Ratings and Reviews by Simon Deimel

A minimalistic CYOA game that consists of nothing more than colored squares displaying room names, objects or incidents that take place, followed by keywords as choices. It should be mentioned that both elements are written in English and in French.

The lack of narrative elements is something I usually do not find appealing, but to my surprise it was different here: Being confronted with nothing else than single words I felt motivated to think about them, and a narrative of my own came up in my mind. The game manages to tell a story without existing prose, and despite its sparse style I got the feeling that there was a plot, at least for me. The style of the game inspires the readers' fantasy, encourages them to make up parts of the story for themselves.

Principally this piece of work is recommendable for everyone who does not feel offended by the lack of words (some people may consider it to be a sign of laziness, but it can also be a stylistic device). Especially recommendable for people who like something different and experimental.

Yes, I get it. It is an experiment. Create a game without an actual room. It sounds impossible, but obviously here we have an example of what can be done. It is surely interesting in terms of programming, but does it contribute to the gameplay? Well, it hardly does. The game starts nowhere, in darkness; for the player it is actually like a room without a lightsource and without any exits; I could not see a difference.

The game itself consists of one puzzle which is not difficult to solve with some experimenting. The implementation of verbs is okay, I did not have to do any guesswork. There are no storyline and no characterizations at all -- the player is confronted with the problem, has to solve it, and that's all, folks.

(Spoiler - click to show)I played (and solved) the puzzle on my mobile phone for the first time, using ZMPP (which does not show the cover pictures). So I saw the picture later, and I really wonder why it was designed in such a way. It actually gives away the complete solution of the only puzzle. The picture is not only giving a clue, but shows the final objective of the game. Honestly, you would not put the picture of the arrested murderer on a film poster of a mystery thriller, would you? It would spoil the whole plot. In this case, carefully spoken, the choice of the game cover is slightly inconsiderate.

For me this was a short puzzle, nothing more. I cannot say that it is bad, but there is not much content. It may be a great experiment, but a player will probably not experience anything special. Referring to general gameplayers, it is recommendable if you like a short diversion that focusses on one puzzle.