External Links


kaged​_s.gam
post-competition shareware release, with images but no music
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
kaged​_s.exe
Post-competition shareware release, with images but no music
Windows Application (Windows NT 3.5 and later)
kaged.gam
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
kaged.rs3
Multimedia file
kaged.rs1
Multimedia file
kaged.rs2
Multimedia file
kwalk.txt
Walkthrough
khint.txt
Hints
Story file with bundled multimedia
This file contains all the multimedia resources as well as the game, bundled into one. It is the competition version, as the post-comp version remains shareware.
Requires a TADS interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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Kaged

by Ian Finley

Science Fiction
2000

(based on 51 ratings)
4 reviews

About the Story

""But my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen."

Welcome to the Citadel of Justice. The Inquisitor is waiting." [--blurb from Competition Aught-Zero]


Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best NPCs - 2000 XYZZY Awards

1st Place - 6th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2000)

3rd Place - The Top Five IF Games (Adventure Gamers, 2002)

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


A nicely done dystopia, with plenty of atmosphere and some well-executed twists. Rather linear--about halfway through, the game sort of locks you onto a certain track, and there's really never more than one thing to do from that point on. The game does justify the linearity, however, and the puzzles are good enough that the player doesn't feel like he's just pushing the story along. The music and graphics enhance the game experience considerably, so be sure to use an HTML-TADS runtime. A worthy heir to the tradition of dystopian IF.

-- Duncan Stevens

Adventure Gamers
More than any other IF game I have ever played, Kaged allowed me to truly visualize my world. The walls of the Citadel are cold and grey, cameras everywhere to ensure no employee dissension. The living quarters are sterile and unwelcoming. It is somehow enchanting, but frightening also, and the ultimate resolution of your quest is remarkably satisfying.
-- Evan Dickens
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SPAG

As a mood piece, "Kaged" is excellent. Every bleak, oppressive nuance of the world you live in comes to life in the vivid writing, enhanced by graphics and sound (the opening picture is especially evocative), and your own character is well-drawn. As a story, it is ambitious, but less excellent. I felt that what began as tightly woven threads unraveled near the end--and not just because of the protagonist's dissolving sanity. I came out of the experience with no real understanding of what had happened and why.
-- Suzanne Britton
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SPAG
The plot wouldn't be that bad if you took only the very beginning and very ending of the game. At least it would be original. But when I saw the middle of the game and all those story twists I felt that I was seeing another bad movie with all the cliches and standard devices that I have already seen a thousand times. And the author manages to place at least two conflicting plots in this game.
-- Stas Starkov
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SynTax
Kaged is original, well-written story with a rich vocabulary, but I couldn't figure out exactly who was on which side sometimes, which caused some confusion and spoilt the atmosphere.
-- Dorothy Millard
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

On the one hand, I have to admit that it does an outstanding job at achieving what appear to be its goals. By the end of the game I was twitchy, angry, and thoroughly awash in the reality-questioning quasi-madness brought on by works like Brazil and 1984. Like those works, Kaged is a kick in the head all the way through, and a very powerful kick at that. In a way, I love this -- I find it a brilliant indictment of authority run rampant, and perhaps even a radical thesis on the problems of non-interactive IF. All that makes me want to rate Kaged quite highly indeed.

On the other hand, if I give it what it wants, doesn't that make me complicit? If I truly believe in resisting totalitarianism (and I truly do), then shouldn't I resist Kaged and its demands by giving it the lowest rating possible? Shouldn't I raise my voice as strongly as possible to insist that IF like this is unacceptable? Maybe I should. But then again, what about that old rationale of irony? Sure, Kaged shows us totalitarianism, and controls us with an iron hand, but isn't it just making a point by doing so? Sure. Of course it is. It's all ironic, you see? That's what it is. And it certainly would be overly paranoid of me to think of that as just a rationalization.


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Member Reviews

5 star:
(14)
4 star:
(23)
3 star:
(9)
2 star:
(4)
1 star:
(1)
Average Rating:
Number of Reviews: 4
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Most Helpful Member Reviews


6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
You spin me right round, September 9, 2020
by deathbytroggles (Minneapolis, MN)

With a Kafkaesque dystopia the author must be very careful that while the world is constantly spinning around the protagonist that the viewer in addition to being misdirected doesn't feel cheated. For the most part Finley does his job here.

