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oad.z5
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
oad.z5
original competition entry
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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Only After Dark

by Gunther Schmidl

Horror
1999

About the Story

""HERE BE DRAGONS" is what the rutter said, but the small island turned out to be free of those animals after all. Instead, you landed near a tiny village full of friendly natives.

Aaah, shore leave! You can't remember when the last time was you could relax, take a night off and stroll through town to pick up a girl or two." [--blurb from Competition '99]


Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

>VERBOSE -- Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction Page

[T]he advancement of the plot is enforced by meeting any deviation with either an abrupt ending to the game (usually via the death of the PC) or with some variant of "You can't do that." For example, there is one scene where the PC is in jail. The plot calls for him to go to sleep. Therefore, there is absolutely nothing you can do but go to sleep. Every other attempt at action is blocked, and the game gives intermittent hints along the lines of "There's nothing else to do but go to sleep." Mess around long enough, and the game puts the PC to sleep by force. Now, my question is this: if all I was going to be allowed to do is sleep, why even give me a prompt at all? Why not just say "You're hustled into a jail cell, and although you attempt to escape, your attempts are thwarted. Deciding there's nothing to do but sleep, you settle down into the uncomfortable bed, awakening the next day to a very strange scene..." Sometimes there's a perfectly reasonable answer to this question, something along the lines of wanting the player to identify with the PC's sense of imprisonment. But when every scene plays like this, and the game forces the player into really stupid decisions because it has made no provision for alternatives, the whole story starts to feel like a prison.
See the full review

Page Update History

v.8: 23-May-2020 21:29 - Paul O'Brian (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed external review links
v.7: 26-Dec-2021 15:28 - David Welbourn
Changed download links
v.6: 18-Apr-2021 02:10 - Zape
Changed download links
v.5: 12-Apr-2021 01:57 - Zape
Changed download links
  v.4: 23-May-2020 21:29 - Zape
Changed download links
v.3: 02-May-2008 17:29 - Paul O'Brian
Changed external review links
v.2: 27-Feb-2008 21:53 - David Welbourn
Changed description
v.1: 16-Oct-2007 01:49 - IFDB
Created page