Reviews by Jimbo
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Nice setting, August 25, 2009The best thing about Glowgrass is the setting. It's an interesting premise, though sparsely implemented, that does a pretty good job of drawing you in.
The environment is pretty small, and the puzzles for the most part are quite simple - though as another reviewer mentioned, there are some flaws in the implementation. For example, if you throw x at y, you are told that you can't reach y with just your hands! (Spoiler - click to show)The really irritating part is that you ARE supposed to throw x at y... but if you specify the target, you're screwed.
The conversational mechanic is also a little unintuitive - if you're having trouble, just realize there's an ABOUT keyword, and it's crucial.
If you don't get caught on the rough edges in the mechanics, Glowgrass will probably only take you 15 or 30 minutes to finish, if that. It's worth playing.
Immersive, laugh-out-loud funny, August 23, 2009I'm a big fan of Adam Cadre's work, and Narcolepsy is one of my favorites. The game is advanced basically by just wandering around - it's not really puzzle intensive; for the most part you just explore and immerse yourself in the weirdness. Luckily, the weirdness is everywhere, the writing is top notch, and I found myself laughing delightedly and looking for ever more "unusual responses" from things to try - not in order to solve a puzzle, but just in order to get more of the flavor of the story.
It unfortunately gets a bit weirder and less immersive and more chaotic in the later mid-game and end-game, but it's still a pretty smooth ride home and a lot of fun. Highly recommended.
If you've ever had a job you REALLY hated..., August 23, 2009I liked Little Blue Men a lot. I normally can't stand Cruel (on the Zarfian scale) games, but LBM requires so few moves to complete successfully, and has such a small world to move around in, that it didn't particularly bother me.
The puzzles are tightly put together, the atmosphere is well done, and I rather liked plot and theme both. The author (and some reviewers) speak a lot about motivations of the protagonist being different from that of the player, but... I didn't really have that problem. The story puts you in an office that you loathe working in and loathe everyone else who works in, and presumes that you're a little... off. I didn't have that much problem suspending disbelief and cheerfully putting myself in the protagonist's shoes, really. In real life I wouldn't (Spoiler - click to show)kill and drug coworkers, but it's not real life, it's a game, right?
I also didn't have much complaint with the surprise ending. It's a twist, sure, but it seems to fit well enough with the rest of the story for my taste.
Highly recommended for great writing and well-put-together puzzles. You may or may not like the unexplained bits left over at the end, but you'll almost certainly be left with an impression that sticks around for a while.
Good concept, mediocre execution, August 23, 2009The Edifice has you participate/spectate a few events occurring along the timeline of evolution of an anthropoid species (presumably, (Spoiler - click to show)Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Neanderthal (?), and finally Homo Sapiens). It's an interesting conceit, and one segment has a particularly interesting puzzle in which you piece together a stranger's language... but in practice, it's just a little too clumsily put together, and somehow the emotional connection just never quite clicked for me.
If you want to try it without referring to the walkthrough, be aware that Edifice will expect some rather non-clued and non-standard language (for IF) in places.
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