Reviews by Tito Valenz

D&D fantasy elements mixed with Lewis Carroll imagery? Why not! Your character is an orc who is hired to battle adventurers that have paid to live out their dreams. I liked how the game evolved--there was a definite arc for us to follow. The battles got more fun as the game went on. The puzzles were not difficult, but still enjoyable to work through. There is opportunity for exploration, and a few surprises to be discovered. I have to mention one behind a spoiler warning, but you CAN NOT read it until after you have played: (Spoiler - click to show)If you examine your nametag, you will see it contains a code. If you then examine that code, a QR code appears. Scan it, and you will see updated information on what level your character is at, plus get a password to a bonus point. The descriptions were well done, but the illustrations were absolutely hilarious. I would have personally liked it even more if the NPCs were a little less flat; they never go further than stock characterizations. That might be intentional, but I still wished the dialog had been as imaginative as the other aspects of the game. This, for me, was one of the highlights of the IFComp 2021.

This game is very short. It is categorized in the 2021 IfComp as "Fantastic." It is surreal and abstract. The main character is investigating a hazardous area with an ex whom they split with five years earlier. It seems implied from the disjointed descriptions and dialog that the narrator may have a deteriorating state of mind, or may be experiencing the effects of some environmental anomaly. There is a lot of focus on the relationship the pair once shared. Choices are mostly made up of three hyperlinks. I hope that what is happening to the characters in this story never happens to me.

I am glad I didn't read the description before playing this game. It really gives too much away. It's another dystopian future/post-apocalypse sci-fi story. This one has a retro look to it, as if it was developed in the 80's, but I didn't feel any sense of nostalgia playing it. The storyline was much too sophisticated to resemble a classic parser game. It's mostly pretty serious in tone, but throws in jarring bits of humor in odd places. It's also timed, so there is a sense of urgency. I appreciated the detailed walkthrough--it was easy to forget steps or get confused on how to phrase commands. Now I want to make a suggestion about IF games in general: (Spoiler - click to show) Authors, please allow for some branching in your IF. I really liked how this one turns out; it would be the path I would want to find if there were several options. But it feels like more of an accomplishment to get an ending you like when you know your choices mattered. It also provides motivation to play again. Also, I thought there was a missed opportunity in this particular game (extra spoilery spoiler): I made it back to shelter 4 after being exposed, but refused to leave the airlock because I wanted to see what would happen when I went crazy with other characters around. The game just ends. I would have really liked something shocking to have happened. There were some little nitpicks I encountered, but I don't think they're worth mentioning, because they didn't take away from my enjoyment. One of the reasons I don't usually seek out dystopian fiction is the sense of hopelessness that comes from descriptions of everything being ruined. This story does a good job with that. That leads me to recommend this game, since I liked playing it even though I don't usually care for writing this bleak.

Here is a brief comedy piece where you listen to a guest speaker lecturing at your college. He is presenting his stance on the titular “Smart Theory.” None of his claims make any sense. Will you be persuaded to devote yourself to this new belief system? The game might be a send-up of some element of contemporary society, and there are surely multiple interpretations to be made as to who or what it’s aimed at. Then again, maybe the author just wanted to challenge himself to see how off the wall he could get and keep it going as long as possible. I thought it was pretty funny.

The puzzles in this game are not like common IF puzzles. Most are more like puzzles you would get in a puzzle magazine. They occur in an ever-shifting storyline that throws you from one scenario to another in quick fashion. It gets more wacky and irreverent as it goes. I think most players will enjoy the humor. What's really thoughtful is the authors make it very easy to access hints and solutions for every puzzle. The choices are easy to make by clicking the links, although some puzzles are timed. You can play in an easy mode that turns off the timers. Personally, I was more curious to see where the story went than work through every puzzle, so I used lots of hints.

