Ratings and Reviews by Tito Valenz
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Surreal adventure, November 13, 2021Here is a fairly short story about a man looking for someone who has been missing. He wanders through several dream-like settings and talks to several NPCs to get information. Most of the descriptions and dialogue sound as though they are meant to be symbolic, and that the character’s journey is an allegory. He visits place that have words like “Indecision” and “Realization” in their names. At one point, Alice in Wonderland shows up. He has to ask one girl if he can have her essence. Later, one of the girls he has met tells him he must release them from the hold he has on them. At the end of his search, he is finally forced to accept a difficult truth. It is vague and a little surreal at times. I don't believe that just because a piece of writing sounds like it is open to interpretation necessarily indicates that deeper meaning is present. I think that sometimes authors just go from one idea to the next without having thought about how it fits together. I personally did not feel there was anything to gain by thinking about what this story might be saying.
This game will melt your ugly face, November 13, 2021I guess I'm not a true metalhead. It took me way too long to figure out the possibilities of this game. I came SO CLOSE to reading the walkthrough because I thought I was out of ideas. I am sure true devotees of bone shattering riffs knew the kind of trial and error that was needed to keep progressing.
I enjoyed the humorous tone, and it was fun finding solutions to these situations. There is a little bit of in-game hinting to help players along, which kept me from getting too frustrated. The download includes a cool map, but you would never really need it; the location is easily navigated.
I have read comments criticizing the implementation of this game, and when I was playing the early parts of it, I would have agreed. However, after finishing, I actually think this game is written the way it is meant to be. For the first few puzzles, I was upset because I was trying things that I thought seemed like clever solutions, but were not the correct solutions. That doesn't mean the game is underwritten; just that it knows what it wants to be. You have to stick to theme when playing this one. One thing that helped me is writing down what I had already figured out, so I knew what I hadn't tried. I would never have been able to commit it all to memory.
The one exception is (Spoiler - click to show)the ending. What is going on with the IFComp this year and all the abrupt finishes??? This story was about to climax into a flaming ball of awesomeness and blow everyone's genitals out the backs of their heads, and then it was gone. You gotta give me more here, man!
I could nitpick about the whole glam rock controversy, but so much of this story is so on point, I didn't mind. It's a fun challenge with great theming and an interesting mechanic. If you disagree, then there is not enough room in this comment box to properly describe how much I hate you.
Unrelenting action, November 13, 2021This game does a great job of slamming you right in the middle of the action and pummeling you with a sense of urgency. I haven't read through a story this quickly in a long time. Everything in the text drives the story forward at an incredible speed, and I felt like I didn't have a moment to waste. Having an NPC robot partner constantly shouting directions and telling me to quit wasting time contributed to the stress level. Luckily, the interface is incredibly intuitive. I thought it was set up so that the player can quickly decide what needs to be done with minimal exploration. Even when I got to a moment where things seemed to have settled down, the tension remained right up until the end. I also appreciated that the author used the description box to show the moments before the game started. More episodes in this series would be highly anticipated.
Would you like to be praised for saving the realm?, November 13, 2021Here is a game that is quick and easy to play. It is choice based, usually offering two links at the end of short passages. It is a little underwritten; some things get skipped over, some things get minimal descriptions. One thing that bothered me is that dialog was not separated into paragraphs. A sentence from one speaker would be followed in the same line of text by another sentence from a different speaker. However, I don't think these things keep you from understanding what is going on. If you want to visit a fantasy realm for a brief adventure, "Enveloping Darkness" gets you in and out with great economy.
Stick to clicking links -- don't type anything other than your name, November 13, 2021I liked the mechanic of playing a game in Messenger. To progress, you usually have three options you can choose from. It is a spy thriller, but much of it is played like a comedy. You are given a mission at the very beginning: to kill a man and his two children.
I was very interested to see where this would go. I played several times to get better endings. It seemed like a large percentage of the choices, mostly dialog, don't change the course of the story at all. I tried to pick different options on each playthrough, and eventually ended up at the same place, although I did find different endings.
Something that disappointed me: (Spoiler - click to show)I don't think you ever get the choice to actually complete the mission and kill the family.
The description says that it is a game about making difficult choices, but the character seemed to make the biggest decisions on their own. There is a mini-game with a bartender that I wish I could have skipped over when I played the game back. Also, I don't think there is a way to save. When I typed it in, the game ended.
