Byzantine Perspective

by Lea Albaugh profile

Science Fiction
2009

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5 star:
(3)
4 star:
(19)
3 star:
(25)
2 star:
(9)
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Number of Ratings: 56
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- E. W. B., March 18, 2016

- Squidi, February 12, 2016

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Short, trippy game about perspective., February 3, 2016

I found this game on Juhana's list of Mindbenders. It was very unusual; I don't think I've ever seen something like this done before.

The whole game is about trying to understand what is going on, similar to games like Legion in theory but very different in practice.

Once I understood what was going on, I simply used a walkthrough to complete the rest of the game. The rest of the puzzles are only mildly interesting. But the main puzzle is very, very good.

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- Sobol (Russia), December 7, 2014

- Andrew Schultz (Chicago), July 9, 2013

- DAzebras, April 22, 2013

- DJ (Olalla, Washington), February 5, 2013

- amciek (Opole), December 26, 2012

- Edward Lacey (Oxford, England), December 15, 2012

- rec53, June 9, 2012

- Relle Veyér, March 1, 2012

- Jaxcap (Arizona), December 10, 2011

- Hannes, November 12, 2011

- aparrish (NYC), September 16, 2011

- Savaric (Sweden), August 31, 2011

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Aiintelligence perspective, May 5, 2011
by Aintelligence (Canada)

(Warning: This review might contain spoilers. Click to show the full review.)Needs no night vision

Impressive puzzle.  That is really what I have to say, mostly because this piece of IF doesn't have much of a storyline, just one good solid puzzle.  Ok, the main character needs to steal the chalice for art school, that we do know, but really, no character development or plot was even thought of at all.  Don't think I'm complaining here either.  These types of pieces don't really need a plot, since it is focusing on just one puzzle; I'm just saying, if you're looking for a strong plot, look elsewhere.

Well, what is here is really well done.  It is something out of the 'Italian Job' and 'mission impossible'.  Armed with your faulty night vision goggles you must break into the safe, and steal the chalice.  Although it sounds simple, the big catch is that the images you see aren't of the rooms you're in, but of different rooms.  (best just not to ask at all).  I found it very entertaining trying to get a bearing on where I was actually in the museum.  The clues are skillfully arranged around the rooms, designed to confuse, but be fair.  For about twenty minutes it was mission impossible for me as I blindly walked around hitting walls. However, really the puzzle was actually rather simple once I finally figured what I was supposed to do.  Simple, but devilish.

*sigh*. The time has fallen upon us...  Implementation.  The one weakness I found in the work was that certain parts were poorly implemented.  (Spoiler - click to show) one example was that the piece of paper in the inventory.  All that it says is to push the button on the glasses.  Presumably the character would already have read it before the heist.  What's more is that you cannot press the button before reading the note, which I found both frustrating and pointless. .  This, as well as the very few examinable objects, made this piece fall short.

Still great puzzle and definitely recommendable if you have some spare time.

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- Ben Cressey (Seattle, WA), January 25, 2011

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Puzzle, August 11, 2010
by Tristano (Italy)

I rated 5 this game because I found it to be an excellent piece of playable-IF to solve. A mind-bending puzzle that captures the player without a sense of frustration. Overall, it shouldn't take too long to complete it.

Since the very beginning of play you "sense" that something is strange ... that sensation kept me going ahead without frustration even though I moved around in circles for quite a while, but I knew that somehow I was on the right track. Then ... it "clicked" to me and everything was clear. Nevertheless, once the core of the puzzle is grasped it still takes some strategic moves to actually solve it.

No distractions, just a polished and well presented puzzle with all its elements in plain sight. Nice atmosphere.

Surely one of its own kind -- I don't recall coming across any similar puzzles.

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- Nusco (Bologna, Italy), May 29, 2010

- Azazel, April 13, 2010

- Audiart (Davis, CA), April 5, 2010

- Emily Boegheim, March 6, 2010

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Short and Novel Maze, February 5, 2010
by Felix Larsson (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Related reviews: [6], gambol

Why! There was another kind of maze to be had after all!

Here you play the role of an art student gone burglar, eyes set on that gem-studded Byzantine chalice in the museum. The main puzzle of this clever little game consists in figuring out how the maze is constructed (and how to familiarize yourself with the things you carry); after that, gameplay is very straightforward and the mission soon completed.

It’s definitely not a game to try unless you are reasonably familiar with IF conventions, though.

(If you want to prolong the fun or just more of a challenge, I suggest you try make do WITHOUT the map feelie provided by the author.)

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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A bit of a gimmick, really., January 8, 2010
by James Hall (UK)

Your goal in this game is to steal a chalice from a museum to pay for your college course. The twist, however, is that the museum is in complete darkness and the night vision goggles you're wearing - for some unknown reason - (Spoiler - click to show)are showing you images of different rooms within the museum, so you've effectively got to feel your way around instead. It's nothing special, but it does seem to work once you've go the hang of what's going on; I didn't encounter any programming errors. Overall, Byzantine Perspective is a game worth playing if you've got a few minutes to spare.

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars

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- dutchmule, December 10, 2009

- TempestDash (Cincinnati, Ohio), December 4, 2009

- Kake (London, England), November 18, 2009

- Mark Jones (Los Angeles, California), November 17, 2009

- Juhana, November 16, 2009

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A single idea, but a good one, November 16, 2009

This is a very clever little game. It is one of those games that basically have a single puzzle. In this case there are a couple of things you have to do, but once you work out what’s going on, it’s not enormously difficult to do them. The tricky part is working out what’s going on. The best procedure if you are having difficulty with this is but don’t want to be told the answer outright is (Spoiler - click to show)to make a map, showing where you actually can and can’t go, and compare that to the map that is provided.

It is hard to say any more than that without spoiling the game.

The basic mechanic is very simple (if utterly confusing at first), and there is nothing really to the game other than this: no objects besides the couple involved in the puzzle, and not much else to look at along the way. The puzzle itself is short and the game does not take long to play at all once you twig. What content there is seems to be well implemented and I didn’t find any bugs.

Overall, then, this is a simple game that does little other than introduce an initially confusing but ultimately elegant mechanic and leave the player to work out what that mechanic is – but it does it very well indeed.

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- Emily Short, November 16, 2009

- Ben Treat (Maine, USA), November 2, 2009

- Dannii (Australia), October 22, 2009

- Cheryl L (Australia), October 18, 2009

- perching path (near Philadelphia, PA, US), October 17, 2009

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Byzantine, October 16, 2009
by Portmanteau
Related reviews: Byzantine

This is a rather short game, but a relatively enjoyable one. It has one larger "worldview" puzzle in which you must work out the fundamental nature of the game, including how to interpret your senses, and one minor puzzle that stems pretty directly from this. It can be solved pretty easily without any assistance from the walkthrough while still being satisfying to complete; a quite positive trait, really. However, the atmosphere of the game is very sparse, the room descriptions are minimal and the world feels quite empty. Objects seem to be only minimally implemented, and one of the puzzles involves being alerted to something you have likely already guessed the existence of. All told, it is a fun diversion and an interesting concept, and, as a one-trick-pony of a game, its brevity does it a favor.

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