Reviews by Andromache
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Look through rose-colored glasses, April 14, 2013"Sunset" was a breathtaking journey of beautiful imagery, some humorous game responses to wrong solutions, and a wonderful blend of realism and fantasy that somehow worked.
I wish I could give this five stars, but there were some puzzles that weren't well-clued and there were a few sections where I spent time wandering around and around trying to figure out what I hadn't done. The frustrating thing was that I had to look up hints for puzzles which I should have been able to accomplish on my own but for precise actions that had me needing to read the author's mind. The puzzles were clued, but the problem was that it's only in hindsight that you see that. If just playing the game, the clues feel like a part of the scenery description and don't necessarily prompt you to act on them.
On the upside, some puzzles had alternate solutions, which I ended up finding, so it wasn't necessary to find all the possible items. And there are a lot of items that are just red herrings, so don't expect to need all of them.
Oh, another thing I found frustrating was that you can only carry limited amounts of items, which means a lot of picking up and dropping and walking back and forth if you happened to be missing something you needed for a puzzle.
I also found some minor bugs. (Spoiler - click to show)I was digging with a sieve, but the text said I was using a shingle. When I tried to tie something to myself, it said I couldn't, and if I tied the object to my arm, it said I'd attached it to my wrist. There is a point where you can't take any more glass bottles from the pile. If underwater in the diving bell, if you type "exit bell," you leave the bell but don't lose any oxygen. Because of these text errors, some solutions were kind of spoiled.
Beware the hint system. It can be spoilery. And I don't mean in the sense that it gives away solutions. The various objectives are listed specifically and not really context-sensitive, so if you call them up, you'll get glimpses into puzzles you may not have figured out exist yet.
Still, the writing is excellent and the emotional impact of the various discoveries the player character makes is lasting and memorable. (Spoiler - click to show)Two of my favorites are the sleeping dragon and the crystal castle. And I got a perverse satisfaction out of killing and eating the crab. The setting and immersion are well done, with nice touches of color and detail that made the game world come alive. Emphasis on how the player character feels both physically and emotionally was a fun twist, and helped in identification and understanding. Also liked the option to list exits all the time. I hate the, "You can't go that way."
The strength of the literary aspect of the game is what makes this game recommended. If not for that, the game would have been three stars because of the puzzle frustration.
Sad, but hopeful. Wow., April 11, 2013This game is difficult to review because there's so much to think about in terms of story. The setting, atmosphere, and writing is superb. I truly felt like I was in the story - while I played, I could easily envision the feel of tower walls and the sounds evoked by the text. The thing I loved best about this game was that you could touch everything and get short descriptions of what you felt. Same with listening and smelling things when appropriate. As many senses as possible were engaged, and that is rare to see in the IF I've played.
The story itself, from what I could piece together of the hints, is a tragic one. The tower is symbolic of your character's inability to accept, to let go, to forgive himself. As you play through, there is a fun revelation going on, where each new discovery fleshes out the character's backstory more and more, but you never get anything really concrete. It's all implicit. Still, I found the character to be both sympathetic and likable. The tower is pretty small, but choices you make in terms of how you solve puzzles impacts the various endings.
The puzzles were intuitive. There was one that I got stuck on how to word my command. I knew what I wanted to do but had a devil of a time getting the game to understand me. I managed it in the end without hints, but it did cause some frustration. But don't let that put you off. I know which combination of choices produces my personal optimal ending, and having seen several of them, a little more of the backstory gets revealed the more endings you see. It's possible to finish the game without solving all the puzzles, but this produces a less satisfying ending. Puzzles are well-clued based on the writing, however, so it's not really possible to not know what to do. The puzzles feel natural and not intrusive, made to serve the story, just the way I like it.
I think this is a good beginning game; something that showcases what IF can be when it's done well; why there are people who choose to play a story in such a medium instead of one where things are explicitly drawn for them. IF should provide the immersion and escape of a good book, along with the emotional engagement and food for thought of great literature. This game does that, and it's short enough to replay for the endings. Everyone should give this a try.
Worthwhile Diversion, April 8, 2013This is a tiny game that is worth playing as a diversion, but nothing really stands out to me as far as writing or atmosphere. Things are described sparsely and in broad strokes. There isn't too much to go on in terms of scenery or characterization. The prose is functional, however, and puzzles are mostly clued well. I did have some trouble with one of them (Spoiler - click to show)the puzzle box, but aside from that bump in the road, the game moved along pretty smoothly. I would definitely recommend that people play this game. Just don't expect too much depth.
