Reviews by Max Fog

Anyway, I played through this game to some of the endings, and I have to say up front, this was a very enjoyable romp through a space station, fixing things and sometimes breaking things in order to get around a Catch-22 situation you’ve been forced into. The layout and UI was very simple but overall I found it easy to work with - I would way rather something simple and not too complicated but no issues with it, rather than a highly stylised and very pretty game with an extremely difficult interface. (Unless it’s SPY INTRIGUE. But I digress.)

The game’s tone felt especially Douglas Adams, with funny moments of what I can only describe as corporate irony (such as the throwing the gizmos out into space because it’s cheaper than actually shipping them to people). The tone was spot on the whole way and I never felt lost in the lore of the world, but it also didn’t feel over-explained. I think this game is a must-play and honestly, a really great start to Spring Thing!

Song: Right. I was thinking of something space-esque, probably slightly ironic considering the underlying metaphor of the whole game (that I picked up on). So, unfortunately, I don’t have anything close enough to call it a match. But I think the vibe (and some lyrics of) Polyethylene (or Banana Co?) by Radiohead might be worth a listen, but don’t take my word for it.

I played this game as far as I could by myself, then I had to use the Walkthrough to proceed from there. My first note is that the puzzles seem quite far-fetched in terms of knowing what to do next. I’d be surprised if anyone got some of the puzzles, but that isn’t to say I admire the commitment to the small scope of the game (which is a thing I really struggle with). I also think it’s worth noting the idea of the entire game is very simple and yet, uh, not so simple. I found the ending quite funny and it certainly surprised me!

…That said, the game mainly struggles with interaction/implementation. By this, I mean there is very little room description and all the implemented objects are in a list at the end. However, all the doors for instance could be made undescribed (or however it is done in Inform 6) and then mention them in an extended version of the room description, so that the player feels more part of the story than simply a robot scanning all potentially usable items (I don’t know if that makes sense)… And again, maybe synonyms for objects (eg. plane for aeroplane); finally, objects in room descriptions need to be implemented, such as a desk in the office, or a sink in the bathroom. Even if not really described in much detail, just an acknowledgement that they exist is worth a lot to a player. I was testing a game a year ago with these incredible descriptions of the objects, and I really enjoyed them, but nothing in the object descriptions were implemented, so I went through the start of the massive game and just pointed out all the missing objects. Sometimes, just a “that isn’t important to the story” (or, better, a ~15 word description of what the object is) is enough.

Anyway, the game is a promising first start, and I’ll be interested in seeing Solarius again!

This is going to be a very short review, simply because I find it difficult to talk about a game that seems to resist any clear understanding of what is going on. I got the main general gist of the loop, and the characters were interesting and I enjoyed the dynamic between them, though it definitely got way too confusing to follow at times. Most of the time I sort of wandered, choosing what I thought was better. Also, I thought the parallel links at the bottom with more clear defining of what each of the choices led towards was interesting but I couldn’t pin down a meaning. It got more interesting once there were no links in the text and only in the navigation bar at the bottom, which ultimately led to (Spoiler - click to show)the supposed escape from the game that the story seems to commenting on. I liked the idea, and (Spoiler - click to show)if you look at the url of the ending, it seems to be by Tundish, so I wonder if D E Haynes is Tundish, or that is simply a citation?

One note is the entire text seems like it has more padding on the left than on the right side of the box, which is a subtle but wrong feeling. (I’m certain it isn’t purposeful, so just noting.)

This story was a fairly straightforward story of a woman working on a research task about disproving an alien arrival, and getting caught up in the opposite.

It was pretty well written, and the story was coherent and clever. I also thought the side story with the mom actually was a lot deeper and better than it first felt, so I'm glad it was there.

Unfortunately, on a phone at least, the game does not look so good, with text going out the disk of blue and some bits looking very off. With some tweaking, that could be fixed.

Overall, I'd say it's worth playing.

The second chapter in my sequence of "review mathbrush games that haven't been reviewed", I review *9 Secret Steps*. It's a curious game, with a lot of things that seem dark at first, but slowly become slightly funny. At least to me they were. The first time I played, (Spoiler - click to show)I didn't click any of the red links (I didn't know they were links!). This ended up with me playing through the game, seeing a dark, shadowy, very cult-like version, which I thought had a nice mood to it. And then as I reached that final story page (before the song lyrics themselves), it flipped on its head and became a good game with a twist ending. Replaying after, I noticed you could click the red bits earlier, which on subsequent runthroughs is really cool but for a first runthrough it makes the game confusing.

Despite the positive vibes, I couldn't help but feel that the nodding didn't ultimately affect the outcome, though I'm pretty sure it did. The randomised messages were so similar, I couldn't tell whether the choice of object-location actually affected what was printed, and if so, why. This led to the feeling I could optimise the outcome of the game. But I didn't actually know how.

