Reviews by MathBrush
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Unique game with single correct choices and clever mechanics, May 26, 2024Review for Twine version:
In this updated review, I'll mainly focus on the differences between the two versions, while a summary of the content can be found in my original review below.
Transitioning to Twine altered the feel mechanics of the game in an interesting way. The original setup was more or less 'one correct action at a time', leading to the next possible action. Due to the nature of parser games, the main interaction with the game was trying to guess the correct command to proceed.
By limiting the set of possible commands through Twine links, this revision on one hand eases the pain of 'guess the verb', but on the other hand limits the feel of exploration. I think it's a net positive, though, as the interface with its inventory and 'nested' sub-links still allows for a feeling of achievement.
My expectations for parser games and twine games are different, so seeing this game in Twine gave me a new viewpoint on the storyline. It's not unusual for parser games to flimsy plots and bizarre settings, as many classic games like Adventure and Zork focused more on interesting set-pieces rather than cohesive storytelling. But Twine has a history of attracting expert storytellers, so the bar is set higher.
There's a lot that doesn't make sense in this game. Why is there an entire chest, locked, containing (Spoiler - click to show)a single gold ring? Why is there (Spoiler - click to show)an altar that requires sacrifice, but that sacrifice isn't killed, just trapped inside? Later on, most of these concerns are addressed, because it sets up (Spoiler - click to show)the second playthrough(Spoiler - click to show) as a resolution for many of these questions, but it's a bit bewildering on the first go through. On the other hand, the game is influenced by the Conan series of books, movies, comics, etc. and there is perhaps no better way to show tribute to the original writing style than to have a flamboyant, bigger-than-life story that doesn't quite make sense but allows Conan to hit a lot of things really hard.
Overall, I felt like this was a satisfying play. It has different strengths and weaknesses than the original, and I think I ended up liking both version about the same. I did laugh at the jokes the second time and enjoyed the details in the writing, and I feel like overall the 'Conan-style' writing is my favorite feature of the game.
Original review:
This game is one whose development I have followed for some time.
This is a parser game set in a Conan The Barbarian-like world, with a muscular barbarian king who travels about fighting monsters and wizards and generally destroying things.
There is a cast of memorable NPCs and the writing has a strong voice, with complete customization of almost all messages and a rich setting.
This was originally developed in conjunction with the single choice jam; this game, instead of having exactly one action in the whole game, like most other entries, has exactly one correct action in each location (or, more appropriately, only one allowed action in each point in the game, since some rooms require consecutive correct actions).
There is also a limit on available verbs (customized to have clever names), so that means that at any point, to progress, you need to figure out which of the available verbs to use. Theoretically, this means that you could progress at any point just by trying all of the verbs on all of the nouns. The author works around this by frequently requiring unusual or surprising combinations.
Overall, it took me around 1.5 hours, and I found it clever and richly descriptive.
A fairytale game about rescusing a kidnapped mother goose, May 16, 2024This is a polished parser game entered in the Text Adventure Literacy Jam.
In it, you find that Mother Goose was kidnapped, and you have to save her! On the way, you'll encounter many of the characters from Mother Goose's fairy tales.
Gameplay is classic parser style, with most of gameplay revolving around taking and dropping objects, using objects with clearly-defined uses, and talking with NPCs.
There is an odd feature of the game, where most of the time the use of an object is directly told you ('you should search this', 'you can open it', 'you can PUT IT ON something'), but other times you're merely told what you can not do, often with objects where some use would make sense. For instance, I was stymied when (Spoiler - click to show)the game told me that I needed to hide my smell, and I had (Spoiler - click to show)perfume, but the game only said (Spoiler - click to show)you don't feel like putting on the perfume. I felt like that was pretty frustrating. I found a different item later, but I thought it odd that the game had a clear solution which was just ruled out as a preference. A similar thing happened with (Spoiler - click to show)the need to make a loud sound and (Spoiler - click to show)the gunpowder. While I've spent a long time on this, these frustrations were only a part of the game and the rest was overall smooth.