I wish there was a walkthrough that showed the different endings and how to get them. I would keep playing to find them myself, but with no way to reload a game, I would have to click through a long series of choices to get to the part where things start to branch. If there ever is a sequel, I would definitely play it.
"There is nothing that can be said...to console us in our loss.", November 13, 2021This was a short, choice based story set in the future. The description tells us that a girl has died and our player character is Angra, the investigator. I thought the tone of the story was kind of odd. A lot of the writing is what you might think of as traditional sci-fi: futuristic technology in an advanced society, effective world-building, presented with slightly disaffected, clinical descriptions. A server is called a "food-giver." Other occupations include "logic-workers" and "wet-workers." Then there are moments that are worded in ways that feel different from the rest, such as, "The doctor by now is ugly crying," and the reminder that everyone is "...a hot 30 years old looking person..." We get to think about how living in a violence-free world of immortals would affect us, such as when one character asks if a murder suspect should face any penalties. In response, the investigator answers, "Punishment seems pointless." We are told in the description to think of the story as the first episode of a larger narrative. Perhaps we will get to see more of this world one day.
I enjoyed this game, November 13, 2021This was a well-written, enjoyable parser game set in a fantasy world. It had a fun game mechanic where you have to switch your character's form depending on the puzzle you are working on. I thought the puzzles were low difficulty, as it seemed clear what was needed in almost every situation. The exception was (Spoiler - click to show)the maze. I used the walkthrough. I still don't know where in the game you find out how to solve it. When I got the most successful ending, I was hoping for a little more story as to what happened afterwards. My favorite part would have been (Spoiler - click to show)finding out that all the rats in the game are related. When I delivered bad news to one of them, I was wishing the story had more moments like that. I would probably have liked a little more description in some places. For example, the villains are known as "The Raiders." For whatever reason, I pictured them as some kind of creatures, like maybe Gamorrean Guards or something. When they finally appear, they still are not described, but since it is possible to infiltrate them, I guess they must be human? However, I appreciated that there was a way to get some backstory, including details on the boy you are trying to save. So, I would say there is a lot to like. I wouldn't mind a follow-up game set in this world.
Don't read any spoilers, November 11, 2021I recommend playing this game. I do not recommend reading too much about it before you play. I didn't even read the description, and I'm glad I didn't have any expectations on where it would go. It is a Twine game (categorized as suspense), and you make most of your choices by clicking links. You also have a game mechanic where you are able to try to combine items in your inventory.
One thing I appreciated about the formatting is that when I got to a page full of links, they were color-coded so that I knew which ones were descriptions and which were choices. The descriptions were short, and there were reasons to go through all of them.
When I finished the game, I found that it wasn't quite as vast in scope as I guessed it would be. I would say that anyone who decides to play should be prepared to not have all of your questions answered, and not to expect every detail that seems important to necessarily lead to something. It didn't bother me at all, personally; I thought it was all worth it when I was done. I do think it could have been nice to have had even more to the story, and I would absolutely play a follow-up if the author ever decided to offer it. But again, I got plenty of satisfaction just from what was there, more so than I seem to from most IF games.
Was it really worth the reduced floodplain inundation rates?, November 10, 2021This game looks nice and is easy to navigate, but it wasn't much fun. It's very repetitive. It makes a heavy-handed point if you play through to the end, but some of the subtle changes that happen during the game are easy to misinterpret. I believe that the purpose of the game is to demonstrate what effects water mills had on river-floodplain systems. It sounds like it probably was bad, but I'm not 100% because I don't understand anything I read when I did a search on it. I also don't know what a river-floodplain consists of, or how many there are, but I guess we can be thankful that cheap electricity means we don't have as many water mills around anymore.
Treat ‘em and street ‘em, November 9, 2021This game is super-short, but your choices absolutely matter. You play as a doctor in a post-apocalyptic setting, struggling to treat patients with dwindling supplies. It is written very economically, but establishes the situation so well that you never doubt that what you decide is going to affect lives. I enjoyed several playthroughs, and will probably continue playing until I am sure I have seen all the outcomes. I want to make a comment about the endings, because I was really interested in knowing more about how things turned out. However, a lengthy epilogue might clash with the brevity of the rest of story. I’m not usually interested in dystopian fiction, but I thought the setting helped emphasize the urgency of this character’s situation.
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