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Game Details
Language: English (en)
Current Version: 0.9 License: Freeware Development System: TADS 2 Baf's Guide ID: 2824 IFID: TADS2-45240E46895E11AE74C0EBCF0C9FCAA4 TUID: a4cv53rx5ouha50b |
Awards
16th Place - 11th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2005)
Nominee, Best NPCs; Nominee, Best Individual NPC - 2005 XYZZY Awards
Editorial Reviews
SPAG
The lack of motivation or direction makes it very difficult to figure out what to do in this game, and the PC's special powers only add to the problem. I really like the premise, and the author has good writing skills, but it will take a lot more to make this a good game.
-- DJ Hastings
See the full review
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Member Reviews
| Average Rating: ![]() Number of Reviews: 2 Write a review |

Related reviews: magic, magic system, simulationist, fantasy, anime, how not to do it
Gilded is mainly of interest because of its horribly overpowered magic system. The player can shapechange at will, but this is the easiest aspect of its design: you can also magically create and summon objects. This would suggest a creative, simulationist approach to puzzles, but... well, imagine Scribblenauts with a plot, an antagonist and an expansive setting, but without clear, limited objectives. Now imagine it as implemented by a single author of moderate ability. You can create or summon virtually any object, but the game almost never understands the implications of this. Your antagonist is digging a hole; you summon his spade, and he keeps right on digging. You can summon the pants off NPCs and they carry on regardless. And sometimes the system just fails entirely. You're faced with an impossibly vast array of options, almost none of which do anything significant.
This is compounded by writing that doesn't always successfuly convey what's going on with the plot. The result is something that relies on read-the-author's-mind, that's near-unplayable without a walkthrough and difficult even then. Gilded isn't exactly a work of mad genius; its core mechanics are all old ideas, just hugely overextended. But it has a strange charm, and its design is a useful cautionary tale.

The game is vast, and only the things the author thought up themselves are implemented (i.e. if you don't do exactly what they want, then nothing happens). You can 'summon' or 'create' just about anything, and shapechange.
There are a lot of NPCs, and extensive conversations/textdumps, but the game is buggy.
Fun to play around with, but not fun to try to beat.
Gilded on IFDB
Recommended Lists
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One of the most powerful techniques for rendering a game memorable is to build it around a unusual, interesting and consistent way of handling significant world interaction (or puzzles, if you prefer). It's also a difficult technique to...
Polls
The following polls include votes for Gilded:"Camp" Games by Pinstripe
Games which have, or might be considered to have, a camp aesthetic or sense of humor. "Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon. That way, the way of Camp, is not in terms of...
Birds in IF by Wendymoon
What games can you think of with birds in them? What's the bird? Is it important to the game?
This is version 2 of this page, edited by Edward Lacey on 5 May 2013 at 10:34am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item