Reviews by tggdan3

Sometimes I wish we could catogorize IF by games vs story. This is not a game- this is a somewhat interactive story, where you play the part of the voices that the main character hears, and you direct her. The writing here is nice, it comes across in the first person, as if you are speaking with the player rather than entering in the player's commands on a parser.

There are 2 different "parts" of the game- one where you direct the player around, and one where you have conversations with different celestial beings. Once in the game, you seem to just instruct the character to talk to pierre over and over. The interactivity there is low, though the choices you make (generally yes/no) in the celesital sphere affect the game.

This is one of those experiments where the question comes (at least to me): should this have been merely written instead of in the IF format? I have seen a few so far where they would have been better off doing the former, though this one is crafted well in the IF format, that despite the constant "text dumps", the changing scenes do better to IF than the traditional format.

It's a romance, it's not a game, it's a story. If this is the kind of thing you're into, come on in, its well done. If you prefer the puzzle based games or more interactivity to your conversation games, this may not be for you.

This is a straightforward quick game. Your man was stolen by the ice queen and you have to go get him.

There are no puzzles exactly, you just walk to the next room and talk to the NPC who will give you an option and you choose whether or not to take them up on it.

The end of the game (Spoiler - click to show) is a lot like shade, where you realize it was all a dream leaves you wondering what was the point, I suppose.

The best games to compare this to would be shade, or 9:05. It's straightforward like 9:05, where you basically walk to the end and see a big reveal. Shade had more going on, more of a gradual reveal, where as this one kind of throws it all at you at the end out of nowhere.

Still, the writing is nice, definately worth a play. It should take you no more than 5-10 minutes to get through.

I found this piece a bit awkward. Most of the backstory is explained in the tagline of the game here on this site. The characters are not named (they are literally A B and D), and the parser is extremely limited.

Your commands are basically "TALK TO [person]" "ASK [person] WHAT I SHOULD DO" or "SAY [what parser tells me to say]"

For example...

"You could mention how you hate phones."

>TELL B ABOUT PREGNANCY

"You can't think of anything to say on the matter.

You could mention how you hate phones."

>I HATE PHONES

[plot continues]

This is obviously an experiment along the "down with parsers" line, where beginning IF players may find it convenient to have their actions prompted. And sure, it isn't a game, like a few other of Short's works, it's a story that you help unfold. Still, I found the parser very annoying. The tagline of the game tells me I'm pregnant, yet I can't tell anyone about it.

The main problem with this is that it doesn't seem to know what it is supposed to be. Is it an interactive fiction piece? Not really, since the parser is so limited in scope and not particularly interactive. (It's somewhat interactive, moreso than Magic Travels, but less so even than Glass). It it a Choose Your Own Adventure? Kind of, except that your choices don't seem to affect much and you seem to be nudged in certain directions of conversation. Is it a short story? Kind of, except for the existance of the parser, which seems to imply a level of interactivity I didn't find.

Short does some great experiments in IF. Galtea was a good example of how to make a conversational tree for an NPC, and have them react in different ways to the same topics, based on how they were brought up. This one doesn't seem to have quite hit the mark, at least for me.

I guess it's interesting from the academic sense, and the story itself isn't too bad, it just seems like the kind of thing that would have been better suited to regular fiction rather than IF.

Yes, port. This was one of the Zork Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Books.

Maybe it ruined it for me, because I had the actual book over a decade ago, and playing this reminded me of the book. What was nice is that it was actually made into an IF, where you can put in commands on your own. However, it doesn't add a great deal to the interactivity of the game, since it's really only direction commands until your next choose your own adventure choice.

(Warning: This review might contain spoilers. Click to show the full review.)This is a remake of Zork I- kind of.

Well, instead of playing the adventurer in Zork I, you are playing the troll, from the troll room. Brandishing your bloody axe, you wait for adventurers to show up so you can kill them.

The game is very repetitive and boring- you can't leave the room, so you just wait for another guy to show up.

The writing is clever, for fans of Zork I and users of inform. It's cute when you examine yourself, or when the thief shows up, but other than that it's just a joke game.

I would be interested in seeing Zork: A Thief's-Eye View, or Zork II: A Wizard's-Eye View much more. When that comes out, let me know. Even playing as the bat would have been more interesting. As a joke "game", however, it is cute.

This game's premise is similar to Janitor- you're at the end of the game, but have to put everything back to the way it was (because your mom told you so). After that, it's a zork style romp as you try to undo all the things that you did.

