Ratings and Reviews by lobespear

The s-l-o-w-e-s-t text adventure ever. On a 1.4Ghz CPU running the latest, most optimised version of the Gargoyle interpreter, Alabaster runs like a crippled dog, making it literally unplayable.

The game itself, a twist on the Snow White fairytale in which the PC chats with Snow White and decides whether to help her or help the Queen (there are seven possible endings), is a conversation-piece that constantly prods you with hints about what to ask about next:

"you could ask her if the Queen manufactured the magic mirror by herself, or that the witchcraft may involve demons from the dungeon dimensions"

and then requires you to type in that entire l-o-n-g (and grammatically incorrect) sentence yourself at the command prompt. Miss a word, or spell something wrong, and it's no soup for you. Wait for 10 seconds while the game grinds away to redraw the exact same picture on the left of the screen, then you get to type it all over again! Fun, huh? There is nothing here that couldn't have been implemented via menu options, requiring a single key-click to jump through dialog options. But no, it has to be a (buggy) Typing Tutor instead. Poor all round.

The gimmick on offer: you can choose to play in first, second or third-person tense, and past or future tense. It's neat, but the game is so much fun to play (in any tense) that the experimental aspects of this technical wizardry are overshadowed (I chose to play in first-person past tense, which gave a nice "wartime memoirs" feel to proceedings).

The cliche horror-style opening doesn't bode well, but once inside the "old dark house" it really takes off. Not one, not two, but *three* well-implemented, well-characterized NPCs who are not only chatty but can take the initiative to direct conversation, and can wander around the house like real people. Lots of detailed scenery descriptions, solid parsing, gentle puzzles, and a cracking yarn to boot. Go in blind, and you will really have no idea where this story is leading. I was expecting further twists and revelations right down to the very last turn. Play it.

Hey look, I've got a super-hot, rich, clever, jet-setting Australian girlfriend! She's so cool I even think in her voice! And she loves to play charming tricks on me, like (Spoiler - click to show)writing me a letter to tell me I'm dumped... but it's just a "joke"! Hahaha! Sure you do, Mr Freese, sure you do. You don't live in your mother's basement, alone, programming videogames in your spare time, not at all! ;)

To be fair, this isn't the only game in this comp that suffers from the "imaginary super-girlfriend" problem: RIVERSIDE did too, but it managed to redeem itself by turning out to be a giant rib on exactly *that* type of game. VIOLET is just *that* type of game. Meaning a constant smug, condescending, "aren't-I-amusing" tone, lamebrained "whimsical" humour (it's zombie day! ZOMG how hilarious), and a ridiculous over-extended Babelfish-style puzzle (trying to block distractions while writing an essay) where you are constantly one step away from the solution. Freese's very solid implementation is let down by the awful writing and characterization. Less whimsy next time round please!