Ratings and Reviews by OtisTDog

Hedge is a strange tale of one man's journey into The Hedge, fortress retreat of a shadowy "elite" that you desperately want to join... or perhaps destroy.

Billed as a "modern fantasy jaunt" by the author, I found the tone to actually be part comedy, part psychodrama. Much of the gameplay feels like a surreal blend of The Prisoner and Monty Python's Flying Circus, with just a pinch of Little, Big thrown in at the last minute.

For work of a first-time author, this piece is richly implemented. Most objects have layers of detail attached to them, and most verbs have at least a few synonyms. Parser interaction generally shows evidence of both attention to detail and proper levels of testing. I took note of many unexpected niceties in the way descriptions are rendered in response to varying world-states.

Hedge is reasonably well-written in terms of atmosphere and mood, and the status bar helps maintain a mood by displaying the protagonist's emotional state. Although there is a scoring system, score notification is disabled, and the scoring process appears only loosely correlated to the intended story. Interestingly, the "full score" command yields not individual point contributions to your total but a list of unusual "achievements" based on your actions.

The story's structure seems somewhat arbitrary, but this may be by design. Although there is little explanation of the protagonist's motives, the inclusion of multiple winning pathways allows the player to define the protagonist's motives by his actions.

The puzzle structure is frequently obnoxious, particularly in the beginning stages. Red herrings abound; there's even a fountain full of them if you don't get the point. Fortunately, the "about" command yields valuable insights into the mindset of the author, and you can summon a hint fairy at any time by using "help" or "hint."

Although I did find a couple of bugs(Spoiler - click to show) ("take transmitter", "x mayans"), they did not negatively affect gameplay. My two-star rating reflects disappointment that this game seems intended to frustrate traditional players in the first half, for no real reason other than the amusement of the author. This hostile edge probably contributed significantly to Hedge's middle-of-the-pack placement in the 2006 IF Comp.

Mr. Richards clearly has above-average capabilities as a writer and programmer, and I would like to see more from him in the future.

As other reviews mention, this is not really interactive fiction -- it's a recreation of an old game from the days when "computer graphics" was completely synonymous with "ASCII art."

The game does seem to be implemented well and was probably something of a pain to write. I didn't particularly enjoy the gameplay, so I'd normally rate it 2 stars, but I was struck by the way this piece is framed -- it made me think about the possibilities of throwing a mini-game like this into the midst of a standard IF work. (As if writing something of substance isn't hard enough!)

The only attempt at that sort of thing that I'm aware of is Infocom's Border Zone, which was somewhat controversial due to the real-time nature of the mini-game's action. In this case, the game is turn-based, which might work with the "stop-and-think" nature of IF instead of against it.

Take One is a likable but mildly frustrating jaunt through your memories of playing "Indiana Jones" when you were younger. Ostensibly, you play the director of a movie, guiding an actress playing Indianette Jones through a scene about raiding some temple for an artifact. Submitted by Robert Street as an entry for the Finish the Game Comp held in 2005, it placed a close second.

As with Mr. Street's Turning Point, this work introduces certain interesting elements that don't end up having a recognizable impact on the story.(Spoiler - click to show) It's written in the third person, presumably in support of your observational status as director, but the gameplay works as though you yourself are Indianette -- there is no functional separation of "you" from her. The actress playing Indianette is decried as a useless airhead in the introduction, but this is not used for any story-telling effect (e.g. bawling her out when "she" makes a mistake, or ditzy commentary as "she" struggles on the set). In fact, she expresses no personality at all during gameplay, leaving me wondering why she is characterized that way.

Orientation to the game goal is well done. As the player, you immediately are told how to start the scene, and, while there are numerous hints about the outline of the puzzle you have to solve, there is enough left unspecified to make for a small challenge.

Unfortunately, what could have been a smooth gameplay experience was frustrated by programming and/or parser problems.(Spoiler - click to show) Though you are given instructions to read the journal then rub the ring, you are unable to rub the ring while wearing it. If you try, you are told "Indianette Jones can't rub the ring," which is unhelpful, to say the least. I spent several turns in an unproductive hunt for a synonym of "rub" that would apply before I figured out the glitch.

