Ratings and Reviews by platy
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Light Hearted, User Friendly Delight, September 14, 2012CAVEAT: IF gamer here who prefers narrative over puzzles.
As someone who writes for a living, I found myself throwing up my hands halfway through the game and saying, "I play these games for fun, not to remind myself about work!" I then succumbed to another giggle fit as the puzzles became sillier and sillier.
The puzzles are gentle. I know some have said they found the puzzles to get nonsensical towards the end, but there was actually only a couple in the middle that I found baffling. This is one of the few IF games I've played of late where I can pretend that I'm an adept puzzle solver, not a woman who howls in despair after eleven turns and runs through the fields of the internet to find a walkthrough after the hints were of no help.
I loved the feeling of pity you develop for your character as you make him/her go to excruciating, then humiliating lengths to get this blasted paper written. The author did a great job of making me care about the character and care about his/her relationship.
I found the system very user friendly, especially with its wonderfully large and diverse vocabulary. Surprising range of unique responses to silly actions, too.
CAVEAT: IF player here who prefers games heavier on narrative than puzzles.
I admit, I started out a little frustrated. I would ask Galatea about senses. She would list a bunch except for pleasure. So, I would try and ask her if she felt pleasure. Nothing programmed for that. She would tell me that the artist gave her away. I would try and ask how that made Galatea feel in a number of different ways. Nothing programmed for that.
It seemed everything I tried that I thought was relevant to what we had been talking about did not exist in the program. I found myself crying out, what do you want from me, Emily?
I realized I was approaching this the wrong way. I was thinking about the spaces between. I was thinking about what was implied in the conversation rather than what was said. Couldn't see the trees for the forest kinda deal.
Once I learned how to limit my thoughts and expectations to searching for key words in the conversation to trigger the game to move forward is when I started to really enjoy it.
I liked it so much, I ended up playing through it three times in a row to test out where various responses led. I will definitely be playing again to explore some other avenues of conversation with Galatea.
Loved the premise of the piece, too.
Don't forget to ask Galatea about cheese :)
I preface this review with the caveat that much as I would like to be, I'm not a hardcore IF game player. I tend to enjoy IF that's heavier on narrative than puzzles.
That being said, this game made me laugh harder than any IF I've ever played. I wandered through the maze, randomly typing in directions. I figured- well, this is a pretty good representation of when and why I get burned out from playing IF games. I assumed I would wander forever, nothing would happen, and I'd call it a day.
On a lark, I started typing in any verb I could think of. I typed in, "sing." It said, "Your singing is abominable." Then: Congratulations! You won the game in 14 turns!" etc.
I laughed so hard, my face still hurts. Granted, I played it again and I did not win by singing.
Who knows? Start typing in silly things and maybe you'll get lucky like I did.
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