I enjoyed the writing in general. The characters, while true to the stories, were also more flirtatious and/or violent than many modern adaptations of nursery rhymes, holding more true to the original versions.
Overall, a well-made game.
Impressive but flawed hand-made C# system for short fantasy game, May 13, 2024The trouble with parser games is that players can type in literally anything and hope to get a reasonable response out. This causes problems when the player enters something that seems logical to them which the game rejects.
There are two ways of addressing this: training players on a standardized set of verbs, so they enter a narrower range of commands, and programming more responses into your engine/game.
This game is a custom C# engine. Unfortunately, it doesn't recognize as wide a range of commands as most of the popular parser engines do, and it doesn't use common player-recognized commands and shortcuts like I and L, so it's missing both ways to keep player frustration at bay. I ended up frustrated a lot. I couldn't even read the initial text, as it scrolled off screen and mouse and arrow keys didn't move it (althought pg dn eventually did).
There are buttons and an extra text field, designed to make the task easier, which helped. But overall I think that the author vastly underestimated the ability of players (including me) to type exactly the wrong thing, over and over.
Combined with this, the game does not save or undo (and I had to manually exit to restart), and it has several instant deaths and other ways to lock yourself out of victory (I had to restart on two different occasions because I GAVE something TO someone, which the game accepted, but they didn't give it back).
The storyline is that you are in a dungeon cell where Excalibur has appeared, in the stone, and you have to escape. There are a few segments with fairies, but that's the end of this preview.
As a C# project made in a month this is very impressive, so much so that I would be impressed by this if I were on a hiring committee. As a parser game among many other parser games, it falls a bit flat. I don't know if the author reads IFDB reviews, but I'd suggest looking at some other current parser games to see what's possible in terms of responsiveness, and/or running more cycles of feedback with having people test the game and see what commands could be implemented to smooth gameplay.
Mythological game set in a complex labyrinth , May 5, 2024This game was part of the Text Adventure Literacy Jam, which requires a tutorial and asks authors to make games appropriate for newcomers.
The tutorial in this game was, I thought, as long as the whole game, as it was very complex, involving following a complex recipe. I was surprised to find out there was more after, and quite a bit!
This is one of the longer Adventuron games I've seen in a while, not as big as Faeries of Haelstowne, for instance, but it took me around an hour or more.
You play as an Athenian maiden trapped in the labyrinth with the minotaur. But...he's actually a very nice minotaur. And he needs your help!
The gameplay and story reminded me of Bronze by Emily Short in a way, with an injured beast man that you have to care for. But this is a more positive game, and contains many references to Greek Mythology.
One thing I liked about this game was that it has a lot of optional side quests, meaning that if you are having trouble you can just leave, but if you're enjoying yourself and want more of a challenge you can attempt the other quests.
There are a lot of hints and things.
I had several parser frustrations, many of which were just due to having a complex project in Adventuron, in my opinion (I had a big Adventuron project that had similar issues). I passed on everything I found to the author, though, and I didn't have much trouble completing the game in the end.
I liked the storyline overall, and felt it was a good spin on mythology and I loved the synergy between me and the minotaur. Glad I played.
Several mini-stories accessible from a hub, May 4, 2024This is an Adventuron game designed for the Text Adventure Literacy Jam. It has simple puzzles and structure, designed as an introduction to IF.
The author often had trouble when playing Adventuron on mobile because it wouldn't save, so this game is based on a password system. An early choice in the game leads to 4 branches, each accessible by a password.
Most of the gameplay revolves around driving to work, getting an assignment, then carrying out a task involving riddles or metaphoric actions of various sorts, including solving number patterns and changing the emotions of animals. There's one big final chapter at the end.