In a similar vein, it took me far too long to discover how to get the jewel from the statue.(Spoiler - click to show) Unlike Inform, the ADRIFT parser doesn't seem to provide any help if the player hits on a correct verb but incorrect syntax. Thus, the command "use whip" gives the same result as "<any nonsense> whip", which makes it seem like the verb is unrecognized. In fact, "use whip on jewel" would work. Since I am conditioned to the Inform type of parser response in this case ("What would you like to use the whip on?"), and since most authors avoid implementation of the verb "use" in favor of more specific wording, I spent several playthroughs trying things like "crack whip", "attack jewel with whip", "whip jewel", "throw whip at jewel", etc. before hitting on "get whip with jewel".

The situation isn't helped by the fact that the game lies and tells you the jewel is lying on the ground -- a serious error for a final release.

Those issues aside, it was smooth sailing and a fun scenario. The overloading of the "restart" action to begin a new "take" of the scene was a clever touch.

Mr. Street definitely has the ability to come up with good premises and puzzles. With better use of the conceptual pieces he puts into play and a less journalistic writing style, his work would probably attract more attention.

Two hours isn't much time for coming up with a good story, let alone coding it. Gilles Duchesne demonstrates with this piece created for Speed IF 16 that you can produce something likable in that timeframe... and have a great time while you're at it.

This episode has every indication that it was written hastily and with a devil-may-care attitude about literary or artistic quality. A decided lack of pretense saves the day, though, making it easy to overlook any minor faults and experience the author's glee at lashing together the seed ideas he used from the contest: Marie Antionette, antiques, cheese, monkey heads, and Brandon van Every.

It's a 15-minute experience that I didn't regret, and I look forward to trying other works in the absurdist Captain Speedo series. If the others are like this one, they are a brilliantly-conceived framework well-suited to the handful-of-random-ideas category of SpeedIF.

This game is small, but there's good reason: It was submitted as an entry to the Commodore 32 Contest, which challenged entrants to create a Z-code game weighing in at 32K or less (the memory size limit of the fictional Commodore 32 computer).

The competition was created to showcase mInform, a minimalist library designed to replace the Inform 6 standard library. I'm not sure what the point of mInform was (other than the standard engineer's motivation of "because I can"), but mInform can be used to create quite functional games, as author Robert Street demonstrates with Turning Point.

The introduction of this piece sets up a backdrop of interstellar war that comes across with all the excitement of a USA Today news blurb. As the action starts, you are standing on the oddly-placed bridge of a starship as the Captain (whom you are a clone of) issues assignments to handle various problems on the ship. You are shortly assigned to investigate a "disturbance" which turns out to be a firefight with an alien infiltrator.

It's actually not a bad setup, but the execution as a story leaves much to be desired. Though the 32K limit leaves precious little room for exposition, much of it is wasted on an unnecessary and frivolous detours(Spoiler - click to show) -- the fact that the PC is a clone of the Captain, and some backstory about an accident the Captain had which has caused him to take a more juvenile mindset. Neither of these has any relevance to the plot that I could detect, and good editing would have trimmed them out.

There is also a tendency to use humor when justifying restricting the player's actions. While the jokes are amusing, they do not fit with the serious and straightforward quality of the puzzle design.

Regardless, the writing is good enough to create an engaging atmosphere without unduly taxing the player's willing suspension of disbelief, and it is complemented by solid (if basic) programming technique and better-than-average puzzle for such a short game.

It's about a 15-minute diversion to win, and any new authors who are better writers than coders can use this as a benchmark for basic functionality.

IF author Sean Barrett's brief homage to Douglas Adams on the occasion of his death (one of several produced as part of the DNA Tribute Speed IF) is an excellent example of what short-form interactive fiction can accomplish.

Using just three locations, a handful of objects, and two non-interactive NPCs, Mr. Barrett creates a brief but engrossing experience combining elements of Adams' Hitchhiker and Dirk Gently universes. Fans of Adams' work (such as myself) will appreciate the attempt to render Dirk Gently's unique worldview faithfully, while those unfamiliar with the underlying novels will probably still find themselves drawn into the puzzle that Barrett presents.

While the piece has a cliffhanger ending (and is unlikely to be continued due to intellectual property laws), it provides a satisfying and well-balanced dose of exploration, problem-solving, and humor. The puzzle is just the right level of complexity for an introductory sequence, requiring the player to begin coming to grips with the uniqueness of the game universe but not requiring mind-reading.(Spoiler - click to show) The manner in which the obvious solution doesn't quite cut it, and the humorous game feedback it generates, is perfect for easing the player into greater effort of puzzle-solving without presenting the frustration of a dead-end brick wall.

