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Number of Ratings: 37
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- Wanderlust, May 28, 2023
1 of
1 people found the following review helpful:
"Do you seek the wisdom of the ancients?", February 25, 2023With these words our story begins. The protagonist welcomes a timid customer into his salon, preparing to do a psychic reading and look into the future. He'll be the first to admit it's all hazy-floaty mumbo-jumbo, or, as the plaque above the salon door reads: "For entertainment purposes only."
Not long after however, when a strong-willed police-woman steps into the salon on a private mission and slaps a "tense and furious glove" on the table, it is revealed to his own astonishment that he does seem to have inherited some of the genuine psychic powers of his late mother...
Stone Harbor is a supernatural detective story. It follows the predictable mould of such stories quite closely. What it does with the various elements within that mould however, it does very well.
The prose flows easily and confidently. For example: the protagonist's shock and disbelief of being drawn into a psychic trance feels genuine to the reader. It's believable, where it could easily come across as forced or even farcical from the pen of a less-skilled writer.
Places are described elaborately and in precise detail, allowing an intricate mental picture of the surroundings. These descriptions are infused with the personal impressions of the protagonist, letting the reader align herself more intimately with the protagonist.
In contrast, revelations about the characters themselves and their relations to other people are kept short and implicit, trusting the reader to draw conclusions based on a few poignant details.
The overall structure of the story made me think of a ride in a slowly but steadily accelerating train. The long uninterrupted paragraphs of the first chapters provide the opportunity to comfortably settle in, study the characters and the setting. The story gradually picks up speed and by the final chapter the plot is frantically hurtling toward the denouement, dragging the reader along.
I'v consistently used the word "reader" in this review. That is because Stone Harbor is much more a story than it is a game. It's a linear narrative without branching, leading to a single predetermined outcome.
The choices, the clicking, the interacting with the text serve to guide and influence the reader's experience of the story while travelling through it, rather than giving her control over the direction of travel.
Especially in the first chapters, the many micro-choices, the options of what detail to focus the protagonist's attention on, invite deep commitment and investment. They effectively help the reader to align herself with the main character and inspire a genuine wish to see the mystery solved.
The further the plot advances, the more a single clickable option is available to advance the story. Instead of being a boring "continue"-option in disguise at the end of a paragraph however, these single clicks retain an in-story relevance. Not only does it feel qualitatively different to press a meaningful nou, a word which the reader has been trained to associate feelings of hope or threat with, the strategic placement of the clicks in ever-shortening paragraphs nearing the end also very effectively impresses the hastening tempo on the reader.
An impressively written, grippingly paced mystery.
- Kinetic Mouse Car, August 2, 2022
- bkirwi, October 17, 2021
- TheBoxThinker, October 1, 2021
- WillFlame, August 31, 2020
- Marc-André Goyette, July 3, 2020
- kierlani, March 21, 2020
- CMG (NYC), March 15, 2020
- Laney Berry, September 27, 2018
0 of
1 people found the following review helpful:
My iPhone feels satisfied, September 26, 2018Cool little story, not the most interactive maybe, but quite satisfying nonetheless. Got taken in pretty thoroughly by my boardwalk psychic persona, which leant some credibility when I did have to make choices. Very pro presentation.
- Dawn Sueoka, August 26, 2018
- stet, November 22, 2017
- Julia Myer (USA), September 26, 2017
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
Amazing premise in an amazing custom hypertext system, August 3, 2017Disclaimer: (Spoiler - click to show)Hi, this are the reviews I did in the the IFComp 2016. I’m Ruber Eaglenest. Co-author of The skyscraper and the scar, and entry of that year. The review is posted without edition, and need some context about how I reviewed and rated the games. So, apart of my bad English I hope to be constructive. I will point to the things I don't like of the game, but I hope to be helpful. The structure I follow is this: Title, one line review, two to five word; Mobile friendliness, overall, score phrased based on IF comp guidelines. I had back ache and so that’s why I played most games in Android mobile, I looked closely at how games behave on mobile and review and vote based on that.
Mobile friendly: Completely! Very well done! It is custom system that just nails it. it is comfortable to play. It has even a link to switch between day mode and night reading mode. It autosaves. The system fills the scroll with text with no end, and when you resume the game you must go down all the way. It could benefit of separate chapters that clean the scroll. And maybe a dynamic link to the actual reading point (that is, all the way down) could be great. But I’m just nit-picking.
General: Great start for a game about spiritualism. The initial scene is really really great creating the mood, presenting the main characters and the main mechanic of interaction. I just loved it. However it is just not real interactive (insert my subjectivity on the matter here). If you drop the game in a book, it would work the same. It is a pity, because the story, the writing, the custom hypertext system, all have a LOT of potential.
There are some problems in the perspective of PC and the narrator in some scenes. Mainly in the scene of the doll. We don’t know who we are, if the doll, the girl, the player. Maybe it is on purpose but it just don’t work. The point of view should be more homogenise, but in this concrete scene it seems it is jumping from one view to another.
The writing is superb, however I find one lacking in the interpretation of the PC. At the beginning, when he just get out of the trance, he is quite cold about it
This was the first actual psychic experience of your life.
Come on! it should be as this, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du_wQIga3Uc
It should "I feel my skin like crawl" to the PC, or to the reader.
I missed a LOT of interaction, I miss free exploration, free interaction, I miss agency. It is a pity. However, I take a lot of joy of what I were reading, it is just, it wasn't interactive.
Score: Recommended with reservations. And it is a pity, this could be better just adding more interactivity in EVERY scene, for example, even in dialogues with traditional branching dialogues a-la graphic adventure or modern CYOAs.
- Indigo9182, July 10, 2017
- Xavid, July 10, 2017
- lastplaneout (Boone, NC), June 23, 2017
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
A largely linear but powerful story about a psychic-turned-detective, May 10, 2017This was my favorite game of the comp, on the strength of its writing and its use of kinetic links.
In this game, you play a fake psychic who discovers their true powers after being roped into a murder investigation.
The gameplay resolves around big chunks of text with little choices that change some flavor text. I usually don't like this style, but the concept of a psychic\detective trying to prove himself is great for this style; it makes you hunt the text for clues, trying to figure out what angle to approach a person, to guess what item to use next. It reminds me of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, with a strong attention to gathering clues from clothing, appearance, and clues.
The styling is gorgeous, the machinery runs smooth, the graphics are good. Does this mean Parser is dead? No, it just means that there's twice as many games to enjoy.
- Aryore, May 2, 2017
- hoopla, March 8, 2017
- zoopzoopzoop, February 22, 2017
- ocdunlap, February 20, 2017
- kala (Finland), February 2, 2017
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