Ratings and Reviews by Aintelligence

I was pleasantly surprised by this adventure. Taking place in a jail called hoosegow, after you were arrested by the sheriff, the story is that you have to get out of the jailhouse before your hanging tomorrow.

This game, like a few others, has a real spin on the classic speech. In everything the characters did, "scruffy, unshaven, slippery, uneducated cowboys In tattered vests" were written all over them. The author used southern slang for just about everything from "that ain't no verb I got knowledge of" to " is you talking plain English?" which significantly added to the style and story of the game.

The story is not, however, a simple 'escape the room' sort of game in which the puzzles are simple, but these puzzles involve a lot of logic, thinking and a little bit of guess the verb. I would say the puzzles were mainly fair, but there were a few spots I got hung up on because the solution was slightly obscure. However, if you really think of the puzzles in a really 'cowboy' way, they should not be too hard. What was hard though, was the numerous places where you had to play guess the verb, or even worse, guess the noun. Some spots could really use some more real editing. It really took away from the gameplay, I think, because I would get stuck in places where advance was impossible without the magic verb.

I had no idea interactive fiction could possibly be like this. It Was puzzelless (unless you consider rattling off all the types of cheese you've ever heard of), basically one room, but hilarious as ever. I was laughing so hard during the story, for the writing was fabulously done and I could just see John cleese in that role. The game has no bugs that I'm aware of, and was really smoothly run and designed. Hints were provided (and used by me) when you absolutely could not think of any more kinds of cheese. I especially enjoyed the AMUSE at the end of the game, adding classic python ideas

If you are a Monty Python fan to any degree, play this game

This is a really fun little game if you're ever bored. You can select varying levels of difficulty to play, but really it's not a very hard game at all. I consists of a robot moving around a black screen examining all of the letters (objects) until it finds the cat. It's very simple with just letters or characters representing the objects in the world, but it's fun and repeatable.
The major thing I found wrong with it was that the control keys were really crazy with no apparent logic to them at all. They were in no particular order on the keyboard and you'd have to click around to finally find the direction you are after. Other than this major fault though, it was not bad

If you've ever read the comic books Calvin and Hobbes, then you may agree with me that the protagonist reminds me enormously of "Tracer Bullet". A shady, (Spoiler - click to show) corrupt alcoholic private eye who spends his time solving cases and then deciding not to reveal the guilty because he was 'a close friend'. Yes, the characters are so alike in character and thought, I could have sworn Bill Watterson wrote this.

Really, all the characters were like this in the story; each with something to hide (except Joe who would rather do crossword puzzles) which made this mystery a classic. What was even more interesting was trying to find more information about yourself to see what was happening in the house. No other detective stories (encountered to date) has this, instead completely focusing on the other characters. In short, the characters were beautifully crafted.

The story was so original. It took me 4 tries to finally see what I had to do to win the game, because before, I was chasing a million red herrings. That's the beauty of the game though, I think. You will run through the game with no result several times before you get the feel of the characters, setting and plot, and the solution just slams into your head. Really, the whole game is a massive puzzle, designed to keep you on your toes and to anticipate every future move, as well as adapting quickly when you find yourself stuck. to those who did it on their first try.

I could talk almost all day of how good and entertaining and puzzling the story was, but I'll leave with one more point. The story was not just a good piece of work on all four cylinders but also the people (not referring to their personalities at the moment). Like many mystery adventures, you had to be at the right place at the right time to win in some parts, but the characters were really sophisticated in the programming side of things. A lot of effort was put into them to make them know a variety of topics to ask or tell them about, and I found discussions were easily carried out.

I'll just say this: If you are interested even a little in mystery, play this.

This game was a rather strange game on many plains. It, was very relaxed and humorous attitude to it, as if it was just written by a bored guy on a hot summer day in errr, Norway. The jokes were slapped in from all directions (Spoiler - click to show) you dump coffee on the man, don't you know coffee is BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH??!! and very dry humor all through. Not quite my type of humor, but even I laughed at the somewhat dry jokes.