Now there are some instances in the game where you have to be "evil" to succeed. That can turn some people off. Other than that, the game is clever, and the puzzles are decent. Often, because you're working backwards, your goals are pretty clear, and it's the way you accomplish the goal that is difficult. I like that about this game.

In some ways this is Zorkian. The biggest turn off involves a puzzle solution that requires you to do evil in order to complete the game. This might not be a big deal if your character is made out to be evil or something, but the purpose is to put everything back the way it was to appease your mother, something that is implied to be a "good" thing.

If you like puzzle style games, try this out. If you don't, this won't be for you.

While the game was fun, the premise was very similar to Janitor, which I played first, so perhaps the experience was not as novel to me as it would have been if this was the first of the two I played.

Perhaps this was total brain-fart on my part, but annoying is the word I would use, rather than easy.

This is one of those timed games (I supposed most infocom games were timed- either by lantern light or hunger or whatever), which is annoying enough. Then there's the first puzzle.

I'm a big fan of puzzle games, and I'd like to think I am somewhat good at them. Maybe I saw the introductory nature and took too much for granted, but even the in-game hints failed to get me past that damn dog. It wasn't until I saw the map that came with the game (which you don't get when you play online) that I saw how much there was to explore after the dog, and was able to decipher how to get past it. It doesn't help that the game kind of implies that you shouldn't be going into the area you need to go into in order to solve the first puzzle.

In true infocom passion, feelies were used and required. I love feelies, but I hate when they're required to solve puzzles, such as requiring you to look up the letter you're delivering to someone on paper to see what it says, because it's relevant. Back in the day that was what they used as copy protection. I guess I prever the sierra copy protection, where they ask you a question from the manual right up front, then let you continue with the damn game.

That aside, perhaps the game is better once you get into it. Unfortunately, that was something I couldn't do, which suprised me with how much I loved the Zork and Enchanter series, which this appeared initialy like it would be similar to.

The writing of this game is enough to draw you in by itself. Your character is stupid- an orc, and the descriptions of everything keeps that in mind, continually reminding you that you are seeing things simply and not thinking too much.

The game is puzzle based, where you need to find a lost pig (not too hard), and catch it (a bit harder). Everything seems fairly well implemented, and the character you can interact with seems to respond to the appropriate topics.

There isn't much to say about this game without giving away puzzles or solutions, but I would definately reccommed this game to anyone in favor of the wandering around solving puzzles genre of IF, like Zork or similar. If you want Galtea conversation or Cadre's IF experiments, this isn't for you.

Yep. The game is about a guy who desires blowjobs. Not sex- blowjobs. And he has to go around getting them until he's had enough.

It's likely to be outright dismissed by most, mainly because of the subject matter. The room descriptions are quick and sussinct (though the blowjobs are more thoroughly described). There is actually puzzle solving to do, as some ladies won't just give it up because you ask (though most are surprisingly open to the idea).

It seems this was an attempt to make Leisure Suit Larry into an IF game (which it kind of was to begin with...). In any case, if you can get past the subject matter, the game is playable. However, some implementation issues do come up, where synonyms aren't used where they probably could be, which can get anoying.

What else can I say? It's listed as pornographic and you know what you're getting into when you play it. If you're into this kind of thing, I supposed it delivers on its promises.

The game comes in 3 parts.

1) You must escape an existing dungeon. This part is pretty quick.
2) You must perfect the dungeon so it isn't easy to escape. This is the bulk of the interactivity, as you buy numerous traps to kill escapees.
3) You watch the adventurer get through your traps.

The writing here is great, but because of the numerous tricks the adventurer has, you'll be playing this game over and over to find the combination of traps that will kill him. It doesn't help that he has access to items you don't know about.

First, they annoying parts: You will play this game over and over, and it can be tedius watching the same scenes over and over (such as the capture of the adventurer). Some parts of the game should be more interactive. (Spoiler - click to show) It would be nice if you could suggest to the king or guards that they search the adventurer before throwing him in the dungeon . Some of the tedium is averted by giving you the "qbuy all" command, allowing you to confirm all your dungeon traps at once.

That being said, the game is brilliant. The characters are fleshed out a bit, and the combination of traps needed is quite ingenious, though it definately relies on out of world knowledge to complete. (Seeing how the adventurer handles a trap helps you learn how to prevent him from doing so later). There is a bit of interactivity while he's escaping, but not too much, mostly you just watch him get through each area. (Spoiler - click to show) Unless you need to manipulate some levers in the main room- depending on what traps you bought .

I enjoyed this game tremendously, and it has great replay potential, as you try to get to the end. It also kept my attention and excitement more than many IF I've seen in the past. A+!