Interesting, quick game to play. I enjoyed it. If you haven't played this one at least once, you should.
While I have only played through to two of the eighteen possible endings in this game, I felt I should go ahead and review it based on the merits I have experienced thus far. Both the writing and the plot in this game are first rate, and I was sucked into the story almost immediately. The dialogue is fantastic, and good thing, too, since the entire point of this game is conversation. I felt like I was reading a well written novel, not playing a game. But for Alabaster this works fantastically. The replay value is very high, as well. On my second play through, the story was COMPLETELY different from my first go around. I will definitely be spending much more time with this game, and I look forward to the other stories in this series, as well.
A huge thank you to everyone who was involved in producing this. The quality is top notch, and your passion for the genre and quality of the finished story shines through!
I'm new to IF, as I just (re)discovered it this week. I remember my cousins playing the ZORK titles when they first came out when I was a kid. All Roads has wonderful writing and storytelling, and for that I applaud Jon Ingold. The only thing I found slightly disappointing was the lack of organic movement or being allowed to actually decide what happens next. After playing all the way through the story, I thought, "That was pretty cool, and fun! Now I wonder what'll happen when I do this...?"
So I started over, and made a completely different decision in one of the rooms by NOT picking up an item before I left. After I exited the room, I checked my inventory, and to my surprise, I was carrying the very item I had intentionally left behind! Oh well, at least it was entertaining the first time through...