All Things Devours

by half sick of shadows

Time Travel
2004

Web Site

Return to the game's main page

Member Reviews

5 star:
(43)
4 star:
(33)
3 star:
(11)
2 star:
(3)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 13
Write a review


1-10 of 13 | Next | Show All


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Thinking fourth dimensionally!, June 11, 2022
by deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN)

"The encounter could create a time paradox. The results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe!...Granted, that's the worst-case scenario." -- Doc Brown, Back to the Future 2

And such is the world logic of All Things Devours. The inventor of a time-travel machine, Natalie Williams comes to the same realization about paradoxes and sets out to destroy the machine. However, she soon realizes that her plans have been taken and she must find them so that the machine can never be made again. And soon the player realizes that time travel is necessary to find those papers, and there's a total span of nine minutes in which to work to avoid the guards, avoid your present self, and avoid creating a paradox for your present self.

Toby Ord crafted an incredibly tight puzzle box that is a delightful gift to unwrap, with Natalie's insight and foresight the present (and the past!). There is a lot of learning by dying as you get to know what Natalie already knows about the facility as well as the game's internal logic about time travel. The logic, as with all time travel stories, breaks down if you think about it too much; however, it is consistent within the story. I took extensive notes while playing, detailing the exact time of each move I made, and then after destroying the universe with another paradox, adjusting actions ever so slightly the next time around. Normally, learning by dying eventually exhausts me, but because every death here taught me something new, I never stopped having fun.

Despite the incredibly tight timeline, there is still a little flexibility with decision-making as well as multiple solutions to several puzzles. Some of those solutions require knowledge it would be impossible for Natalie to know without dying first, though there is a path through the game that is plausible if you care about that sort of thing. My only critique is the final solution only insofar as I thought my alternate solution should have worked!

One of the best uses of time travel I've seen in a game and a treat for those who enjoy a complex puzzle.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Challenging, tight design, October 27, 2021
by Will

All Things Devours has been on my radar for a couple years, but only recently have I gotten around to actually take a serious crack at it. And what serious crack it is.

The narrative consists of a very light premise, more for setting the scene than to add substance to the gameplay, which consists wholly of a singular, large puzzle involving managing time loops without triggering inconsistency paradoxes. There are relatively few elements in the work - you won't get lost in the world or struggle to keep track of inventory any time soon - but what is there is all very cleverly constructed to plant subtle obstacles for you to overcome, many of which you might not realize to be problematic until having experimented with the time loops yourself.

The experience is one of iterative, layered discovery - formulate a theory with what you know, implement it, fail, work out just what it is that you've overlooked, have a eureka moment, then go on right ahead with another theory. It's a simple loop but very engaging, largely aided by the game's clean design (basic commands, time system, clear feedback on failure) and short length. Which is great, because you'd likely end up needing a spreadsheet to keep track of the order and timing of events.

The normal game is rather forgiving when it comes down to it, with lots of room to play around and several viable solution paths. It took me a short couple of hours to figure out, and I ended up over-optimizing in a couple places when I didn't need to. The final solution was enjoyable to craft, but felt a little unrestrained and empty given the potential of the premise, and I found I had several theories that ended up going unused. This was going to be a high three or low four in rating for me due to that - until I discovered that there was a challenge mode. And challenge me it did.

The challenge mode provides three simple but significant changes to the structure of the setup. My efficient solution from earlier now looked utterly silly! Nothing fits where it should, and I had to abandon several previous assumptions just to move forward at all. What followed was several lovely a-ha moments one after the other, as I discovered techniques I haven't envisioned before to structure my moves in a way that made the impossible possible. My unused theories from earlier also came into play, much to my delight. Even with all this, I repeatedly failed at the final steps - it must've been four or five times that I confidently entered a solution I thought must work, only to have it blow up in my face near the end! It took a couple more hours of meticulous optimizing, leaving no move unscoured, making small adjustments each run-through, were I finally able to achieve success. The catharsis it offered was incredible.

In short, All Things Devours is a clever, efficient, and challenging puzzle package. It isn't likely to leave you hopelessly stuck, but will definitely offer you a couple hours of dedicated puzzling fun. And I highly recommend that you not skip the challenge version. In my humble opinion, that is the true version of the game, and it's where its self contained premise really shines.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
All Things Devours: an unWinnable State review, May 12, 2020
by unWinnable State (unWinnableState.com)
Related reviews: Parser, unWinnable State, The List!

