Reviews by Cody Gaisser
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My brain hurts, February 14, 2022Suveh Nux is an escape room game with a very creative system of magical language and plenty of personality. I'm giving this game the benefit of the doubt because other people seem to not have bounced off of it as hard as I did. Maybe my brain isn't as sharp as it used to be, but I didn't find this as easy and intuitive as most other players seem to. Even when I was on the right track, I was at a loss for how to make the timing bits go off the way they were supposed to. After about an hour of (Spoiler - click to show)trying to put more than a light crack in the door, I threw my hands up and consulted a walkthrough. I had fun with this game when I was learning its rules and solving its puzzles. I stopped having fun when I couldn't figure out how to time the solution of the main puzzle because I didn't comprehend how the timing and intensity of spells related. Maybe the problem is me?
>KILL GAME, February 14, 2022A short but amusing one-room joke game that is exactly what it says it is: you are Conan, you kill EVERYTHING. There's not much to analyze about it, but it's good for a quick laugh.
Ninja expanded (slightly), February 13, 2022Ninja II is a slightly expanded version of the original Ninja text adventure by Paul Panks.
It now includes introductory text that explains the game's objective, which is much appreciated. It fixes the issue where examining the idol was not allowed, which is also appreciated. It also includes a new (and rather obtuse) "puzzle" where the player must beat a dragon by (Spoiler - click to show)typing the words "beat dragon", which I appreciated much less. Ninja II is more jokey than its predecessor. Otherwise, it's almost exactly the same game. Combat is still janky (either you never encounter a rival ninja, or else it kills you randomly).
Compared to Ninja, Ninja II is in some ways improved and in other ways made worse. I don't necessarily recommend either; but, having now played both, I'm starting to get a little better grasp on my questions about why Paul Panks was so notorious within the interactive fiction community.
Miniature Text Adventure, February 13, 2022Ninja is very brief text adventure by Paul Panks, who was apparently a rather notorious creator of interactive fiction. The game appears to have been programmed from scratch in BASIC, which probably explains why there are some issues.
The writing is very minimal. The objective of Ninja is not explained to the player in the game; but the game consists of only four simple rooms (that I could find), so it wasn't hard for me to figure out what was going on. It seems an idol must be taken from a rival clan's shrine and placed in your own shrine. The game features one simple puzzle (besides figuring out the main objective). It also seems that there is some janky random combat, as I was killed instantly by another ninja on my first attempt to take the idol (I never encountered an enemy again on subsequent playthroughs). There are a couple of glaring errors in the design (some text appears in a room description when it shouldn't, and an important item can't be examined), but the game basically works.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend playing Ninja unless, like me, you find yourself wondering "Who was Paul Panks, and why were his games so infamous?" I'm not sure Ninja answered my questions, but I have at least been given a small introduction to the works of Panks.
Conspiratorial in-joke, February 13, 2022The Cabal is a piece of satirical adventure about infighting within the interactive fiction community (I think). It blends more "traditional" conspiracy theory tropes with references to the history of text adventures and the culture surrounding them. I didn't understand many of the references to the politics of the IF newsgroups (not my time and place), but the game was entertaining nonetheless.
The Cabal is pretty short, and the few puzzles are mostly painless. One puzzle is taken directly from the old Infocom game Infidel, so I had to consult a walkthrough of that game, which itself amused me.
Even though I found The Cabal amusing, I can't say I'd necessarily recommend it, as the in-jokes are pretty arcane.
Teenage Social Anxiety: The Un-Interactive Fiction, February 13, 2022Rameses is a semi-interactive short story about a shy, insecure teenage boarding school student with too much social anxiety to act on his impulses. Surrounded by jerks and pushovers (and certainly a bit of both himself), the protagonist struggles to navigate awkward situations like bullying and dates with girls.