Nondescript plot but vivid setting, December 27, 2012I dithered about trying this based on the reviews already here, but it's really not as difficult as some say. Yes, I had to restart a few times. Maybe the parser was a little annoying at times if you didn't break up actions sufficiently. Sure, some tasks are timed. But these things turned out to not be frustrating enough to quit playing. I made it to the end once already, and am in the course of playing again to try to solve one puzzle I'm stuck on.
The thing is, the timing is not really cruel. You have more than adequate time to get the job done. Should the game end prematurely, you learn over the course of playing what things will be required in the future and can plan better. Easy enough to save after completing each task as well. And I found the puzzles to be plausible and pretty consistent. (Spoiler - click to show)I got a Jedi mind trick reference. That had me laughing aloud, since I love Star Wars.
Many of the places are there just for realism and you don't really have to do anything with them. I liked the atmosphere they added to the setting.
So why not give this a higher rating? Well, the prose was not always to my taste. The timed nature of the game marred the fun of examining and exploring. Looking at things yielded bland descriptions, sometimes the same as the room description. Some actions you think you should do based on game happenings actually are dead ends. And perhaps worst of all, I just don't care much about the player character or his predicament. Perhaps you're not meant to. The sterile feel of the environment invokes memories of books like 1984 or The Giver, which is creepy in a psychological way.
The game is gentle enough not to anger me, and many of my objections are just aesthetic and subjective, but still enough to make a short diversion a bit tedious to have to repeat more than a few times.
Went over my head, December 25, 2012There were times during Cabal that I laughed aloud, and the irony of the player character investigating conspiracy theories while being the very thing he was hunting was not lost on me. I appreciated that I was able to enjoy the narrative and not get bogged down by puzzles. Honestly, I wouldn't even call them puzzles. They have the veneer of puzzles, but solutions are clear and obvious if you pay attention to the writing and you're basically told what to do. (Spoiler - click to show)The twisty maze was familiar and evoked prior memories of torment. It was fitting it was part of the new Archive somehow. And the elevator puzzle, the only true one, was actually pretty intuitive after a few rounds of getting slapped. Heh. The ending didn't surprise me much. (Spoiler - click to show)You're clued early on that the player character is a bit strange, maybe not all there. The narrative is well done, and despite personally not liking the PC much, the story was short enough and the game easy enough that I was able to finish it with little effort. Parsing was excellent. No errors about not understanding what I wanted, even if the game is conversation-based for the most part. I even got the game and author references, though not the politics. Being someone who favors modern IF and IF as art form and narrative, I had a hard time getting into the mindset of the player character.
I would not replay this game. It was well-implemented, characters were stock and more plot device, but while I am enough of an IF gamer that I understood what was meant by story-based versus puzzle-based, I am not enough of an insider to appreciate the inspiration for this game and what it's poking fun at. The tie-ins with real-world conspiracy organizations helped to understand the story, but if there are any Freemasons, etc, they probably shouldn't play this. I know of RAIF, RGIF, etc, but I think this game appeals only to a small group of IF authors/players. Perhaps I could have rated the game higher if I were part of the "Cabal." :)
Strong characters but unenjoyable world, December 25, 2012This is not a true review. More like impressions after partial game completion.
The thing I liked most about the game was the unconventional narrative voice. I found violet laugh-out-loud amusing. I also really felt the affection and exasperated mockery she has for the player character and the ex-girlfriend. I felt genuine remorse and sorrow at the things the player character has to sacrifice to get the writing done.
However, and maybe I am just dense, but when I tried to solve puzzles in normal-seeming ways, I had trouble getting the game to understand what I wanted. And while the puzzles do make sense for the setting and story, I didn't find them very intuitive. I've had to constantly look up hints and that's just not what I play IF for. The player character isn't very likeable, either. Neither is Violet in some ways, since she seems to expect you to know something won't work when as a player, part of puzzle-solving is doing things to see what happens. She's the only narrator who ever made me feel bad about quitting the game, though.
Maybe I'm taking the game too seriously, but I couldn't handle the things I had to make the character do. I wouldn't want to do such things to myself and while initially, I was drawn into the game, with all the stops and starts because of the puzzles, the mood was broken and I began instead to focus on just how depressing and pathetic the character felt.
Ultimately, I won't finish this game. The writing was great, but there are other games to try that are probably less frustrating and more immersive.
