want a decently challenging Twine game with a world model and puzzles.
(And no, I still don't know how Ms. Sandel makes games like this in three hours.)
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