Reviews by thion
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Some problems, August 22, 2009My problems with this game are the same as my problems with the first game. Interface. For example, the first thing I noticed upon entering the game was that I was in a room filled with stuff. The second thing I noticed was that 'get all' didn't work. I had to pick each thing up by hand. Eventually, I figured out that I was supposed to type 'get all from desk', as the items were on top of the desk, but this sort of finnicky language is what my major gripe with the first game was, where the majority of the puzzles revolved around trying to figure out which of a large number of keys went into a large number of doors, without any way for the game to keep track of that for you.
This game starts off mostly assuming you've played the first. Your a rogue time agent of some sort in part of the facility from the first game. That is all you really know. Its implied that your about to go back in time, but how you plan to do this isn't told to you. Which is a shame, because you have a short time limit on how to do it. I don't think it was meant as a puzzle, all you have to do is jump into a specific area close by, but you have to specifically type jump. Going down into it or any other command won't work.
Upon jumping, your thrown into your own personal mission. Its not hard to find out why your character jumped there, and your given a sidekick and a bit more direction. The sidekick however, is also hard to use. The game tells you it has something to say on occasion, rather then having it say it. I have yet to figure out what specific command will allow you to actually hear what it has to say, and the game's help files are rather lacking. This is made more confusing because sometimes the sidekick will actually talk, instead of the game telling you what she has to say. I also get constant messages, every other action or so, repeating "Julia's chip has gone dark", sometimes twice in a row, every other turn.
I don't know. I think this could be a good game, but it needs polish, perhaps more in-game instructions, and more out of game information on the commands wouldn't hurt, either.
A very short, strange piece, August 21, 2009I have no idea what to make of this. You can finish it in under 10 minutes, and it seems to have two endings. I can tell how the endings are different, but not why. The story has a fantasy beginning, but the good ending doesn't entirely make sense; only the bad one does. Really, I just don't know what to make of this game. I won't call it bad or unpolished just...I don't get it.
An awesome time travel game, August 21, 2009Wonderfully put together, with a feel to it that reminds me of a combination between civilization, the intro of 2001, and an exploration game...this masterful work of IF charts your prehistoric exploration of a large black stone monolith, which leads throughout time and space. To say more would give away the plot, but the game has several endings and is very satisfying.
Annoying, August 20, 2009I actually couldn't get very far into this game. The interface annoyed me. The rooms did not list the exits, and only sometimes gave hints as to where the exits were in the game description. In order to get a list of the exits, you actually have to try and move in a direction you cannot move in. There is no 'exit' command, there is no feature which lists the exits as many other such games have. Combined with the incredible sparseness of the descriptions, this leads to incredible annoyances. For example in one room on a city street the exits are west and east, but neither direction leads back into that room. Actually, if you head west, you find that heading east leads you to a locked gate, which had nothing to do with the room you were previously in. This is bad room design.
The puzzles I saw in the portion of the game I completed also made little sense. This may be fine for interactive fiction when it was made back in 1995, but seems a bit outdated today. If my brother called me to visit him, why do I have to go through several complicated puzzles to break into his college, instead of just having him meet me outside? Obviously there is an answer - it turns out he's vanished - but the fact that he does not meet you and that you have to break into the college isn't really remarked upon. Honestly, I'm not sure why people rate this one so high...I just found it a bother. I gave it a three because of its age; if it was new I'd give it a two.
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