Though I doubt The Sofa at the End of the Universe would live up to Mr. Adams' preferred level of diabolical complexity in interactive fiction, it is a fitting tribute to the most highly-regarded "crossover" IF author in the field's history. Adams fan or not, I recommend this piece.

Submitted as the first chapter of a six-part work proposed by the Segment Mini-Comp, this incredibly brief piece is under-implemented, uninspired, and did not encourage me to continue on to the next chapter. It seems like what might result from 30 minutes of sketching out an idea in code, then calling it quits.

Skip it, and see Mr. Carbol's Spring Cleaning as a better example of what he's capable of.

Earth and Sky is a popular piece that is probably most notable for two things: introducing the superhero genre to IF, and successfully founding the first serial adventure in the medium. [edit: After writing this, I realized that the Frenetic Five series probably has a better claim to both of these distinctions.]

An IF Comp entry, Earth and Sky takes no chances with the recommended timeline for gameplay; it seems impossible that you might not finish within the allotted two hours. Its relatively linear story -- usually a big turnoff for me -- is compensated for by the fact that this story is fun to read and still somehow offers a sense of freedom. Rather than feeling railroaded by the plot requirements, you feel swept along by the fast-paced events you are involved in; instead of feeling pushed, you are racing to keep up.

Like the early Lone Ranger or Flash Gordon serials, this work is unapologetic in its use of cliche conventions and its cliffhanger ending. It has no need for apology -- indeed, it shows us why those cliches exist in the first place, and the authors have delivered on their promise for more in the game's two award-winning sequels.

Though I haven't felt the urge to replay the game since I first tried it a few years back, this is a fun one that's well-suited to a lunch-hour diversion, or as a friendly introduction to the form for an IF newcomer.

Written as the original implementation of Inform neared maturity (this work uses version 5.5), Spiritwrak is an old-school epic of a size and complexity comparable to the larger Infocom titles.

It seems that Daniel S. Yu, the author, firmly believed in the adage that "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." This work treads a fine line between those paths, starting with a premise rooted in the climax of Infocom's Spellbreaker and playing like something that came right out of its development team. As Duncan Stevens notes in his SPAG review: "[T]he magic system is suspiciously reminiscent of the Enchanter series, and the humor captures the Zork style." However, Spiritwrak adds a heavy layer of originality to the geographical and mythological framework created by Infocom, allowing it to stand as an achievement in its own right.

Spiritwrak is extremely difficult. Even for an old-school piece, the puzzles can be brutal. Some puzzles are arguably fair but lack what would be considered the minimum reasonable hinting by modern standards. Other puzzles require feats of mind-reading of the type that would have sold a lot of Invisiclues­™ back in the day.(Spoiler - click to show) (For example, can you guess how to hide behind some curtains when the "hide" verb is not implemented and opening them results in you immediately shutting them again? Can you guess the significance of a small boat's name, or which of the many topic-poor NPCs might be able to tell you about it? Can you guess that using your triplication spell on a certain item won't actually triplicate it, but instead produce variations of it that contain plot-necessary items?) A few puzzles appear to be virtual -- they halt progress like a designed puzzle but are probably due to flaws or limitations in the coding. This last group is especially frustrating because, in a game with so little hinting, it's easy to think you are missing key items or actions when in reality you have the right idea and everything you need(Spoiler - click to show), but are not holding the right objects "directly", i.e. in the top level of your inventory.

This is the kind of game that requires you to take notes, to draw maps, to learn by dying, to spend significant time pondering dead ends and red herrings, and to continually second-guess what you thought were solutions to the puzzles you've solved. For old-school aficionados, it's heaven! For everyone else, be prepared to seek hints -- though I highly recommend you do so via rec.games.int-fiction or IFMUD, as the "hint" files you can download here contain copious spoilers that are impossible to avoid.

Interestingly, this game claims to be released under the GNU Public License v2, which means that anyone should be able to expand and improve it. Unfortunately, however, it is not distributed with the source code (as required by GPL), and I was unable to locate the source online. If anyone else happens to come across it, please leave a comment here -- it would be interesting to explore cleaning up some bugs, making certain key descriptions of objects and action slightly clearer(Spoiler - click to show) (especially the brick puzzle in the endgame), and implementing an in-game hint system.