Looking at the map of this game, I thought it would be a decent length, not too unwieldy, especially given the brisk pace up to the point where the map turned up. Instead, I felt it was fairly expansive. Not because there are so many locations, but because of the amount of exploration needed to thoroughly interact with each area. I was really enjoying the puzzles, and I felt like they were just the right difficulty for me. I first became frustrated when I realized that the "examine" command wasn't revealing everything about the places and objects. Instead, you had to use "search" in some situations to know if you could interact or not. Sometimes the two were interchangeable, sometimes completely different, which means you have to try both on everything. I'm not sure if this was intentional, because it doesn't seem like it's reflected in the walkthrough. The game felt like it got harder as it went, and I started to check the hints and then the walkthrough with increasing frequency. There were places where the directions each one gives didn't match up. I did like the hint system, but sometimes the way it was worded caused me to misunderstand what I had to do. For example, (Spoiler - click to show) at one point, the hint reads that you have to look at the bottom of a statue for a way to activate an exit. I tried many, many commands before I found out that I needed to visit another location first. Using the command "look" never actually does anything. I was way over my head by the third act, struggling to know what my objective was or what area to revisit. I enjoyed the story, but even though it included horror elements and gloomy locations, I didn't really feel a sense of immersion. It felt more like an intellectual exercise than writing that creates a mood. I got the impression that a translation caused some unusual phrasings, and possibly compromised the effectiveness of some descriptions. My favorite parts were interacting with the NPCs who are able to provide some background information. There were also numerous written documents you could collect, and they all added to the story nicely. Still, I feel like I should have had more of a visceral response to this piece given the sorts of things it describes. To me, the very best games create an atmosphere or a feeling, and wanting to re-experience those sensations again is what motivates me to replay them. I was hoping "D'Arkun" would be one of those, but for me, it wasn't.

These games are hard! I was able to win poker from time to time, and I made some money sticking with the safe bet at the horse races. But the zombie game? The computer would always pick them off while I couldn't even get started. I was not able to figure out the parser game. I don't know anything about football, so I didn't do too good there. And the Keno game didn't pay out very much when I played the 20-spot. I didn't come anywhere close on the slots, and even when I made it to the bonus game, I immediately matched two zeros. Also, I had a terrible flight home. I got sat next to this annoying guy who was going on about how he beat all the games and made a ton of money. Next year, I'm using my vacation time to visit Amsterdam.

On my first playthrough of Goat Game, I was really enjoying the direction the story was taking. There was a lot going on, and the game was described as taking two hours, so I started to settle in for a lengthy exploration of this world it was establishing. I got an ending in less than half an hour and it was really confusing. I thought that maybe I had made a choice that skipped me through a large chunk of the story. Also, I didn't know how to feel about what happened to my character--he seemed to be unhappy, even though his situation changed for the better. I couldn't think how any of the choices I made got me to this result. And it seemed like there were a LOT of things that were touched on that didn't get to develop. I played four more times and found three more endings. They were all pretty negative, even though I thought I was making choices that were good for my character. The game tracks three stats, but it appears that you only get one choice to change each stat. So I went from "low" to "medium" in each one, but never had an opportunity to move it any further. I am curious to continue playing to see different endings, but I'm kind of thinking they might all be bad.

Here is a very brief game where the player decides what moves to make in a single fight scene. There is some story woven in to give the game stakes, and plenty of choices to try out on replays. You get three kinds of moves to choose from, and the game makes it clear when each one should be used if you want to win. However, you are given several reasons you may not want a flawless victory. The game builds as the fight and the story continue until (Spoiler - click to show)one competitor has a choice whether or not to kill the other.
However, as soon as the kill is made or rejected, the game ends quickly. It really felt like you would get to experience some consequences one way or the other, so the abrupt conclusion was jarring. There are enough variables to make playing again worthwhile. I thought it was pretty fun and implemented some good ideas.

Quick, fun game with teenage hijinks elevated by an impressive interface. It’s a parser game, but you are receiving what look like actual texts from the NPC you interact with. I don’t know anything about programming, but I hear that this isn’t an easy combination to write. I think most players are going to really enjoy the effect.