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Bolivia By Night

by Aidan Doyle

Mystery, Fantasy, Travel
2005

(based on 19 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

A mystery adventure game set in Bolivia.


Game Details


Awards

Nominee, Best Writing; Nominee, Best NPCs - 2005 XYZZY Awards

2nd Place - Spring Thing 2005

Editorial Reviews

SPAG
The puzzles range from very easy to easy. Even those that border on clever are given direction through unprompted statements by your sidekick. [...] Again, due to the linear nature of the game, I didn't find any problem with following the storyline or deciding what I had to do next. I don't generally mind being pushed through a story but a little less of this would have suited my tastes more.
-- Eric Woods

The scenery feels right throughout: locations are never a chore to plough through simply looking for nouns to "examine". The writing is plain, simple and funny -- the author is thankfully not a frustrated poet trying to wow you with his turn of phrase. It's refreshingly down-to-earth. The characters feel alive (especially the TV chef and your chauvinistic colleague). The puzzles are just simple enough not to get in the way of the story, and entertaining enough to complement it. The whole thing is reasonably long (several hours' worth for an average player, divided into convenient chapters to allow for short spells of gaming), and the story could easily have come straight out of Robert Anton Wilson's ILLUMINATUS! trilogy of novels (a good thing).
-- "Niz"
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Member Reviews

5 star:
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Number of Reviews: 2
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Ode to Bolivia, June 7, 2022
by Rovarsson (Belgium)
Related reviews: History

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Beautemps. I'm a Canadian journalist working on a temporary visa for the Bolivian Herald. Until now, Ive been mostly interviewing the lovely Bolivan people and writing articles for the lifestyle, media and cooking pages. This morning however, our star political reporter seems to have gone missing. I feel the urge to investigate...

I could just as well have been Randy Froomes from the US of A or Miss Topsy Turvy from England. The game would have remembered these bits of information from the short application form to be filled in at the start, and numerous details and customized responses would have been altered in the game-text. Rarely have I come across a game where entering "personal" information at the beginning had such an impact on the feel of the experience. Most of the time I semi-forget who my character was and just keep playing as "me-in-game". Here I was reminded at numerous small instances of who my character was. This helped in feeling truly immersed in the game world.

The deep implementation runs throughout. There are paintings and photographs and murals and billboards to look at (many with an actual picture embedded in the game), books and newspapers to read. Very few of these are vital or even important, but they add up to a vivid world.

Bolivia by Night is not a puzzle-oriented game. Although there are puzzles, and a few clever and surprising ones at that, they are never meant to be brainstakingly hard. Instead, they are meant to make the player engage with the surroundings more deeply while never stopping the story from rolling forward. Indeed, the game actively nudges, nay, pushes you toward the solutions. By the third chapter, these nudges are given by a certain charismatic Communist leader on your t-shirt...

That is not to say that Bolivia by Night does not pose obstacles. The main challenge is sifting through the huge amount of information about the history of Bolivia and the relations between the characters to find out where the investigation will lead you next.
Who should I ask about what? Where did that character say she was going to be? How does this fit with what I know already?

During the five-chapter-long investigation of the disappearance of your colleague where you learn about ancient and more recent Bolivian history which is sometimes quite depressing, the game alleviates the darker context with many, many jokes (try walking into a Burger King with said charismatic Communist leader and see what happens...), and many beautifully written evocative references to the beauty of the land, the culture and the history of Bolivia.

While the game has a definite happy end (and a bad one), the story in which your adventure takes place concludes on a more open but still hopeful message.

What touched me most about this piece is the obvious care and love of the author for Bolivia that shines through the entire text.

A beautiful, exciting and moving game.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A historical/cultural game with photographs that becomes more, February 4, 2016

Bolivia by Night surprised me on multiple levels, throughout the game. It begins with you as a reporter in a Bolivian city who has to interview different people, getting in some comic situations. The game has a lot of real photos included, as well as quotes about Bolivia.

Then, the game changes fundamentally, again and again. I don't think I can put into words how entertaining it was and how deeply different from the opening sequence.

The puzzles are very simple. Sometimes, though, it's just a guess-the-author's brain game. Many solutions rely on applying objects to to things that share common traits (for instance, if it were a fighting game, you would use a blue spear against a blue-eyed warrior). The hints section is well-done, and the game almost delights in guiding you through what to do.

Somehow, this game enchanted me.

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Bolivia By Night on IFDB

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Bolivia By Night:

forgotten gems by Marius Müller
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