The Weapon

by Sean Barrett

Science Fiction
2001

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Number of Ratings: 34
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
So many buttons..., August 29, 2023
by Rovarsson (Belgium)

Finally! The archeological researchers must have realised they couldn't understand this thing by themselves. After three months in the brigg, you get a chance to analyse this alien machine yourself. Under close supervision of course...

The Weapon is essentially a complicated puzzle box. Lots of buttons, a few technogadgets, a sequence of actions to figure out. On the surface, the puzzles are not that hard to figure out. It's just that, between the exact order of commands and the annoying presence of your supervisor, there's always a few extra complications to deal with first.

The descriptions of the surroundings are finetuned to the purpose of the game: clear, easy to visualise, no distractions or red herrings. There's a bit of colour in the alien aesthetic of the room, and the outer-space setting is hinted at without requiring further investigation. Although it's not necessary to talk at length with the NPC, the conversation tidbits do lend a bit of characterisation and context.
Even though it's a difficult balance to avoid giving the player too much information in a game like this, I would have liked a bit more exposition and backstory. It would have helped the emotional engagement with my PC.

Looking a bit deeper than the puzzle box at the surface, taking the at first minimally understood premise into account, The Weapon plays a subtle game with the different levels of knowledge about the situation of the NPC, the PC, and the player.

The game's subtitle is "An Interactive Misdirection". This is clearly implied in the relation and conversation between NPC and PC at the start of the game. The protagonist must keep progress on the machine hidden from the supervisor, lest the research is halted once the NPC figures out too much by herself.

But it also holds true in the relation between PC and player. The player is moving forward half-blind, motivated in-game by the vague objective of the PC, and out-of-game by the wish to solve the game's puzzles. This leads to her being led to an unsuspected (at least for the first half of the game) outcome. The twist was both simpler and more surprising than I had anticipated, even when it's obvious from the beginning that the goals of PC and NPC do not align.

A very clever game of NPC- and player-manipulation, manifesting itself on different levels of understanding.

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- Hellzon (Sweden), August 9, 2023

- ledzeppelin295, August 6, 2023

- Bloxwess (Bellaire, Texas), December 2, 2022

- Kinetic Mouse Car, August 1, 2022

- TheBoxThinker, July 29, 2022

- Edo, March 20, 2022

- Jonathan Verso, April 20, 2021

- Zach Shifflett (VA, United States), December 12, 2018

- davidar, November 10, 2018

- shornet (Bucharest), March 4, 2018

- Cory Roush (Ohio), August 1, 2017

- Greg Frost (Seattle, Washington), February 11, 2017

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
One room extra puzzly game with Halo-like plot, February 13, 2016

The Weapon is an excellent, polished puzzler. You are handcuffed and take in to understand a piece of technology left by an ancient space-faring race. You have your own agenda, though.

There is a well-loved NPC keeping an eye on you. This makes the puzzles that much harder. But they aren't impossible. You basically have to distract her while deciphering the code.

Overall, strongly recommended.

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- Aryore, December 12, 2015

- Thrax, March 11, 2015

- morlock, January 15, 2015

- The Year Is Yesterday (California), November 22, 2014

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

- Edward Lacey (Oxford, England), September 29, 2013

- Shchekotiki, July 31, 2013

- DJ (Olalla, Washington), May 9, 2013

- Floating Info, April 3, 2013

- Felix Pleșoianu (Bucharest, Romania), June 27, 2012

- Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle), April 3, 2012


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