Being Andrew Plotkin

by J. Robinson Wheeler profile

Screen, Satire
2000

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5 star:
(8)
4 star:
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3 star:
(19)
2 star:
(6)
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Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 56
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- SirIgnotus (Somewhere, probably.), June 23, 2023

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A postcard from Zarf's insides., November 18, 2022
by Rovarsson (Belgium)

Quick recap: the protagonist of the movie/game finds a magic door that leads into John Malkovich'/Andrew Plotkin's mind. Shenanigans ensue.

For the most part, the game follows the plot of the movie quite closely. The biggest alterations are jokes and references to IF in general and Zarf's games in particular. Since I wasn't around in the era of sizzling and bubbling creativity on the intfiction newsgroups in the 90s, a lot of the references went over my head. I'm also not intimately familiar enough with Andrew Plotkin's work to recognize all the jokes and shout-outs.
However, having roamed the internet for IF-history sources, a lot of the game did ring a funny bell.

For a text-adventure about a PC who's a hobbyist text-adventure writer entering the mind of one of the most renowned text-adventure writers of the era, there's actually precious little actual text-adventuring to do.

Most of the game pushes you along the rails laid out by the movie, with frequent conversations where you can choose to say a silly thing or an even sillier thing. Only in the very last sequence before the epilogue does a puzzle show up. And it's a rather mediocre one at that. (One could call it a callback to the classic puzzles, if one were generously inclined...)

The writing and tempo are great though. Exciting scenes zip by at rollercoaster speed, the descriptions are detailed and evocative, the conversations are very funny indeed.

I enjoyed the ride.

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- VanishingSky (Nanjing, China), July 9, 2022

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

I was the perfect audience for this game, or near-perfect anyway. I've seen and enjoyed Being John Malkovich, the film by Spike Jonze. I've hung around the IF scene for a long time. I've played every Plotkin game, even Inhumane. I've also played every Infocom game, which turns out to be helpful as well. Even with all that, I'm not sure I caught every reference (especially given the prodigious list of such references provided by the author in the endnotes), but I think I caught a lot of them. Consequently, I'm not sure how somebody who doesn't fulfill some or all of the above criteria would react to BAP, but I can tell you this: I thought it was a delight.

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- Cryptic Puffin, December 8, 2021

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Somewhat amusing, but misses some shots., October 28, 2021
by mg51
Related reviews: three stars, unfinished

I appreciate what Being Andrew Plotkin was trying to do, but it fell a bit flat for me. Between the kind of unnecessary and awkward romantic plotline and a lot of jokes that were probably just too meta for me, it felt repetitive and overly linear, with almost no room for exploration with the frequent P.O.V. switches, leaving me with an overall sense of dissatisfaction with the environment. And in spite of the frequent P.O.V. switches, I never found myself attached to or invested in any of the characters. I should say I haven't seen the film this is based on, and while I don't know if that would have made me enjoy the game more, it probably would have given context to some elements I wasn't a fan of.

Basically, to me, this game relied too heavily on plot and not enough on gameplay, an issue I had with Photopia too, but unlike Photopia, the story wasn't interesting enough for me to continue forward anyway. When I reached the point in the story where you can find yourself in an infinite loop and couldn't figure out how to stop it, I gave up on the game.

So, because I didn't finish, please take my rating with a grain of salt. I can't speak to the entire game. I have selected to have my rating excluded from the game's overall rating too for this reason.

Note: this rating is not included in the game's average.
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- Zape, September 2, 2021

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Mixed Emotions, June 3, 2020
by Zoe Victoria (Under your bed)

This game was one of the Many Preinstalled text adventures that came when I downloaded Frotz on my iPad. The title seemed interesting so I decided: why not try it out?

I can't say I regret that decision really, I mean the experience was Pretty enjoyable. I enjoyed the dialogue options, that's not really something seen often in this medium, at least not to my knowledge. But I can't help but find the gameplay a little lackluster, you basically type what it tells you to type to advance the story, one of which I personally couldn't manage because I'm (Spoiler - click to show)Not very familiar to the way these games are coded since I use quest to make my games rather than inform. Point is, there really isn't any exploration, or puzzles, or challenges of any kind. So much so that you could probably sell this just as well, if not better, as a non-interactive fiction. A short story, a Zarf fanfic if you will.

I think I'd get a bit more enjoyment out of this game if I had watched the movie this game was based on, or played the game this game was based on,or knew a bit more about the IF community than I do at present. But despite my nitpicking, there We're Things that I enjoyed about this game, namely how the author described locations and such differently depending on the current PC, especially Zarf, I think they nailed his descriptive manner of writing fairly well. So if you're a fan of Zarf and his work, then check this game out. I'm probably just not the target demographic.

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- SqueeglesMcGee, October 27, 2019

- SchnickelFritz (TX), December 26, 2018

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), November 17, 2017

- ArchDelacy, November 2, 2017

- shornet (Bucharest), April 26, 2017

- Sobol (Russia), January 6, 2017

- E. W. B., March 9, 2016

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A comedy game with intense chase scenes and romance, February 3, 2016
by MathBrush
Related reviews: about 1 hour

I have never seen Being John Malkovich, but this game is loosely based on it. In this game, you gain access to Andrew Plotkin (a.k.a. Zarf), author of games such as Shade, So Far, Spider and Web, and a million others. You play several characters, including Zarf and a couple of young lovebirds.

The game is relatively short, taking less than an hour. The humor is mostly absurd humor, with numerous references to Zarf's fiction. I had only played a few games at the time; it is probably worth it to work through a lot of Plotkin's games (like So Far and A Change in the Weather) before playing this game, or afterwards. Unfortunately, these games are extremely hard, so if you're not a puzzle fiend, consider a walkthrough.

Great writing, mostly good puzzles, and a fun setting. I recommend it for everyone.

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- Aryore, December 13, 2015

- Ivanr, October 13, 2015

- Pegbiter (Malmö, Sweden), June 16, 2015

- scottmbruner (alameda, california), May 22, 2015

- Shchekotiki, April 14, 2015

- CMG (NYC), April 7, 2015

- Thrax, March 12, 2015

- Lorxus, March 10, 2014

- KidRisky (Connecticut, USA), December 20, 2013


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