The protagonist's social paralysis is represented through the "gameplay" decision to restrict the player's behavior at almost every turn. Almost nothing the player can do will affect the story in any meaningful way, and often the protagonist simply refuses to act at all. This is not a bug but a feature, however, as it perfectly expresses the way a surly teenager might shut down in complicated social situations where they feel powerless.
While Rameses may frustrate some players looking for either an adventure game (no puzzles here!) or a piece of interactive fiction with more emphasis on "interactivity," the story and mechanical conceit are strong enough to recommend anyway. It should strike a chord with anyone who has ever experienced being an insecure teenager surrounded by other insecure teenagers, which I'd guess is quite a lot of people.
A classic weird horror text adventure, February 12, 2022Anchorhead is a gothic horror (weird fiction) text adventure inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The story focuses on a couple who inherit a house in a spooky little Massachusetts fishing community and slowly uncover the town's dark secrets. It's considered a classic of interactive fiction, and with good reason. The setting is atmospheric, the scenarios are memorable, the writing is effective, and the puzzles are mostly of high quality.
The story takes place over the course of 3 days, with each day escalating the difficulty. Day 1 is a breeze, mostly exploring and learning about the town and the house. Day 2 is complicated, with a lot of things to do and puzzles to solve, but with little to no threat of botching anything permanently. Day 3 is much more tense, mistakes have consequences, and it is very possible to get something wrong. More about that...
Anchorhead may be a masterpiece, but it isn't perfect. It possesses some of the flaws stereotypical of adventure games: verb-guessing, reading the author's mind, some poorly signposted objectives, timed puzzles where you can trap yourself in a fail-state, and even the possibility of losing or misplacing a key item that is needed to complete the game (so SAVE your game often, especially once Day 3 begins). Thankfully, tips and walkthroughs are readily accessible on the internet.
Most of the game isn't that taxing, however, and I'd argue that Anchorhead is worth the potential trouble in order to experience the incredible narrative (which is one of the best in any interactive fiction I've played). This is a must-play title for fans of Lovecraft, horror, and interactive fiction more broadly. Just be sure to play it with your "90s adventure game" goggles on.
A simple joke game, February 8, 2022Pick Up The Phone Booth And Die is based around one simple joke (see the title). There are two endings, each funny but neither hilarious. The game is famous within the interactive fiction community and gets referenced a lot, so play it if you want to understand the references (it's so short, you might as well).
Gothic short story with multiple endings, February 8, 2022"fin de sickleberg" is an interactive gothic short story about a man undressing for bed after a night at the opera. It is incredibly brief, takes place in one room, utilizes a limited set of verbs, and has three possible endings, each revealing a little more about the player character than the last (if reached in their intended order). To say much else would spoil the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed the prose, and the limited verb set kept the possibilities manageable enough that finding all three endings was relatively easy. That is not to say I had no issues with the endings...
The first ending came easily enough; following the most logical course of actions got me there quickly. My second play-through was a bit more awkward though; I ultimately resorted to trying every verb on every noun, which resulted in my reaching the third and juiciest ending ahead of schedule. On my third play, I wanted to see if the sequence of events had any effect so I (Spoiler - click to show)jumped straight ahead to the command that had yielded me the previous ending; this took me straight to the second ending, which was a bit more vague and inconclusive than the third. I was a little disappointed that endings 2 and 3 were so closely related and reached in such a similar manner, especially considering the brevity of the story. Reaching them in the wrong order probably deflated some horror that should've escalated instead, but oh well... I found the first and third endings sufficiently creepy anyway.
I'd recommend this if you like gothic/horror/weird fiction and/or short text games that can be experienced in a few minutes.
A branching story about a deer, February 6, 2022The Secret Of Nara is a pretty little twine game about a day in the life of a deer, told from the deer's perspective. The story branches in multiple places and results in several endings. The writing successfully lured me into the protagonist's world and gave me a sense of what it might be like to experience the wilderness from the perspective of an animal, so I'd call that a job well done.
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