Reviews by Max Fog

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).

What a strong start to the competition! I am personally quite a fan of grotesque and dark subjects, but this one portrayed it very cleverly. I liked the general atmosphere of what is going on, and the mold really works well.

I adored the You will be loved (I think it was?) message, this chanting feeling, this overthrow, and the game’s flow worked well. I didn’t realise I really had any choices, it felt like a great flow. Also positive because I got the ending where I stand on the building and the spores take me over, which is a really good ending.

One thing that could have been a little better was the actual online bit. Although it was very tight and I understood exactly what was happening, I wanted that part of the story to develop a little longer in each story.

This is an old 1988 basic game ported to Z-machine. It has a simple plot of you trying to … Well, it wasn’t entirely clear from what I played. You have to save your crew from contamination? It has some good puzzles, such as the videogame one. However, as it does resemble a Scott Adams game, there are many parsing issues, and backspace doesn’t work, instead outputting what I assume is a space. Which confused me, but it didn’t affect me largely enough at all.

There was parsing problems, such as what seems to me as no way to turn on and off things. I tried TURN ON FLASHLIGHT, which responded “What’s the use of turning that?” So I tried ACTIVATE FLASHLIGHT. It didn’t understand. So I attempted TURN ON LIGHT, which responded again with “What’s the use of turning that?” Then I tried TURN FLASHLIGHT. Same thing. Then, finally I tried TURN HHH, and I was still given “What’s the use of turning that?” Which was confusing, since every other verb I tried it would go something like “What in space is on flashlight?” If I typed X ON FLASHLIGHT.

As well as this, a fountain and pond that are the main attraction and take up the most space in a room description are not implemented at all, yet some benches which take up half a sentence yet are vital to the game are implemented.

I did spend a lot of time trying to talk to something that was not implemented, and then I got it after about 15 different failed attempts.

Overall, there were some problems. Many directly listed objects weren’t implemented, and I couldn’t get very far into the game. If the game changes halfway through, I couldn’t get there because I spent so long walking around and trying different things.

The game’s flow is interesting and yet captivating, picking between single-choices with massive texts of screen before them, and ones with objects and a lot of choices. Especially the clothes drawer. I liked the clothes drawer. It really made me feel like the word was really new to this world: didn’t know which parts to focus on and remember, instead remembering the things we take for granted - the vital stuff - and forgetting or undescribing the stuff humans find special. I found that clever.

The world’s on some things really were fascinating, such as the images (considering it is text), and I think the concept and delivery was great. However, the end bit with the outro (from the comments on OS to the end) dragged on a little too long, which could have been intended, but didn’t feel it.

Glad I played it though.

This game was a light little puzzle about escaping a building. The puzzles were short and time-limited, and it felt a few times like I had done everything right, before realising that I hadn't - but when I realised what i had to do, it felt good (a nice puzzle, the elevator one).

Unfortunately, i got stuck at certain points, and the hints were no help. They also took up time in the game, which was very annoying because then I couldn't get the next hint (undoing removes it). And I found it extra annoying was when I tried to CUT THE WIRE WITH THE CLIPPERS, and it didn't work. I was stumped there for quite some time.

Overall, a mixed feelings game with some nice puzzles and timing but badly implemented parts. I would recommend playing it, either way.