Reviews by jakomo

Where it all began for the now-venerable series of Tales from the Crypt-esque anthology-horror games. Four spooky micro-IF stories are told by horror authors gathered at the titular castle. A tale of ghostly revenge, a surreal dive into psychosis (and blood), an abandoned hospital explore-em-up, and a trolling exercise (unless I missed something?). Much shorter and less thoroughly implemented than later episodes, but Veeder's comic turn-of-phrase and subversive wit shines through as usual. There's some hilarious mockery of self-indulgent literary "post mortems" in the framing device. In particular, the send-up of the heavy-handed metaphors of the abandoned hospital story, by it's own author, is expertly handled.

Inkle's two subsequent games after their smash-hit 80 DAYS have been deliberate attempts to try something new: a sci-fi graphical adventure game and an Arthurian turn-based strategy respectively. Their latest, Overboard!, is the closest thing to a proper 80 DAYS sequel: a choice-based narrative filled with storylets and side-plots to uncover and explore, with a ticking time limit and zero chance to see it all in one go, a Groundhog Day-like "time loop" game. But of course on a much smaller scale, and focused much more on people (the staff and passengers onboard your transatlantic ship) and their secrets than places and modes of transport. Our deliciously evil player-character, Veronica Villensy, is absolutely brilliantly written, as are all the small cast of NPCs, and both music and graphics perfectly complement the whole 1930s jazz/brass/art deco era mood and tone. Flawless.

Credit to Karmic Shift Studios: they've clearly learnt from the flaws of the previous entries in the Horror in the Darkness series and it all comes together in this fourth entry, which is easily the best so far. The intro is intriguing (a different character's point-of-view), the premise is appealing (escape the lunatic asylum you've been committed to after the events of the previous games), the puzzles comes thick and fast, there is a wild and wacky cast of NPCs, and a delicious undercurrent of black humour throughout. Unlike previous games, there is plenty of flavour-text and guidance when you attempt incorrect actions. Thoroughly enjoyable. Ends inconclusively, clearly not intended as the final entry in this series, so it's a shame there hasn't been another in five years.

This second sequel to Horror in the Darkness works better than the lacklustre Horror at Innsport: mainly due to the locale. An exotic tropical resort island is definitely more fun to wander around than a drab, dying industrial town. The biggest game of the series by far, so it's important to map and take notes diligently (it's very easy to miss exits). Takes its time to get going, with an initial off-brand Monkey Island flavour, but once the horror starts it soon ratchets up to Cannibal Holocaust levels before turning into a rip-roaring old-school adventure. Multiple endings too, depending on the choice of character background you make at the beginning.

The sequel to Horror in the Darkness is bigger and more ambitious: this time, there are actual NPCs scattered around the isolated island town you are exploring to find a missing girl, and significant plot events actually happen to you, rather than being related to you via scattered letters you find lying around. But bigger is not necessarily better: the implementation feels sparser, like the effort given to more locations, more objects and more puzzles has reduced the effort given to implementing unique responses for non-critical-path actions. Pacing, mood and atmosphere are also a slight step down. The first game wasn't particularly scary, but this one almost veers into comedy at times. Still worth playing if you enjoyed the original (and the (Spoiler - click to show)genocidal ending is... an interesting choice).

A very familiar slice of Lovecraftiana, exploring a secluded mansion to uncover the mystery of the residents who seemingly vanished. Anybody who has played The Lurking Horror or Theatre or Anchorhead knows the drill by now. But this is reaching out to an audience of smartphone users who maybe don't have that history, and it does very well in that regard. An intuitive button-based interface, a map and hint system, even background music complement a traditional (world-model based) parser-style text adventure (with no typing). Nicely paced: plot reveals come at regular intervals with each major puzzle solved, and there is a good forward momentum - I counted zero unfair puzzles. Android version is free but offers an IAP to "remove ads" - but I didn't see any ads so don't know what that's about? Pretty short but is followed by three sequels.

A simple Enchanter-like magic casting adventure on an empty desert island (or dessert island, as this is a place of gingerbread cottages, cream lakes and battenburg mountains). Uses a custom parser system that works well, and presents a nice map on the right on the screen (that fills as you explore) with rich text on the left. Provides a little world-building through letters and newspaper articles scattered around. If you're not Dutch/Flemish you'll need to look up what a "smoutebol" is. A lot of fun, unfortunately it lacks any online hints, and it's pretty damn hard to boot so I didn't get very far by myself (7/16 points). On the itch.io page you can find "Slacker Sam's guide to an easy B" - but it still only gets you up to 9/16 points.

I loved this. Like a Saturday morning kid's cartoon scored to the sound of lo-fi space-pop, CC's Road to Stardom is adorable, delightful, silly and disposable. Wander around a little spaceship vibing with your quirky buddies (including a youtuber pigeon), playing through little logic puzzles and word games. Nothing too taxing, just enough to keep you buzzing off the game's brilliant style and mood. Fab comic-book style pixel art graphics and a superb musical score accompany the fun: even a full song with vocals. It's part of "Cosmoose", a multi-media multi-format Gorillaz-like pop music project fronted by cartoon characters (I'm listening to Cosmoose's album Into the Cosmooverse as I write this, in fact - it rules!). CC's Road to Stardom is the 21st century answer to Tass Times in Tonetown.

Straightforward vampire-hunting adventure: doesn't intend to surprise or subvert the traditional gothic horror formula, beyond some nods to the term "strigoi" and an attempt to ground it in traditional Romanian mythology. It's thoroughly implemented and the puzzles are well-designed. The only baffling choice is the arbitrary inventory limit, requiring lots of dropping and picking up stuff which gets annoying real fast. It could also have done with implementing "hand" and "finger" as nouns. It's an enhanced translation of an older Spanish game and it uses the PunyInform library, so some of its limitations are understandable. Worth a play.

Absolutely nails the objective of the Text Adventure Literacy Jam: to make an enjoyable easy game for text adventure first-timers. This would be the Day One exercise in Text Adventures 101 if such a thing existed. You're a troll in a world of fairy-tale mythological creatures, trying to raise a dragon (literally) by the book. The set-up could have been cloying and twee, but the author has lots of sly fun inverting expectations: the cyclops is friendly, the fairy is angry, the unicorn is unruly. The ASCII art images are pleasant (the troll's house looks like cross-stitched embroidery). It's a kids game at heart but still requires some thought and lateral thinking to get through, even for adults. Everything just works!