Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

by Kenneth Pedersen (as Ilmur Eggert) profile

Historical Fantasy Comedy
2020

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Number of Reviews: 6
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
simple time travel game featuring Newton with a rarely used design choice, October 6, 2020
by WidowDido (Northern California)
Related reviews: IF Comp 2020

A brief bit of historical IF that is in a small minority of parser games, using both the third person and the past tense. I am honestly not sure what led to this decision by the author, but it made a very straightforward game a little more interesting.

The puzzles here are very simple. The level of detail is restricted to the surface level, with a minimum amount of activity allowed. (Spoiler - click to show)I wouldn't be surprised to learn that writing responses for Pascal, Euler, and Cervantes in the library took as much or more time than writing room and object descriptions. And, perhaps speaking to the rest of the gameplay, I was perhpas more interested in testing mathematicians from history than with finishing the game.

I didn't find any bugs in the game, and the conceit of Newton's quest is solid enough to make for a decent plot. Unfortunately, I thought the descriptions were a little lacking in their response to player input. The room descriptions a little too bland. The puzzles should not pose too much difficulty, but I did not consider them very rewarding or inspired.

Anyone wanting to play a short parser game with an element of time travel may enjoy this piece. Also, perhaps worth it for designers to see how playing IF with a parser that responds in the third-person, past-tense may have an effect on the player's relationship to the PC and the story.

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