So not my thing, December 24, 2012The premise of this game looked interesting. I certainly wanted to know what happened to the player character's family. So I began playing, and soon discovered what I've taken for granted playing modern IF - intuitive command entry. It should be noted that I did not grow up with text adventures. I have no nostalgia for tedious gameplay, timed puzzles, and constant restoration. My intro to IF were games like Photopia, The Moonlit Tower, and Glowgrass. All excellent works, I might add.
I will say now that I have not finished this game and do not intend to. It is just too frustrating a prospect since I was already banging my head against a wall before even making it past the first puzzle. I did eventually solve it when I realized it was timed and I'd seen what to avoid, but it was a lot of trial and error. I do not consider that a worthy expenditure of effort or time. Every step forward presented a new problem for which I couldn't think of a ready solution without experimentation, and continuing in that vein to reach an end that might not be worth it is just not my idea of fun.
I don't like writing negative reviews. I wanted to enjoy this more. But the genre, choppy parsing and puzzles that I did not find intuitive combined to finally have me giving up on the game.
Elusive symbolism, but well-written, December 24, 2012I've never been very good at working out symbolic meanings. I think I'm supposed to take something away from this, but it eludes me. (Spoiler - click to show)I have impressions of someone going mad from dehydration and possibly drug use, but the ending feels like I'm supposed to be grasping something that I'm not.
There were some parts of the game where I struggled with what to do. (Spoiler - click to show)The only thing that gave me any clue was that if something was intact, it must be destroyed. However, I had tremendous fun wrecking everything, and the writing during that part of the game had me laughing out loud. The to-do list, changes in room description, and the plant showing the state of dehydration were nice touches and enhanced the bleakness of the atmosphere.
This is a fun diversion and mostly intuitive. Not difficult at all for anyone familiar with IF conventions. It's worth playing just for the amusing and ironic writing.
Imaginative Setting but Unsatisfying, December 23, 2012I'm a bit conflicted on this game. I loved the exploration but am frustrated by a couple puzzles I never found the solutions to. The writing was too vague to get more than fleeting impressions, and even though I did complete the game, I'm still not sure if my impressions are correct. If they are, I have to say I don't like the player character much, which probably influences my feeling of dissatisfaction. On top of that, I'm left with questions concerning the character's backstory that don't have answers that I've found in-game. (Spoiler - click to show)I realize the character doesn't remember specifics, and using masks as devices for recall was a neat idea. But by the end of the game, the character should be able to fill in gaps, and I don't see that happening. Also, the issue with his child's deformed foot and the crutch, which figures prominently but not sure what happened to the child. Was he killed in combat? Was he killed by the player character?
Due to the sketchiness and ambiguous writing, puzzles don't feel precisely natural. Ostensibly, the character knows what everything is and how to use them, and the puzzles feel like they are just put there for something to do. (Spoiler - click to show)No real reason why the masks would be scattered around the property, or that there'd only be one glove in the shed.
Mechanically, I thought the game played well. Writing was good also. But ultimately, my frustration with the extra puzzles and unclear storytelling leave an unfavorable impression.
A more mature fairy tale, December 23, 2012I'm revisiting this game after a hiatus from interactive fiction and it is still a good story. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, so when I saw this was inspired by it, I had to play it. The first screen drew me in and gave me a clue right away that this heroine, while just as determined and sensible as the Beauty of the fairy tale, was not necessarily pining for her family or even that devoted to them. Much like Metamorphoses, there are multiple endings which allow for roleplay of the protagonist in some very unconventional ways.
As the story unfolds, one begins to see that none of the characters are true to the source material, but they do retain their roles. That is, what they do is the same; their personalities are not. It's a study in contradiction, where there's a jaded, flawed, and yet somehow likeable Beast and a Beauty that's caring but also a tad vengeful. This newest version of the game sees more polish to the vignettes of their backstories, with some downright hilarious lines and touching moments. (Spoiler - click to show)Like how the Beast says not all the women who died before they were married were his victims. Quite amusing in context. And when Beauty and Beast meet again after their week apart and you can tell the Beast is truly moved and honestly hadn't expected to ever see her again. Or his thoughts about Beauty later in the game, and her own affection for him.
In terms of mechanics, the travel system is awesome. I wish all games had it. Puzzles were well-clued and felt natural. The room counter in the status line was handy. And the system of magic and servitude was explained clearly and worked for me.
What I like about both Bronze and Metamorphoses is the obvious attention to detail in world-building, characterization, and background. I get the sense that these characters are real to the author and while there's a nagging sense of only scratching the surface, what players do see still manages to have a strong impact emotionally. These people have distinct voices in the narrative and because no one is purely good or evil, there's a satisfying depth to them not found in the conventional fairy tale.
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