Ratings and Reviews by Sorrel

The premise isn’t a bad one and has potential for a quick, light game. You're on a quest for a costume to wear to a protest against the dredging of a river. Unfortunately, the premise gets lost in a host of parser errors and bad writing. Reading over the text a few times or having a beta read over it might have helped the author iron out those mistakes. There are also attempts at humor that I found either a little patronizing or plainly unfunny. Instead of trying to immerse the player in the game, the author breaks the “fourth wall”, constantly reminding us that this is all actually a game. That might be funny in certain circumstances and if done correctly, but here it was just plain annoying. A car is referred to as “the only car in the game” and when attempting to wade into the sea, we get the response of “This is a GAME. You can’t swim.” Really? Because there are plenty of IF games where swimming is very possible and even encouraged.

It’s that slightly patronizing, off-hand parser tone that ultimately drove me to dislike this game. It’s as if the author wasn’t serious about it when he was writing the game. And in my opinion, even a good joke game needs a small amount of care and serious work to be put into it.

The puzzles are easy, but come complete with a lot of glitches. For example: (Spoiler - click to show)When the PC successfully puts something into the panpipes and examines them on the next turn, we get the response of “Panpipes is empty.” Never mind the poor grammar. Apparently, there is a black-hole within the panpipes that eats up everything you put inside them and then magically teleports the items back to your inventory. This would have been very easy to correct, had the author taken the time to have this properly playtested.

Some plot devices seem contrived and some just don’ make sense. (Spoiler - click to show)If Shelly traded in the key for drugs, it must have some value. Why would the shady man under the fig tree just give it to the PC for free? After completing a task for a character and going to talk to him afterward, there is no change in his responses or actions, even though his problem has been solved. He just keeps saying the same thing over and over again.

Perhaps I’m being too hard on this, since Along the River does have a few moments of genuinely good humor and writing. I think that if a second version were to be released with some improvements, Along the River could become a really good, fun piece of IF.

Internal Vigilance is an extremely thought-provoking game – one where every action and its possible impact should be thought through twice. It starts out routinely enough: You are an agent for The Agency, which serves The Union, which apparently restricts the people’s freedom in exchange for keeping them protected. You are tasked with interrogating a terrorist suspect. At first I was intrigued with the many conversation possibilities for this interrogation. However, that’s the one part of the game that left me disappointed. The suspect appears to be well-characterized in the beginning, but some of his actions become a little perplexing when he breaks very abruptly. From the initial impression I got of this NPC, I expected the interrogation scene to be a bit lengthier. It seemed as if the author was trying to move the story along faster than it would move naturally in favor of the events that are waiting for the player in the next few chapters of the game.

That speeding up of the first scene turned out to be at least partially justified, because the events after it are indeed worth exploring in more detail. In the beginning of the next scene, I got the impression that Internal Vigilance was trying to give itself a surreal feel, where none was necessary. Fortunately, I was mistaken. What I mistook for a surreal, little gimmick is actually a clever metaphor and plot device. In fact, at the conclusion of the game you will learn just how much your choices during this part affect the outcome. Throughout Internal Vigilance, there are many choices that will drastically affect your ending and there were times where I stared at the screen for a few minutes before making one of those choices.

Unfortunately, there are some implementation errors in Internal Vigilance. They don’t take away from the general enjoyment of the game, but they did annoy me a bit in the beginning.

>Take papers
The desk it too heavy for that.

Little errors like that made me think that the author didn’t care enough to iron out the game before publishing it. In fact, there are even some minor grammar mistakes and typos that could have been fixed with a thorough read-through. But all of those mistakes can be forgiven, because the premise of the game serves as a brilliant, thought-provoking experiment into concepts like freedom, government stability, and patriotism. There are nine endings in total and each ending is affected by the little choices the PC makes as a solitary agent. And those little choices sometimes affect the entire structure of the world around the PC.

Internal Vigilance made me think – really think deeply before each step in the game. Going through the story didn’t feel effortless or instinctive. Every action was deliberate and laced with a small amount of bitterness for all the doors that closed when one opened. This isn’t a game for a lunch break or a relaxing afternoon. This one has a high replay value and you might find yourself going back and back and back and frantically trying to change your responses to change the final outcome.

But no one outcome feels completely victorious. There is always that one grain of doubt in every ending that makes you want to go back and change things for the better. And I loved that about Internal Vigilance.