Reviews by thesleuthacademy
View this member's profilePrevious | 11-19 of 19 | Show All
Text-based Cluedo!, March 13, 2023This was a nostalgic one for me. There were more things to explore than the usual Cluedo, which was a nice touch. Having a map was great, as usual! Spotted several typos, however. Thanks for creating this!
An improved version of the Mansion, March 12, 2023Had to replay it when it hanged while I was more than halfway through (hence one star less), but managed to complete it eventually. It's similar to The Mansion in terms of the gameplay, but I was pleasantly surprised that there were more locations outside the building. The forum was helpful when I got stuck, but the game was logical enough for one to progress by... "logical" trial and error. I preferred this to the first "sequel", partly because there was a lot more to explore and discover. Thank you for another well-designed game!
More like an escape room than a mystery to be solved, March 11, 2023Having the maps were very, very helpful. Didn't think I could finish it without the maps nor walkthrough. But with these aids, I felt the game was well-planned, and the gameplay logical and sequential, somewhat like a slightly more complex escape room. I took about four hours to complete.
Would have been great if the "Save" feature could work (as there were a few times it got really laggy and I was almost at the end of the game). The buttons on the right panel of the page made the interactive fiction a lot less frustrating (Spoiler - click to show)- I couldn't "climb" things by typing it the usual way, but the "Look at" button allowed me to do this.
The game is heavier on the navigating and unlocking of doors and lighter on discovering what happened to the victim (the latter occurred really sporadically). Highly recommended if you enjoy escape rooms, but for those looking to solve a mystery, you might be disappointed. However I'm giving 5 stars for an intricately designed game that went pretty well without bugs, glitches, or textual errors.
Well-designed mechanics, March 2, 2023I felt that being able to find something and the directions on the status bar made the gameplay a lot more enjoyable and much less frustrating, given the vast number of rooms to explore. These two features should be standard practice for complex or multi-room IF games. One of most well-designed IF games I’ve played to date and I’m glad to have stumbled upon this. Interesting storyline as well!
Would be better if there was a map of sorts, February 26, 2023Well thought-out classic murder mystery which is made slightly easier given that it's Twine-style, but it was confusing without a map (Spoiler - click to show) - thought a map would be useful as I completely missed one of the areas (and therefore several suspects) as there were too many forks in the path. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable hour of investigation. Would recommend it to all armchair detectives.
A gem of a find!, February 16, 2023This made me laugh. I couldn’t do without the hints (had to get help from external hints to exit as well), but the puzzles were great and made sense. I liked how one could just go to a room without re/navigating using directions. This is such a cute game. I even tried putting pants on Pig and also giving pants to Gnome when I was stuck XD Great theme, great storyline. Would replay this just to explore the funny interactions between Grunk and Pig!
A light and heartwarming mystery, February 14, 2023A clean and light-hearted family mystery, with a hint of humour. (Spoiler - click to show)I was reminded of the quote from Sherlock Holmes: "... When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" when the time came to deduce who did it.
I particularly appreciated the notes which provided useful direction, and I felt that the game mechanics were skillfully crafted - the initial gameplay was pretty straightforward, but after the first statements were taken from all suspects, it became a lot less obvious as to how one should proceed (but by then one would have gotten the hang of exploring the house and locating the characters to unveal further revelations).
Excellent, never mind the few bugs, February 13, 2023Thoroughly enjoyed this one. A classic murder mystery.
Had to rely on external hints at times, however. (Spoiler - click to show)I entered the house without checking out the cars, and there was no way to get back out of the house without quitting the game (knowing that it'll be randomised is a huge barrier to exiting the house).
Saving the game helped a lot, especially when it was time to deduce the culprit and present the evidence. (Spoiler - click to show)It was mentioned that the chief would appear at 2:00 am, but in my gameplay, I was done before 2 am but had to make a couple of hundreds of "wait" turns until 4:00 am which was when the chief appeared. This seems to be a glitch.
The game took me several hours to complete, but I would definitely recommend this if you're an armchair detective. Really wish there were more of such traditional whodunits!
Interesting mechanics, February 13, 2023This is a fresh take on a detective mystery, where the player has to link and corroborate suspects' statements to trigger new insights or findings.
The in-game hints are adequate (no walkthrough needed), although I came across one hint that sounded somewhat harsh: (Spoiler - click to show)"Just type [COMMAND]", although there was nothing in the narrative that mentioned about that specific command involving a certain object (the object wasn't mentioned in the narrative either), and this was only at the second hint attempt on the same topic. The subsequent re-played flashbacks could do away with the initial required activities; having to repeat the same actions felt unnecessary.
Otherwise, the plot was well thought-out and sufficiently complex, without requiring too long a gameplay. A good game to wind down after a busy day.
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