Reviews by jakomo
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All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream, November 1, 2022Ingenious time-loop puzzle box in which you whizz through a sequence of cyclical inter-linked nightmare scenarios trying to escape to wakefulness. A dense thicket of choices await you at each turn, as you seek the critical clues from one dream to help free yourself from another. Impressively captures that bewildering yet hyper-real feeling of free-association during a vivid dream to a tee.
Lyra the protoplasm slayer, November 1, 2022Gather your allies and venture forth to fight monsters... but you're also a regular teen at a Halloween party, and your allies are your family and friends. Recruitment consists of negotiating choice-based conversations with each of your friends taking into account their specific personality traits. Battle consists of turn-based RPG style combat. Well-written and intriguing lore, lots of mysteries to explore: what are these protoplasmic entities? Who exactly are you, why are you able to read minds, why can only your crew fight these creatures? And how does it relate to the "pre-war" Harry Potter-esque book series that your friends chatter about? None of these mysteries are answered though, as the game simply ends after your first fight. Appears to be a teaser for a future project and not a complete game in its current form, so would be better placed in Introcomp.
Writer's block party, November 1, 2022The technological Singularity has arrived, and has decided the human race needs to be deleted. But has very kindly given us a week's notice to get our affairs in order first. You're a writer in a new town, deciding each day whether to knuckle down and write your final masterpiece, or go out and experience the sights, sounds and people of your neighbourhood as they come to terms with the approaching apocalypse. Essentially, this is two separate narratives that require you to go "all in" on one route to experience the stories to their conclusions. Trying to alternate between writing days and going out days simply yields two half-completed stories instead of one full one when your time runs out. Which mechanically fits with the central theme of Blackout: you can't do everything, there just isn't enough time. This is either intended as a broad life lesson: "life is more satisfactory when you can focus on what you know you can achieve rather than what society says you should achieve", or a darkly comic metaphor about writer's block and missing deadlines.
The name in laughter from the hereafter, November 1, 2022The latest from Damon L Wakes, whose personal brand of flippant, off-the-wall humour is fully on display in this Twine optimization puzzle. You're a ghost with the most, and you're here to say, humans in your home, you don't dig it - no way! You've got six hours to make your abode as uninviting as possible before the new resident shows up. Each possible action has a differing spookiness quotient, but also has a differing amount of time to prepare it. Will you spend hours creating poltergeist activity in the kitchen, only to run out of time to make the lights flicker in the porch? Lots of different endings depending on your final score out of ten, all very sharp and amusing, as you'd expect from the author of such loopy delights as Good Grub! and GUNBABY.
Keep doubting, November 1, 2022Bind, Torture, Klll Simulator 2022. You play the serial killer, with your victim narrating their own torture and murder to you as it happens: but it's clearly a voice in your head, as they describe the long drawn out torture as almost a consensual sexual coupling between the two of you, something they want and actively seek, and their eventual murder as a "martyrdom". Unless you screw up the "ritual" of course, then prepare to be berated and verbally abused. Strong meat, especially as the game never breaks out of the killer's gaze, there is no framing device, no switches to other perspectives. Just a single changing word in a hyperlink seems to betray the unreliability of these words. Very well presented, utilising colour, speed and positioning of text as further markers of utter derangement.
We're going to the movies! Frights, camera, action!, October 11, 2022Balderstone #2 introduces a fresh batch of terrifying tales:
- Look after your grand-child as an elderly invalid. Weird and nonsensical, with little interactivity but a lot of strangeness.
- Examine a monster in forensic detail. Simple and amusing.
- Live the spaghetti-western lifestyle: deserts, horses, guns and a love triangle (think Claudia Cardinale as Jill Mcbain). Exudes Mexican flavour. Like oregano and cumin.
- Survive an incident in a space laboratory. The regulation "meaty" chapter (each game seems to have one). The way this introduces who you are, where you are, and what you're doing with no infodumps at all is really neatly done. Has some tricky puzzles for the first time in this series (it will become more of a feature in later games). Managed to get stuck here for the first (and only) time too, unfortunately. Had to consult the "ClubFloyd transcript" to proceed.
Also includes some entertaining hidden content: try using the (Spoiler - click to show)safeword, or (Spoiler - click to show)quitting and restarting. If you enjoyed the first Balderstone, this is more of the same quality writing and expert pacing. But it's definitely the next game in the series where things really start to fly, as Veeder gets more ambitious with bigger and more complex scenarios, while also varying the storytelling voice more between the fictional authors.
Care to join me for a little FRIGHTseeing?, October 11, 2022Where 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.
Scratches that "80 DAYS" itch, September 28, 2022Inkle'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.
"Damn it, it wasn’t quite fresh enough!", September 23, 2022Credit 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.
“Who are we to combat poisons older than history and mankind?”, September 21, 2022This 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.
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