Ariadne in Aeaea

by Victor Ojuel profile

Historical
2016

Return to the game's main page

Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(4)
4 star:
(10)
3 star:
(7)
2 star:
(3)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 24
Write a review


Previous | << 1 >> | Next


- Edo, August 17, 2023

- Kinetic Mouse Car, August 23, 2022

- TheBoxThinker, September 5, 2021

- Zape, July 18, 2020

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Easyish linear game with a well-realised historical setting, July 17, 2020
by ChrisM (Cambridge, UK)

This is an amusing little game with some strong writing and a well-drawn player character in Ariadne, a sassy novitiate priestess who gets caught up in a little light espionage after a night in the sack with a couple of local goatherds. The map is fairly small and the story very linear: you are more or less trundled along from one scene to another with quite a lot of heavy hints and signposting to help you along the way. That being so, the puzzle coefficient is pretty small, but the whole feels immersive and convincing enough (thanks to the writing) for that not to matter too much. If you're in the mood for something not too taxing then this makes a pleasant diversion for an hour or so.

There are a few typos in there, and some other minor issues (for example, at one point you're told that you converse with a character while you walk to another location, but you don't actually leave the location that you are in), but nothing too egregious to distract from the overall experience.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- kierlani, May 24, 2020

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A short, polished adventure through a segment of Greek mythology, June 24, 2019
by MathBrush
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

I put off playing this game for a couple of years because I thought it was a sexual game. It mentions a few things here and there, but is quite a bit tamer than I expected, with almost all salacious material at the beginning. If Shakespeare is acceptable, this has about the same level, or Don Quijote.

Anyway, this fun adventure puts you in the role of Ariadne (THE Ariadne from mythology), engaged in a wasteful and promiscuous lifestyle, who receives a wake-up call from her aunt Circe (THE Circe). Most of the game is fairly linear, with TALK TO being the main interaction, but its well-oiled and polished. This is a great little game.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- C. W. Gray , March 9, 2018

- Guenni (At home), January 12, 2018

- Khalisar (Italy), November 1, 2017

- Cory Roush (Ohio), August 18, 2017

- IFforL2 (Chiayi, Taiwan), December 9, 2016

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Light-hearted parser game in a Greek setting with well-written characters, December 9, 2016
by dgtziea
Related reviews: IF Comp 2016

Semi-historical (Greek) parser game, not too long; light-hearted, well written. You're a young member of the royal family (the unruly one they might say) hoping to be ordained as priestess to the Goddess despite sniping from your aunt and sister, as you move about your small theocratic island kingdom. It is wordier than some of the other entries I've played so far, but it does a great job earning those words with personality and veneer.

The dialogue is excellent; you quickly get a handle on each of the characters, their relationships, and their motivations. You're also given a good sense of your own character early on (this is not a faceless/nameless adventurer you're controlling here). This all helps in making the game feel purposeful.

Puzzles are pretty straightforward: Talk to this person, find this item here, show it to this other person, etc. But they're not the focus here, and they're still enjoyable.

Maybe some of the descriptions are a bit hand-holdy in terms of guiding the player; I think having other characters tell you what they need or having your own character express goals is great, but having descriptions say pretty much what to do next seems like hand-of-the-creator reaching down and pointing something out. I think some of them were one step more explicit than they needed to be. But some players, I'm sure, will appreciate that.

The writing is the star here. The world, the setting, the characters: all are very well sketched out, and just exploring this small world was really enjoyable.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- E.K., December 4, 2016

- Robin Johnson (Edinburgh, Scotland), November 24, 2016

- Doug Orleans (Somerville, MA, USA), November 24, 2016

- Hannes, November 19, 2016

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), November 18, 2016

- Sobol (Russia), November 10, 2016

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Adventures of a hungover wannabe priestess, November 8, 2016

This is a relatively short and simple puzzle game taking place in ancient Greece; there were a few times where I struggled to figure out what I was supposed to do next, but I never had to look at the the walkthrough. I really like games that give you a well-defined protagonist with strong motivations and flaws, rather than making you a faceless "you"-entity, and this game provides an excellent one in Ariadne, a lecherous lush who mostly wants to become a priestess so she can show up her obnoxious kid sister. In order to do that, she's got to solve a mystery related to a mysterious lion brooch and... honestly, I actually found the mystery itself a little hard to follow, but it may be easier if you're more familiar with the time period. Fortunately the next actions you need to take are usually hinted at fairly strongly, and the world model is robust enough to stand up to some poking around.

A few things could stand to be improved. You have to advance conversations by 'talking to' people repeatedly, clunkier than just pushing space to advance--since the conversations are linear anyway, why make us advance them with the parser? The hint system has some strengths--it's neatly integrated into the story, with Ariadne talking to herself in order to straighten out what she needs to do next--but a few glaring weaknesses too. Sometimes when TALKing TO ME I got Ariadne musing that she needed to do things she'd already done, or things she shouldn't know to do yet. (Most egregiously, she wanted to interrogate 'the boy', but the only evident boy couldn't be interrogated--as it turned out, 'the boy' was another boy she hadn't even met yet.)

Overall, the game is a solidly implemented and fairly quick play that runs to the easier end of the puzzle spectrum, with an appealingly debauched heroine and an original setting. Contrast this one with 2015's One Night Stand--both feature a young woman protagonist who begins the game by waking up with a hangover after a night of casual sex, but there's a big difference in how they're treated. Ariadne is judged by some of the other characters, but not by the game, or by herself--you don't get the impression she's going to lose any sleep over not knowing these random goatherds' names. She's got shit to do.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

- Audiart (Davis, CA), November 3, 2016

- LayzaSkully (Italy), October 17, 2016

- Denk, October 14, 2016

- Matt Bates, October 6, 2016


Previous | << 1 >> | Next | Return to game's main page