Reviews by Deboriole

I played this game first since it was in so many 'beginner' lists and enjoyed it but felt it was a little lacking in the fun department. Getting ready for work is not ideal gameplay, but the ending (or variety thereof) makes the effort worthwhile. I wasn't sure what to think upon looking in the trunk of my car, and got even more confused when I tried to put all of the stuff back in the house to no avail. But it all made sense in the end. Good beginner game. Make sure you save so you can appreciate the alternate choices.

Initially I got frustrated by this game because I just wanted to explore the room and not worry about what Violet would think, or have the game end because she left me. But once I figured out all I had to do was 'write' once in awhile, I was able to explore to my heart's content. What really excited me about this game was the amazing expanse of commands. Anything that crossed my mind seemed to be achievable. To my further delight, many of the crazy solutions I came up with actually worked and helped me toward my goal. This is one of the best IF games I have played in awhile. The puzzles are great and I got totally immersed in the world.

This game took a little while to warm up to. The first time I played it, I didn't thoroughly search the rooms which made a solution completely impossible. Totally my fault! After reading a few positive reviews online, I gave it another shot and ended up really liking it. The humor is great and the puzzles make sense. There are not many rooms in the game which is also a plus in my book because it is easy to get around and go back to previous locations. Grunk give this game 4 stars.

I used to play this on my Commodore 64 when I was a kid. I have many fond memories, and remembered most of the solutions even 30 years later! Most of the game is rewarding, although I find the mazes and the ending to be a little "out there." This is definitely one of my all-time favorite games because there are a lot of rewarding puzzles and even some humor mixed in. Remember to save often because treasures can be easily lost or broken.

Plugh!

I have to honest. I did not make it through this game. I was full of excitement when I started to play, but as soon as I typed 'i' and was carrying nothing of importance -- and later discovered this wasn't entirely true -- I became a little annoyed. I understand the reasoning behind this (because the player knows nothing at the start) but I found the handicap of this sort of play to be more bothersome than cool. The last straw for me was... (Spoiler - click to show)hiding from the guards. I knew I had to distract them with a noise and spent more than an hour trying to put together different pieces of spy equipment (voice transmitter, etc.) to throw them off. When I finally looked up the answer and saw all I had to do was throw a metal object, I decided to stop playing. In other words, there seemed to be endless combinations of how I could distract the guards, yet none of them worked -- which disappointed me.

I would recommend this game to anyone who loves tinkering with gadgets and doesn't mind a somewhat forced-control sort of environment. This just wasn't the right game for me.

I have recently gotten back into IF and everywhere I looked were rave reviews for Photopia, so I had to play. The story is beautiful but I must admit I got stuck in several places, most notably the garage, and had to read the walkthrough. I also found an alternate ending that I have not read about anywhere. (Spoiler - click to show)Type 'wake up'. One of my favorite parts was opening the glovebox in the first sequence. Ha.

Overall I liked the storyline but found the interactive pieces a little unclear. I would recommend this game for the experience.