Ratings and Reviews by katz

You arrive in town only to find it abandoned. Where are the villagers? What happened to them? This familiar setup quickly moves into a tense, action-packed story that continually kept me on my toes.

The unusual third-person perspective gives the Salt Keep a novel-like feel, which is one of its strengths. There must have been temptation to make Doyle an AFGNCAAP, but making him his own distinct character was the stronger choice. And how many fantasy stories have you read that star a traveling salesman?

The thing I found really interesting in The Salt Keep was the blend of CYOA mechanics and RPG stats. While some of the scenarios have the familiar "Find the item to use in the place" mechanic of CYOAs and parser games, you also have stat blocks and can make checks with a chance of success or failure. This kept me on my toes and forced me to think more strategically than the usual one-lock-one-key puzzle-solving of adventure games. Instead of simple failure, failing a check usually allowed you to complete the action but suffer an injury, resulting in consequences that cascade as the game proceeds. It also increases replay value--maybe this will be the playthrough when I just beat the guard in hand-to-hand combat! (Note: It was not.)

A high fantasy with a classic feel and lots of action, I enjoyed The Salt Keep a lot. Now to deal with my sliced hand...

Is why we can't have nice things.

First off: The premise of Calm is brilliant. Earth has been decimated by a fungus that causes stress to kill you. Like any proper post-apocalyptic game (a woefully underrepresented genre in IF), you have to act carefully to survive, but the survival process is based on avoiding stressful situations and finding ways to destress.

The descriptions are atmospheric and evocative; coupled with the smooth implementation, it's a rewarding world to just wander through.

There are, however, some issues that keep this good game from being a great game.

First, the player's mood is a two-axis scale described by a single adjective. While I must applaud the author's vocabulary, it left me constantly guessing. I would have preferred two quantitative values to one qualitative one, although I suspect other players may disagree.

Second, while multiple solutions and implicit actions are both good mechanics, I don't think they work that well in conjunction. The game allows various items to be used for various acts and automatically picks one of them if you don't specify. Since items are everywhere and there's no carrying capacity, most actions succeed without you really having to think about them. Again, some people may like this; I found it too Nemean-Lion-ish. Occasionally the games choices didn't make sense, either (smashing a lock with a bottle).

Third, the starting quests feel pointless to me. For instance, one requires you to gather food, but you never need the food, and you aren't penalized nor does the quest revert to incomplete if you eat all the food or drop it.

Still, it's a well-realized game and I found myself returning to it. My concerns may not bother other players at all. Calm is worth checking out.