Ratings and Reviews by Max Fog

For context on why this game is what it is: (Spoiler - click to show)first effort by a 13 year old in time span of one year using ZIL (undocumented and unused since Infocom times), with multiple changes to the parser on a level that had truly never been documented or properly tinkered with before, also having to learn C++ in the process to rewrite the compiler. There's countless more things. Oh, yes it was larger than the original H2G2 game, and also trying to follow in the footsteps of 1) Infocom, the greatest IF company of all time, no doubt, and 2) in the footsteps of Douglas Adams, possibly one of the clever and funny writers of all time.

A bit much for a first, no?

(Some more ranting below...)
(Spoiler - click to show)Of course it wasn't going to be perfect. It was a cruel game (though purposefully), and many puzzles were obscure. The writing wasn't great. And worst of all: the bugs. Oh, the bugs scuttled across the floor in huge quantities, but that was during the competition, where it place 48th out of 75. Now the bugs are swept away, the writing has been fixed, and the reviews have not been updated. I, for one, would certainly give it five stars because that is likely the most ambitious game in the history of IF. But I don't want to be annoying or boastful or whiny, which this probably seems. So 4 is good!

Okay. I have to disagree with my own title for this review. It's not even close to home for me. I've never dated anyone. I can't say I've had that kind of argument. So no it isn't close to home.

But I know it is the kind of thing that will probably happen to me one day. I won't go into too much detail because that's personal and also insensitive, as I'm aware I can be without knowing. I am very close to removing this part of the review anyway.

This game loaded the UI in a way that felt familiar and also very clever. Easy to understand, and not hard to read or anything.

Now onto the subject matter. The game is based in the idea of a breakup. But a hard one. There are no choices but it felt right for the style of game. Although I'm very certain much of this was very very closely based off of real chats, I have to say it's very realistic and it's really clever. The breakup was emotional to me, and nothing was ever loose or difficult to use or boring. Everything perfect - which, sure, isn't how real life works, but in this gane there is no waiting that you want to be doing.

Though it was certainly understandable matter and some sharp words were brought from the offending side, nobody was not understood. Each person in the whole forum had a personality. Each person had their own way of expressing things and reacted differently to events. Nobody felt like they had no reason for anything that they said (although some people had much less justification than others, it seems). I know this all sounds redundant since most of it is probably an edited version of what really happened, I can't stress enough how much I felt with this one.

The writing of this game was superb. I want to put it out there, before I can say anything else.

Now, I'm not gifted at writing reviews in any shape or form, so apologies if this is blunt, but intricate details are not something I know how to use, unless in song lyrics or the design of a game.

I was at first very interested in the calendar layout of the game. I, however, would have liked to see more markings of those I have read, and those left to be read. I personally am not a fan of listing things like those to be read in that order. Which is funny, because I like lists. A lot.
But here, maybe even a different colour marker for clicked links would have been nice.

As well as this, it would have been nice to have some additional things occur every seventh page you read or so, to shake it up a little. Although I loved the writing and found myself drawn by the beauty of it, I could not help but be distanced from it by the sheer number of entries, all listed up neatly and as if ready to textdump. I know it was meant to be designed to be read in small goes, but i didn't get that sense from it. It felt like a bit overwhelming. Diary entries that are found later, for example?

Overall, however, I found it very strong with the writing, sparse in UI (although pretty and suitable for the idea), and maybe a little more complexity to make it an easier read. The meaning was obscure but vaguely present, subtle reminders you were not alone. I felt cold and shivery (the environment you described yourself as being in felt cold to me, which I could certainly feel), and yet nice and cozy.