All Things Devours is, in essence, one single puzzle. A crunchy, well constructed puzzle. I mean, I had to create a spreadsheet to solve the puzzle. Or rather, I got to create a spread sheet.

You play as a researcher who’s had their lab commandeered by the military. Afraid of the repercussions of future use of the prototype, you’ve decided to sneak back in to destroy your creation.

The puzzle of All Things Devours is exciting and tense. There is a real joy in discovering how the mechanisms of the puzzle work, and there are multiple paths to victory.

All Things Devours is not going to be for everyone. It is extremely light on story, and its puzzle, while fair, is difficult. You are likely to fail repeatedly before you find victory, but in the end the victory feels earned and is very rewarding.

You can find the SPOILER-Y portion of unWinnable State's review of All Things Devours here.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Great - wish it were longer, July 1, 2017

I found this by chance - I don't really do a whole lot of IF, but I happened to be looking at the list of "Cruel works" on IFWiki, and figured I'd try one out to see how hard they can be. This one happened to be listed under "A" and time travel is cool, so I figured I may as well.

I really enjoyed it. There isn't any hand-holding, and half the fun is running around and learning how to interact with things. A spreadsheet definitely feels like it's mandatory, especially for challenge mode, but in both cases I realized in retrospect that my optimizations left me with plenty of time, so it's probably fine to just try to keep it all in your head. Because the game is so short, and because there's an undo command, losing isn't frustrating at all, just part of the process.

The puzzle is tough, but at the same time I feel that the mechanics could have been exploited to a much greater degree. Even for the challenge mode, the time travel mechanic is only needed once. While I was playing and realizing how many doors the game had, I was thinking ahead about the sorts of optimizations I'd need to make in order to have 3 or even 4 copies of myself running around, but it's never required since most doors can't actually be opened.

It took me about an hour and a half to solve the normal mode, and about another hour to do the challenge mode. I think the challenge mode is the definitive version of the game, since there are a couple of substantial changes which really force the player to think about what they're doing. I'm not sure if it's because I was playing challenge mode or if I just did something differently, but I believe that the challenge mode even gives a different ending. Definitely worth solving for anyone who enjoyed the base version.

I know that this is pretty old, but I would love to see a sequel which extends the amount of time the player has, but also expands the play area.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent puzzle, March 12, 2017
by lkdc

This game is one of the best I have ever played. I wish the ending were a little more satisfying, but as for the gameplay, I thought it was flawless. My only wish is that I should have had much less time before the guard came back, so that I would have been forced to tighten up the timing a little more! As it was my optimizations turned out to be a little unnecessary.

Edit: I just discovered the challenge version (type "challenge" on the first move). This is exactly what I wanted when I wrote the above! An excellent game, in all regards.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Featured on Radio K #7, June 12, 2016
by Adam Cadre (Albany, California)

Jess Haskins and I discuss All Things Devours at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbjl7VmA1jk#t=19m20s

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A maze involving time instead of space. A notebook is recommended., February 3, 2016

I first played All Things Devours 5 years ago as one of my first pieces of interactive fiction, and was very confused and felt it was impossible.

All Things Devours is a time travel game, where you must work together with past or future selfs to navigate several puzzles, subject to certain restrictions.

This game can be solved much more easily if you keep a detailed list of where you are and what you are doing at each turn. That way, you'll know where (or when) to be with other incarnations of yourself.

Fortunately, it's not necessary to jump around too much. A similar game called Fifteen minutes involves 8 or more copies of yourself in the same room, and it gets very tedious by that point.

All Things Devours is a classic.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Logical - but just not for me., September 26, 2011
by Deboriole (San Diego, CA)

Note: This review has been edited after receiving comments. :)

I am always searching for games with purely logical puzzles, and came upon this one. I enjoyed this game for its "logical progression" style of play. I found it very fulfilling to put the pieces together within a finite time limit. However, I did not finish the game because I was expecting the rest of the game to rely on "real-life" solutions and it took a turn. A lot of other reviewers really enjoyed this twist in the game, but I did not.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | View comments (2) - Add comment 

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
A beautifully engaging puzzle, September 21, 2009

