Ratings and 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!