The Land Beyond the Picket Fence

5 star: (1) 4 star: (1) 3 star: (0) 2 star: (0) 1 star: (0)

Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 2 Write a review

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

Picket is a gently whimsical fantasy without much of a plot, whose main interesting feature is its interface. [...] It provided a pleasant hour’s entertainment, with a few jarring moments where the prose deviated from standard English. All in all, an enjoyable if unspectacular game.

This is how homebrew parsers should be; and it makes sense, coming just 3 years after Inform was created and making new parsers was less intimidating.

This is a compact fantasy world, with only 7 or so locations. It has a gnome, a toadstool garden, and a mad scientist. It has good cluing, and fun, open mechanics including potions/chemicals you can try on things (nothing complicated).

The only thing I found difficult was that one important room exit was only mentioned once, in one event, with no way to read that text again once it scrolled back. So its important to read everything carefully.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  

More Options

Promote this user

Demote this user

Plonk this user

Flag spoilers

Flag as inappropriate

Direct link

View my user filters

Explain these options

 | Add a comment 

- ifwizz (Berlin, Germany), January 26, 2011

Baf's Guide

A child's request that you recover a lost toy leads you into a whimsical little world inhabited by a mad scientist and a greedy gnome. Not difficult, but charming in its way.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt