Theatre

Encore! Author! Theatre is a wonderfully moody work of IF in which the player is stranded in a creepy old theatre with no apparent way out. The more he tries to get out, the deeper he is drawn into a fiendish plot that spans over seventy years, the successful outcome of which could doom not only the player, but the whole world.

Many of the rooms in Theatre are minimally described, and yet the feeling of unsettling dread is maintained effectively for the game's duration. The puzzles are numerous and fair (Spoiler - click to show)(my favourite involved a ghostly usher). Most of them are clever, and one in particular is (Spoiler - click to show)rather gruesome. They are all quite satisfying to solve. Another thing I enjoyed about Theatre is that it is one of those games that, thankfully, do not end with a long single blurb of prose once you perform the winning action. It goes on a little further than that and provides a very satisfying conclusion. Bravo!

This is a (virtually) full-length work that keeps the player involved throughout. I spent perhaps five-to-six hours on this. Using the walkthrough will get you through it quicker, of course, but seriously--resist using it if you can. This game is not too-too hard, and is rewarding to complete. I myself resisted using the walkthrough, but succumbed to the adaptive built-in hint system. I really appreciated the fact that this was, indeed, a hint system and did not blatantly give away the solutions. Despite this, I was stumped by a few guess-the-verb road blocks that could have been prevented had the author worked a little harder on providing synonyms for some of the actions.

If I were to voice any significant criticism of Theatre, it would only be to reiterate what has already been mentioned elsewhere: the Lovecraftian references of ancient, cosmos-spanning creatures were out of place--they did not integrate well with the author's own style of horror, which was effective enough to stand on its own.

Despite that, the bottom line is I enjoyed this game a lot. I recommend it to any who enjoy creepy, suspenseful horror. I am not aware of other works by author Brendon Wyber, but if I encounter any, I will definitely play them.

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- Divide (Wroclaw, Poland), October 15, 2009

- thion, August 21, 2009

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Copied script but excellent performance, July 27, 2009

by Dark-Star (Nebraska)

Theatre begins with a familiar enough premise; the player is unexpectedly trapped in a deserted old building that just *happens* to be inhabited by malevolent spirits and horrid monsters. You are then forced to wander the haunted halls attempting to both decipher the secrets of your current locale and escape with your skin. The game is inappropriate for younger adventurers due to several gruesome dead-endings and less lethal but very frightening scenes. Suffice it to say that Theatre quickly make me quite sorry for playing it at midnight with all the room lights extinguished.

While Brendon Wyber cannot exactly be credited for inventing anything new, the game itself makes up for the lack of pure originality. Guess-the-word experiences are all but absent, and the puzzles are quite logical to those with at least a few similar IF titles under their belt. Taken as a whole, Theatre is a solid adventure with a decent dose of danger.