Overall, I liked it quite a fair bit for such a small game, but the limitedness made me feel there was something missing. Worth playing through once without clicking the red links, then once more clicking them. Then don't overthink it. You may have a more positive reaction.

For a game that's meant to be not one of his best, Barroom Brawl really packs a punch. Pun(ch) intended.

This may not be an informative review for many, but it's an interesting game with fun mechanics, and the directions are probably the most interesting bit about it. They all take the story in a different direction altogether, and for something done in a very short amount of time, it's worth playing. Even with the error:

Sally ducks left, jabs, jabs, and uppercuts Sally!

But at least it's funny!

Also, not only do K.O.d people keep fighting, but you can pick up their body...

To start off with, that was a very impressive change in mood there. I was in no way expecting that - I was thinking along the style of a completely different type of horror. So - yeah.

I’m not sure where to begin. The beginning? Sounds reasonable. At the start, I already felt clued as to just what might be the ending with the colour palette. That was the first, subtle giveaway. In this game, visuals seemed much more influential on the outcome than many others I’ve played. I thought pictures were cool, giving me a good idea of who I was looking at, although I’m not sure it felt necessary after the first try. The gray-scale change was too sudden, going from full colour to completely gray then wavering through different variations on the gray-scale. It felt slightly too jarring to me.

As I played through, I felt more and more like the game stayed straight on track with my original expectations upon seeing the guy: he’s fairly normal, but he certainly is going to be a violent murderer and you’re gonna have to escape. The only thing that clashed was, of course, the colour palette, which felt to me like I was playing a more sinister and bit more bleak version of Sweetpea.

But oh, was I wrong.

Looking at other reviews, it seems like people had very similar thoughts playing through. The thing was very cleverly designed though, finally clicking all the seemingly wonky puzzle pieces together in a satisfying pattern that reveals something much scarier, if I’m thinking in game terms. And yet, it feels like I should have known that all along, and that’s what makes it even scarier - it adds to this sense of “just another person-eating ritual going on upstairs. Nothing to worry about.” And I think that works well.

For this next review, I began playing Teatime With A Vampire (which, along with Romance the Backrooms, could do with some reviews) - before realising it’s a lot more NSFW than I expected, so I pulled back, and I went for this game, which although I'm sure TWaV is good, I prefer this game for the above reasons.

Look Around the Corner is a much smaller, easier and simpler game than a lot of the ones I have played or like to play. There was not much to do, giving it the feel of a limited parser game. It wasn’t - you still got all the verbs (or the ones that I tried). It starts simple - waking up, light shining round the corner off to the north, and let to explore. Exploring involves simply going north and then east, over and over again as you get all the responses - of which there weren’t as many as I would have liked. However, there is a way to win. After realising that I should probably be listening to the song instead of 11 5 18 12 1 14 14 by Yann Tiersen. I quite liked the song, but it was there that I got the answer to winning the game. It’s a short, one-move, and just a little unsatisfactory ending, but it does the job.

I would say that, for sure, the best bit was the false ending (looking round the corner). I would wish there were more of them, though. For a game of this limited size, it's pretty good. It doen't quite match the mark, however.

This game starts with you, tied to a tree, with two trolls going to steal the diamond you are carrying. From the start, it has some simple yet nice puzzle ideas, but it feels like they are underhinted or unclear why you would think of that - for example, GET ROCK WITH BLANKET. I will skim over that, though, because I have been guilty of doing so as well in my game.

The game is mostly polished, with a few guess-the-verb moments, but I like the idea. Although one bit that irritated me was when I made a ladder, and then tried to drop it next to the wall to climb over, and it wouldn’t let me, and it turned out that I had to drop the ladder on the hill and use it as a sled, which did not feel hinted at all!

Some other problems involved problems with movement. For instance:

➢ e
There is no route to the east, only east, west and up.

Mostly it was an okay game, although I admit I had trouble enjoying some parts. AlsO note that the Game Over text goes over the room name in the map, but never goes back to the room name, so you end up with a lot of rooms called “Game Over” on the map.

This was a strange thing to experience! It’s about a humble librarian’s assistant’s intern finding a strange and special book. Much of the game is in a weird cafeteria… at the bottom of the library? With alchemy and … fight scenes. Against an elevator bouncer called Jorge.

There are some fun bits, including alchemy, but there were bugs as well. After playing through multiple fight scenes with Jorge and fainting every time, I woke up to no text on the screen. Just a status bar and background image. And no way to get out.

Also, if you’re doing alchemy but are only holding one ingredient, once you’ve placed in that ingredient you are stuck in a forever loop you can’t escape.

I would play through any sequels that are made. It’s actually a fairly fun game, where background images actually are fairly good and sound effects (although weird) actually contribute (I don’t often play with sound, but of the ones I have played with, I think only DOL-OS is better for me).