Reviews by Cena

'm very conflicted about Down. On the one hand, this is my second KT game (not counting Tetris) and I really like his writing. I like the ideas of his games, the way he has of evoking a particular setting, a mood, a genre convention.

But. Beyond the first puzzle, this was terribly clued. Lots of verb-guessing, reading the author's mind, and general not-sure-what-to-do-isms. On the one hand, I could also complain about the relative barrenness of the map; very little is implemented. And yet, as in Spur, KT manages to convey a lot with a little. So I can picture myself (YOU) in the tiny map, the black smoke rising in the late afternoon air, the people huddled in their little groups of misery.

What I can't do is interact with all of that very much. This is a static piece, regardless of the finale. Having sat with it for a week, it feels like an outline, almost, rather than a complete game.

There's a disjointedness in Down's puzzles and set scenes - both in terms of logic and implementation - which hasn't resolved over time. There's a hole in the center of it al, an emptiness; I almost feel like I'm watching ghosts relive the scene of their demise.

Update: I'm a maroon. Running this game requires using DosBox and the he12.exe Hugo interpreter, as well as the game file. (Thanks to Roody Yogurt for the help!)

I like the sparse yet atmospheric text, the apparent gimmick, and yet...it's a demo game, and it has defeated me.



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As of this writing in December 2022, this game won't run in the 3 terps I tried it in: Hugor, Gargoyle, and Spatterlight.

I played the Hugo port of this game, which Gargoyle doesn't like.

Out of curiosity, because I missed this back in 1995, I loaded the Inform version and...wow, this is pretty awesome.

So then I wondered if Gargoyle was the issue, and downloaded previously forgotten terp HUGOR. And lo - there it was, in all it's colorful glory. And music! I'm suffused with delight and glee! I can't get over how cool and unexpected this was. Now I'm envisioning something like Pole Position - in Hugo! This really kinda blew my mind.

Note: the current iteration seems broken both online and playing through Gargoyle. I thoughtlessly typed 'help' as my first command and led me into a (bug) cycle I couldn't escape.

Hammurabi wants whole, positive numbers only.

I remember when this came out (the Hugo port, that is), and enjoyed it. It's a different thing than the usual IF, and these days I could see it being a good base for a mini-game or something within a larger work.