Ratings and Reviews by Tito Valenz

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.

This game spends almost every moment describing messed up stuff. I thought it did a good job building up from the feeling that something is not right to more and more descriptive passages of increasingly depraved scenarios. The author references numerous people, locations, and job titles, none of which I recognized from having been raised Catholic. My deepest wish is that it was written to sound well-researched with some semblance of accuracy, but is actually complete nonsense. I found a little bit more content on a second playthrough, but only in one area. All other choices will take you through the same story. On an unrelated note, who recommended "Limerick Quest" as a related game????

I thought this was a fun little game with a simple story and fairly easy puzzles. It went by much quicker than I expected it to; I kept assuming that little details were going to come in to play at some point, when they actually didn’t(Spoiler - click to show), such as the transforming robot who never transforms. I went to the walkthrough twice. The first time, I had guessed what I needed to do, but must have done things in the wrong order (Spoiler - click to show) (using the music maker to light up the room). The second time, I don’t think I would have guessed what had to be done (Spoiler - click to show) (rescuing the doll with the car). There was a discussion at the end in which I had no idea what was being implied. All around, very sweet and memorable.

Well…the author DID categorize this as “surreal”. I thought it was interesting to have set the story in a place that really existed and populate it with historical figures. The main character seems to be traveling somewhat aimlessly, supposedly looking for someone in particular, but possibly unsure how to go about it. The first portion of the game is kind of a road story, but then he ends up in a very non-traditional college. He sits in on some classes and helps out with some chores, but he seems to act more like he’s at a commune than a school. I wasn’t really sure what to think about the ending, and I have not played through a second time to see if there are other possibilities. Recommended for readers who are looking for something laid-back and easy-going.

The main character of this story, Aiden, establishes right away that his goal is to win the love of his longtime friend, Laura, on the day of her wedding. Maybe I should have picked up on it right from the first scene, but it becomes clear over the course of the event and through some flashbacks that Aiden isn’t entirely a 100% reliable narrator. We are told numerous times that he is a “good guy,” and there are parts to the story where it seems like maybe he is. At other times, he seems like he isn’t very self-aware, and brings his problems on himself. The longer it went, the more inconsistent it seemed his character was, until the climactic moment. Then, (Spoiler - click to show)during the wedding ceremony, Aiden seems to go full-on delusional. We know by this point he has absolutely no chance with Laura. It was then that a surprising list of options were given that I genuinely believed could take the story in different directions. I was disappointed after playing through each of them that none made any difference. When I finally read the ending, I still wasn’t sure what to think. Maybe the epilogue was meant to be taken at face value, but when I read it back a second time, I wondered if the author intended for it to have multiple interpretations. Maybe one day I will discuss it at length with some fellow players and finally learn the true nature of Aiden Bestman once and for all.

Here is a choice-based game that I found very pleasant to navigate. Despite being a sci-fi adventure taking place on another world (not my usual preference), I was drawn in right away; I attribute that to the fact that the setting is more of an underwater environment than an alien planetary location. There are five chapters to this story. I have played the game several times. While I enjoyed the writing, I was a little disappointed that it seemed like nothing you do in the first three chapters keeps you from arriving at the same place in the fourth one. Another nitpick is that in the first chapter, you have to choose what to say to crew members to hopefully inspire their confidence. However, even when I tried to choose carefully, the NPC's reactions seemed very random. On top of that, I didn't see how it made a difference at any point going forward. I enjoyed the exploration and problem-solving of the second chapter, possibly my favorite section. The third chapter lets you decide a few things, but as I said, you end up in the same place regardless. Probably the most challenging portion was the mini-game in the fourth chapter. Tension started to build here and decisions became more consequential. Still, the game is pretty forgiving, and it seemed pretty easy to get a satisfactory ending. I would have liked more time with the NPC mermaids, as they were the most interesting part of the story, but I also enjoyed a lot of the other strange creatures. On one hand, I appreciated the brevity. On the other, I felt like more details could have enriched the experience. Fun, not too difficult, it makes for a solid entry in the 2021 IFComp.

Very short story taking place during an apocalypse. It involves a narrator trying to survive while going over memories, which the player gets to choose. I didn't really want to like this game for much of it, but I eventually got to a section that changed my mind. I won't give anything else away, not even under a spoiler tag, because I think each player should experience it for themselves. To sum up: I underestimated this piece and I got got.

If I didn't feel happiness, then why was I smiling? This is a short, irreverent game whose humor I mostly appreciated. For some reason, I did not write a review the first time I played it, and couldn't remember how it ended. Playing again on Chrome, I got stuck on some pages with no choices available. Sometimes backing up worked, a couple times refreshing did, but eventually I couldn't progress any more. Then, while playing on the phone, I got stuck in a loop trying to pick up a gem of happiness. Even more upsetting, on both devices I was unable to access the "USER ANGER LACERATION" song. I am forced to rate this as incomplete. I'm going to be traveling out of country for a couple weeks, but when I return, we can discuss our options for completion. You have until the end of next semester.

I was not into this game; it just wasn't my style. It's full of humor, some of it kind of meta, but I didn't respond to it. The writing was a bit complex, and I wasn't always able to keep track of what I had learned. I'm not generally a fan of this brand of sci-fi, the far-into-the-future stories about how a well-intentioned innovation ends up taking things to the extreme. I did appreciate that on my first playthrough, I was able to fail almost immediately. There were also some nice touches, such as the visuals and music; there was clearly care and effort behind it. I think it could appeal to fans of dystopian settings, and those who don’t mind a trippy but humorous approach. Also: is astral projection really "easily disproven pseudoscientific garbage"? Asking for a friend.