Reviews by G. Faregan

This is a short linear story without puzzles. I enjoyed the good, matter of fact setting and style, and I think it's worth the 15 minutes required to play. It has monsters. It is pretty much non stop action, and maybe could have benefited from better pacing.

I really didn't like this game. It isn't really a game, but a semi interactive monologue delivered by the excessively tedious and obnoxious Dr Bother. This amounts to a straw man argument, with the targets including post modernism and internet trolls. These things might very well be terrible, but they still deserve a better argument against them than this game gives.

I played this game probably longer than I should have, and was repeatedly killed. I thought it might be my own fault and tried various strategies, but overall I think the game is unfair. It doesn't give the player enough opportunities to really customize their character and develop a strategy, and some enemies can kill you in one or two moves, sending you back to the beginning of the stage. Try the author's 4x4 archipelago for something easier and less frustrating. Unless you really want a challenge I suppose. There's probably a successful strategy but apparently I'm not smart enough.

You are a vegetable like the character Xan in Farscape. I would guess there are 30-40 rooms. The setting is a broken and empty moon station, and the goal is to revive the station.

Things I liked:
- It's possible to play without hints.
- Interesting and well developed world.
- Simple map that is easy to remember and navigate.
- The monster.
- Vegetable fantasies.

Things I liked less:
- Hints, about, and other common things aren't implemented.
- The bottle puzzle.
- Rotating the planet? Then again, maybe it's so unrealistic that I might actually like it.
- The snag action only seems to work on 2 objects.

You are a raccoon. There is one room. The goal is to bake cookies. It is very simple and short but I find these kinds of games relaxing. I know a few raccoons and they are definitely more high strung than this, but I don't need that when I'm trying to relax.

This game is like Anchorhead - village on coast with tentacled-monster worshipping villagers and old school text adventure mechanics. It seems like something a lot of people will like if they like those things.

I only want to add that I wish that some of the Lovecraft inspired fiction focused less on the tropes and more on the psychology. It makes sense you'd become obsessed if you found an interdimensional portal leading out of the everyday meaningless universe we all live in.

“In that shrieking the inmost soul of human fear and agony clawed hopelessly and insanely at the ebony gates of oblivion.”

There is perhaps a fine line between being surprised by an unexpected revelation and being tricked. This game falls more on the side of tricking and railroading the player into playing the role of a despicable character. Why would anyone choose to play that role otherwise?

Also, stories that take place in metaphorical/allegorical settings rub me the wrong way. They generally are trying to preach to you, package some complex piece of life into a conveniently simple fantasy, or make interesting what would otherwise be obvious and banal.

This game is worth playing for its a magical winter atmosphere, preferably on a cold and dreary winter evening. As for the puzzles and the rest, I only remember needing to use hints and getting lost a lot.

Use emotions as verbs to manipulate objects, eg "desire x" to make x fly towards you. It has a kind of dark, gothic style. I'm not sure if having the house painted in bright primary colors fits the style, but it is a unique approach. I could have lived without the obligatory combination lock puzzle.

The premise is that you are a child helping the suspiciously friendly aliens that landed in your backyard. The puzzles are classic text adventure, ie irritating. But I'm a sucker for pulp sci-fi.