Overall, the game has some heartwarming moments and some big ideas. The execution doesn't really pull through though. There are a lot of typos and grammatical errors; the author is a non-native speaker, likely using a mobile device based on the author notes, but it may be worth running the text through a spellchecker like grammarly (you can even put code into spell checkers, just ignoring the errors the code part causes). A lot of items are underimplemented; one important item is stuck in a gate, but X item acts as if it's not there; similarly, there is a billboard that you can't EXAMINE or LOOK AT but can READ. You have to GO OFFICE to go to the office, but if you try to GO ______ for an address, it says 'not yet'; instead, you must just type ______ (i.e. the address itself). Due to these issues, I found myself struggling to enjoy parts of the game. With more polish, I could see this being very fun!
There is some pixel art, which ranges from abstract and confusing to fun and silly. There is an odd part about buying underwear off models, leaving them nude, but otherwise it's pretty solid.
Overall, lots of fun stuff here, just needs some more care and attention to spelling and implementation.
A compact fantasy game written in a custom engine, April 27, 2024This game was entered in the IF Grand Prix 2024, in German. In it, you play as someone determined to stop a sorceror from hatching a dragon egg and dooming the nearby community.
Gameplay revolves around looking around, exploring, and then using different items you find to open up new areas.
It's written in a custom engine which looks visually appealing but which I struggled with. A lot of objects weren't implemented that were mentioned in the text, and many synonyms I've become accustomed to from other German games didn't work here, so I had about 25 commands at the beginning that weren't understood. I finally got one to work by accident. Exploring around, some commands were hinted in the text and just didn't work; an example (not from the game) would be like 'it looks like you can pull it!' but 'pull' doesn't work.
Not being a native speaker compounded this problem, but I've seen on the German forums that others had the same problems. I ended up using the walkthrough helpfully provided, pausing here and there to explore some.
Other than that, the game is a good fantasy game. Some of the puzzle solutions were a bit confusing but the game is small enough that just trying everything should be fine.
A new IF engine takes a ton of work. This one is very promising but could use some more synonyms. For instance, in Inform I can type 'Oben' and 'Hoch' and both make me go up, or just 'schau' for looking around (maybe these are unusual commands and I've trained myself wrong by misplaying other German titles, a native speaker would have to correct me). I see now when writing that there was a Help page on the front page of the game, but I didn't see that when I first played, and typing Hilfe didn't bring anything up in game. The help page would have helped some, though, but it doesn't mention the up and down directions, which I struggled with.
A classic Western with a traveller helping solve a mystery, April 23, 2024This was a well-made Inform game in German with custom CSS. It uses the Hybrid Choices extension for Dialog.
You play as a traveller who comes to a small town looking for your love. In the meantime, though, you find a mystery, as a young man goes missing.
Gameplay revolves mostly around dialogue and exploration, with one puzzle involving several metal implements that I found confusing enough for me (a non-native speaker) to need to look at the walkthrough, but once I saw the commands it made sense.
Between conversations, there is often a lot of fetch-quests, where one person asks you to go find something and bring it back. I felt like it was a lot of fun most of the time, but one specific part felt a little repetitive, as there are three things in a row where you get an item, use it, realize you need another, get it, use it, etc.
Overall, I liked the writing and thought the flashbacks were neat. A very strong game. Near the end there were two weird things; the use of the word (Spoiler - click to show)drugs to refer to illegal things, when it was more (Spoiler - click to show)a reference to pharmaceuticals at the time</spoil>, and a somewhat derogatory term for Asians spoken by an uncultured man.
'Western' is definitely an underutilized IF category so it was nice playing a very polished game in this genre.
A complex Twine game about exploring an enormous library, April 20, 2024This game was in a poll for games that need more reviews.
In this game, you play as a lowly librarian who has been tasked by a mysterious stranger with finding the Babylon Book, which contains all stories that can ever be written.
This is meant to be the first in a three-part series. The bulk of the game takes place in a bizarre student cafeteria where history, magic, and collegiate life mingle.