The obvious lack of revision did, however cause the story to be less than what it could have been. The story especially suffered because no examine/search had been implemented. Sure, you could complete the story, but the lack of 'examine' hurt the story's character.

The other main issue i had with the game was that the combat was too easy. It's tagged as a puzzle shooter, but there were no puzzles involved (like backup etc.) which affected the difficulty of the combat. It was just 'shoot yeti' and it died. The puzzle combat could possibly refer to the end boss, but even so, I was expecting a little more puzzle.

So if you're looking for a simple game, with a weak plot and characters, but rather funny, this is a good game for you. I would recommend to at least give it a try.

I played this on recommendation from a friend who just started playing. Right from the beginning, this so-called adventure was a massive flop. None of the puzzles made any practical sense, for example (Spoiler - click to show) why the heck did you have to turn the dial to 4 of all numbers to open the door? and you were just strolling around some cave with a whole bunch of useless codes and keys. Sure...the creators of this cave knew some day somebody would get trapped, so they decided to booby trap it. This is another suffering of the story, the fact that the setting and the story make absolutely no sense whatsoever. If there are any beginners out there who are thinking about this game, don't play it!

Ok, this author maybe needs to realize that all of what was described did not happen, and I personally don't want to spend the day reading bogus historical essays.
Oh yeah and this really isn't a game
Why is this on here?

Not only is this one of Emily Short's best works ( along with bronze, check it out), but this is a sure candidate for one of the best adventures ever. The story was bleak to say the least, with just a few hints here and there, but it works wonders for the mysterious story. You know that you're a slave sent by your master for some mission, but you slowly accumulate the story as you go along. And yes, it's one heck of a story too. Brilliant characters, brilliant story, great puzzles and the philosophy was top.
The main character, a slave is relatively unknown except for the flashbacks we have in the game. The game though focuses more on the puzzles and the philosophy though than the character, but the little we do know bought the protagonist really strengthens the plot.
The puzzles are really neat in many ways. They fit the magic that you feel in the story, in the sense that none of the puzzles feel forced, but feel like they should be there. Also unlike many adventures, the puzzles are solvable in many different ways, so the game is repeatable. These puzzles are genius. However even with the 5 star rating, not everything was perfect. I found that two puzzles in particular (Spoiler - click to show)the oven and the ball were impossible if you did a small bit wrong. Ah well, I saved. In short though, the puzzles were fair.
On a side note, I loved the Plato mixed in with the story, well actually the main part of the story, aka. The 5th element. Makes me want to read Plato again.

This adventure is actually pretty cool in concept. You've just been set afloat by a bunch of pirates and find yourself bound in a tiny life raft with an island just in sight. The story seems really good here as well as the characters. There are a few puzzles, not too difficult, but there is hardly any control over your character except a small bit in the middle which I thought was fine. The cliffhanger was well executed, but there is just one killer that makes this game a 2 star. Ok this prologue was made in 2000. So much for the full version. Honestly just don't play this game unless you want to be tortured by the missing end.

I've always been a fan of Emily Short adventures because they're so creative. This is a great example of sheer creativeness which appears in all of her stories. The Emperor Augustus has recently died and tuberous is his 'successor' but Tiberious wants you dead because of the incredible power you hold. So the story goes that you have to destroy all evidence of the powers you hold which will incriminate you.
Ok so it's a one roomer ( well, technically 2) but the storyline is really well done and there are so many endings to choose from that I spent at least half an hour.
The 'magic' (Spoiler - click to show) link un link and enslave ( for those who don't want to know, but the commands are also accessible in help), was to me very puzzling at first, but once I finally understood how everything worked, it came easily. Once you get the hang of the format, the time limit is more than enough time. It's really entertaining to see how many endings you can come up with through the differant magic strategies you use. There was something wrong though... I would really love to see a much longer game of this