I played this twenty years ago and played it again just recently (because I had honestly forgotten most of it) and was swept away both times. I have generally enjoyed frequent plot twists as long as they're fun (e.g. Wild Things) and don't negate everything that came before (e.g. The Game). Multiple times while playing Kaged I thought to myself "Hey, this isn't logical" (Spoiler - click to show) like when the guard was conveniently asleep knowing that in this government that would be dangerous), or the code on the matchbook for no reason and then it would be revealed later that I was correct and the inconsistency was intentional. I also felt like many of the plot twists were foreshadowed so that I didn't feel cheated at the end. (Spoiler - click to show)My favorite was being told that the Commissar had front-row seats to the execution, very cheeky. I also figured out the final twist with about five minutes of play time left (Spoiler - click to show) because of all the cameras which was a brilliant move by Finley. Throughout the game I felt empowered and thrilled by the chase, until right near the end where I felt powerless but compelled to press on. The parallels between the story and my experience as a player were often step for step.

My only critique of the structure was the ability to die at several different points along the way. While I understand that seemed necessary to conceal the ending, it feels like in retrospect that those ways of ending the story do indeed negate the final ending.

Many have commented that the puzzles are poorly clued. I frequently use walkthroughs while playing and I didn't have to resort to one here. And I felt many of the puzzles were heavily clued (Spoiler - click to show)(the armband one especially, and even how to help the boy) but your mileage may vary. However, there is one structural issue (Spoiler - click to show) being allowed to access the 10th floor before helping the boy that killed the plot flow a bit early on.

Finley's writing is, as always, a treat and despite the game's flaws I was happy to be along for the ride.

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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Orwellian darkness, October 21, 2007

Not all of the puzzles in Kaged feel fair or well-clued, and this is a pity, because the game is otherwise very effective. You play a minor bureaucrat in the justice system of a vast and overbearing state, trying to understand a series of recent disturbing events. The architecture of the setting, the behavior of the other characters, and the unfolding of the plot all work together to create a sense of oppression and fear, which only grows stronger as the game plays out.

Kaged is illustrated with a handful of surreal images, which do more to strengthen the mood than to explain anything.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A surreal, horror-futuristic game with some thriller scenes, July 5, 2017
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 2 hours

I have to make one big admission up front: I played Kaged with a walkthrough almost straight through. I had heard some of the puzzles were unfair, and the story seemed great, and so I just read it as a short story.

This worked surprisingly well. It makes for a great short story. You are a bureaucrat in a complicated futuristic society where everything is tightly regulated and disturbing. You are asked to help stop a menace in this world.

The game deals with the nature of reality and with mind-bending. A pretty crazy game.

Edit: The original version of this game, played on HTML Tads, has great music and graphics. Really worth playing.

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Kaged on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Kaged appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Interactive Fiction Competition Winners by RichCheng
These are the games that won First Place honours in the IFComp each year.

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to be expanded

Favorite Fours From Industrious Implementors, 2G by Walter Sandsquish
Some IF writers write more than others. Here are my favorite four games from authors who've released at least half-a-dozen games to date. This list covers 2nd-generation text-adventure implementors, who published the bulk of their work...

See all lists mentioning this game

Polls

The following polls include votes for Kaged:

I'm looking for mysteries. by MCCLUTCH32
I like a game with a good story, good puzzles that aren't too difficult to understand and a good mystery. I was thinking more along the lines of horror, but murder mysteries work as well.

Sublime Moments by Sam Kabo Ashwell
I've been thinking about games that provide really brilliant moments. This is not about the overall quality of the game: there are plenty of excellent games that never deliver a clear, standout moment of unalloyed excellence. And surely...

Plot-driven Narrative by Jerako
I'm looking for a list of games to try where the narrative is the focus of the game. Where the author is really trying to tell a story over making a puzzlefest (though puzzles aren't necessarily unwelcome, especially if they drive they...

See all polls with votes for this game




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