The game uses a lot of styling, and has cycling links, background images, music, and a lot of text boxes where you can type what you want. I'm not sure how often the game checks what's in the type boxes; I had one puzzle where for sure it mattered, but others didn't.
The story is madcap and surreal, so it can be fun but also hard to follow at times. I wasn't quite sure how I ended up in the cafeteria, or why I couldn't leave it; and I encountered many things before I knew how to make use of them.
But, this is fairly compact, and it's not too hard to explore everything even though there's a lot. So I was able to figure out things in the end.
I definitely think I'd play the next few games. The one thing that I wish were a little different was the many times where I saw a cool feature (especially text boxes) and didn't know if it was 'cool feature just to have fun with that is only used for characterization' or 'essential puzzle component'.
A music-enhanced goofy night in a cemetery investigating aliens, April 9, 2024There have been a couple of polls over the years for 'games that need more reviews' and this has been on all of them. I loaded it up once a few years ago, but it seemed somewhat overwhelming.
But I'm glad I've finished it now!
This is a goofy, intentionally silly game in the vein of Escape from the Crazy Place. You are a police officer dressed as a Go Go dancer. Your partner is Donald McRonald: clown, pyromaniac, and overall goofy character.
The game map is split into about 9 main locations with a couple of extra ones. Gameplay revolves around bringing items from one area into another and getting Ronald to cooperate with you.
The plot is that something mysterious fell out the sky and crashed into the graveyard, and now so many of the dead and buried are rising up out their graves!
There is background music, which I thought was well-chosen; it felt like the soundtrack to one of those movies within a movie you see when people reference fake black and white horror films, like the werewolf movie in the Thriller music video. It has a lot more character than much of the music I've seen in other IF games.
However, I also found a lot of bugginess. The jelly doughnut was a major problem; I found it in a grave. I took it. Then I took something else in the grave, and it said I took the doughnut. I later gave the doughtnut to Donald, and it said he ate it, but then I still had it in my inventory. Similarly, the hints just went blank when first entered the (Spoiler - click to show)spacecraft. There were also a lot of interactions which may have been bugs and may have not; like when I opened my purse, and (Spoiler - click to show)tried to get something out and died, so I tried giving it to Ronald and told him to open it, then when I had it again I could take stuff out and not die, even though the boa was in there. Similarly, with the main nemesis, (Spoiler - click to show)I first tried doing nothing, and died; then breaking the machine, and died; then going through the light, and died; then talking, and that just gave a normal response. So I tried attacking the dog herself and got mind controlled away. So things were kind of chaotic. There are also several typos, mainly missing quotes when a sentence has a dialogue tag in the middle.
The characters and writing are funny and high quality, and the music really helps the ambiance. I enjoyed a lot of the puzzles, too. I wonder if that's why there are so few reviews; the game is good enough that no one would give it a 'this sucks, don't try this' review, but tricky enough to finish that people who like it often aren't able to see the end. However, I should note that as of writing this in April 2024, this game has a lot of 4-5 star ratings, while I'm giving it a 3-star rating, so my experience may be atypical.
Long, complex and creepy story about a private cinema showing, March 31, 2024This is a pretty substantial Moiki game with a creepy atmosphere, in French.
There is a book you love that is finally getting a movie adaptation! And your friend has a friend who knows someone who has an early bootleg copy!
The book is about a woman who reincarnates throughout history, including as various animals, but who can take control of some of the reincarnations given the right ritual.
Going to the movie takes you to a dark and frightening theatre where everyone behaves strangely...
The game gives the impression that there are many branches, although I only played through once. There are numerous quick-time events, which were difficult for me as a non-native speaker.
The use of background images, music and occasional voice were very effective, and I was impressed both by the technical skill and the storytelling.
I was left unsure of how the final events of the game where I learn more about myself were connected to either the book or the movie; perhaps if I had played more, I could have seen the truth.
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