I don't normally like puzzle games, partly because I like to be immersed in a believable world and puzzles are intrinsically unrealistic, but mainly because I'm not very good at them. This one, however, is one of the most beautiful and satisfying puzzles I've encountered, simply because it is so logical. Everything in it flows neatly, and once you've understood how the set-up works and the sort of thing that you need to do, it is simply a matter of making it so. Each time I played, I managed to overcome the latest obstacle, only to find a new one; each time, again, the solution to the new obstacle was generally not too hard to work out once I'd got used to the way that this world worked. (Spoiler - click to show)I must add that I especially loved the problem of the battery, which I solved almost instantly and was delighted to find that my solution worked perfectly - this made me feel clever, which is not something that often happens when I play puzzle games. The constant replaying in light of new information sounds tedious but in fact replaying each time, carefully taking into account the new problem that had to be overcome while still doing what had to be done to account for the ones encountered before, was enormously satisfying. It is like putting together a series of simple, overlapping themes, one by one, and ending up with a complex symphony.

I thought that the small world of the game is believably structured and described, and that everything is implemented extremely well. The basic conceit of the game - (Spoiler - click to show)having to move around and perform actions at the same time as your earlier self, also moving around and doing things, while avoiding meeting her - must have been a nightmare to code, but everything seemed exactly as it should be to me. I also liked the fact that there are somewhat different paths to victory. (Spoiler - click to show)The walkthrough had the player setting the bomb and then using the time machine for a second time to go back a bit and leave, avoiding the explosion. I, however, did it differently, setting the bomb immediately before using the time machine the *first* time, and doing all the stuff I needed to do and escaping just before it went off. So I only travelled in time once.

There are some flaws with the game. I think the greatest is simply its believability - not because of the SF elements, but because of the implausibility of what your character knows. Paul O'Brian mentions this in his review. There are various items in the complex that the PC needs to take in order to win. In order to take those items, the PC must engage in rather complex and carefully timed behaviour (to put it mildly). The way she acts (on the winning scenario), she absolutely must know precisely what she's doing and be acting with considerable foresight. (Spoiler - click to show)For example, pressing the button for the upstairs door, knowing that her future self will be standing there to walk through it. But of course if she knew all that in advance she might as well just bring some of these things with her and not have to jump through hoops to find them in the complex. I must admit, however, that I don't really find that a serious problem with this game. The game is, above all, a puzzle. Its purpose is not to immerse you in a completely believable world (although of course it must meet minimal believability criteria if the world is to function logically enough to work as a puzzle, and it passes this test with flying colours). When I actually played the game, I didn't care in the slightest that the PC couldn't know this or should be doing that. All I cared about was *me* solving the puzzle that was presented to *me* in the game, and I enjoyed doing that enormously.

Also a word about puzzle-solving here. I saw some reviews that complained about having to write down lots of information in order to complete the game - like mapping Zork, but mapping the timing of events rather than the locations of rooms. I didn't do any of this. As I worked out the solution to the puzzle there were one or two key times that I needed to remember, but I didn't find any need to write them down. Admittedly I used brute force for one part of the puzzle. (Spoiler - click to show)The problem of how to break the glass without making my earlier self hear the alarm had me stumped for a bit, until I realised that I could just wait until my earlier self used the time machine, and then break the glass with impunity. To do this elegantly I should have replayed, noting down the time when I used the machine. In fact I just waited a few turns, tried breaking the glass, undid when I lost as a result, waited a few turns, and so on until breaking the glass did not result in a lost game. Again: unrealistic, of course, but it didn't matter (in my opinion) because I'd worked out how to solve the puzzle, and that's the main thing. So I would say that those who fear mapping or who don't fancy having to write lots of stuff down to complete a game needn't fear this one. You very much have to keep your wits about you and be able to visualise what's going on, and detailed logging might help, but it's hardly essential.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Exhilarating, wonderful game!, June 18, 2009

For anyone who ever thought you could do better than the characters in your favorite science fiction novel, this is your chance. Part of the fun is realizing what lengths you have to go through, in order to solve what seems like a relatively simple problem, and I don't want to spoil one bit of that realization, so I won't go into any more details.

I will admit that due to an unfortunate coincidence near the start of the game, I drew a completely wrong inference that led me down a very non-optimal path. Normally this would have been frustrating because of how long it would take to unravel my error. Instead I got to play the game for five times longer than necessary, and I enjoyed every second of it! And it was still possible to win by going down my path, and very enjoyable to craft the solution.

This game is a masterful example of what IF is capable of, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It is uniquely suited to IF. I don't know if there is another game out there quite like it, but I certainly hope so!

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 


1-10 of 13 | Next | Show All | Return to game's main page