Ratings and Reviews by Passerine

Blossom, NY is interactive nonfiction—a researched history of a real community, presented like a brief guided tour. This is cool to see! I often wonder why there isn’t more interactive nonfiction storytelling. It would be interesting to see more experiments like this.

Structure-wise, this tour isn’t linear, because the game jumps around via hypertext, as if you’re encouraging your meandering tour guide to expound on whatever topic you’re particularly interested in. (I appreciated the game making sure we were situated by explaining how this would work ahead of time.) At first this nonlinear presentation made it harder for me to understand things, with historical facts revealed out of order, and even some future reflections from a couple years after the tour took place. But as the same highlighted topics kept appearing in different passages, I began to see more clearly the matrix of connections between present, past, and more distant past. I wonder if this repetitive presentation might actually help with learning.

Overall, this mini tour didn’t feel to me like storytelling as much as a history lesson for educational purposes. As a picky reader with a wandering mind, I felt myself grasping for a deeper present-day story layered over the history: Why was the narrator there? Who are they, and how did they discover what they know about this hamlet? When the narrator said something like “Last time I saw [this house] was before they put [the vinyl siding] on,” I wanted to hear the rest of that story. This is probably my IF habit kicking in, but I wonder if a little personal storytelling—whether true or fictional—would’ve made my visit more captivating. Then again, maybe here the point is to educate more than to captivate. And that it certainly did.

The Red Pearls of Borneo is an investigative deduction game that feels a bit like Type Help crossed with Return of the Obra Dinn, but from a certain historical angle. In this story, you’re a psychic investigator looking into the fates of a client’s family members during an especially violent day in Borneo during World War II.

I played the version on itch.io (it's also on Steam), and there was a lot to like. Gameplay was smooth: after I got used to navigating the various menus and lists, it was impressive how easy it was to follow the story in nonlinear fashion and make connections without taking a bunch of external notes, even though I didn't use all the available tools. I thought the music and art added rather than subtracted. Some of the deductions felt very satisfying, and some of the plot twists too.

There were also some things I didn’t love: The dialogue was rough at times, there were many typos, and when I needed a hint, the game just told me what to do. A little more nuance to the hint system would’ve been nice, to make the player feel they’re still doing at least some of the work. Also, the final sequences got a little confusing, both emotionally and logically, I think because there was extra content added to the game later on. I wonder if the original pre-DLC version might’ve had a more balanced final act.

One more thing: There’s really no comfortable way to answer the question at the beginning that asks if you want to see slurs or not. No, I actually don’t want to, but I can’t just forget the option is there (plus even if you say no, they’re just censored out). And it feels like everyone says slurs, even the player character. Maybe it is realistic, but maybe realism is not always the most fun choice!

Ultimately, I’m glad I played this game, and I enjoyed puzzling out what happened to everyone, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it broadly—though WWII history buffs might especially enjoy it.