Reviews by Simon Deimel

Sure, the game is probably a satire, presented in a language that can be found in chatrooms populated by some troglodytes. The author makes the joke of including remarks that are only meant for himself and "accidently" displayed in the game; calling the players stupid behind their back; making errors that are obviously deliberately included.

I got the point, and I did not find it very funny; nevertheless I continued playing, just to see what would happen. After short time I encountered problems which were probably not intended by the author: ambiguity errors, property mismatches, finally error messages that were not the work of the author but obviously coding errors, because I got stuck in a room and the exit was no longer accessable. That's when I had enough.

Honestly, the language makes playing this one a bothersome chore, so I would have appreciated to finish it within some minutes. Which turned out to be impossible.

A small twine game with a story where you are drawn into criminal activities.
The narrative is brief, but enough to get the point of the story.
The NPCs are named A.,B. and C. without much characterization -- there could have been more effort put into their persons to bring heart and soul into the story.

(Spoiler - click to show)Unfortunately the decision tree seems to be a bit awkwardly designed. The best ending obviously is that which can be reached within one move, taking the other choice will inevitably lead to a worse ending. So the game can only be won if it is finished as soon as possible, and the gameplay actually has to be avoided? Or maybe I missed something?

As the story is very short, there is not much time lost if you try it and find out the endings, so it is worth a try.

I am sure the writer of this game had a good intention. So the game is supposed to show the importance of safety at work, and that is fine. Improvised methods at a construction site can be dangerous for instance. I have seen photos of painters on adventurous ladder constructions.
So this game is located in an office building -- also okay. There are potential dangers. Let's see, what comes to mind? A partially broken wire of an office computer. Or another scene, an office worker places a candle with an open flame on his desk around Christmas, then is called away and forgets about it...
So no offence, but using a coffee vending machine (which has nothing to do with the work itself) as an object to demonstrate the importance of safety seemed a bit strange and even amusing to me. There are probably better examples, like those mentioned above.

Having heard so much about it I had to give it a try.

The setting and atmosphere are very deep and compelling. The reader/player can easily immerse in the events that take place and thus is motivated to explore the mystery. Elements of conspiracy and kabbalah are integrated; the authors obviously did some research on that.

The appearance of various machinery is intriguing. The personal assistant (a gadget called Triage) is cleverly integrated as a device to help the player. The function of the fantastic contraptions is explained in manuals that can be found, so there is not much guesswork to be done.

The narrative is remarkable, but the authors deliberately use some archaic expressions, which made it a bit difficult for me; nevertheless it contributes to the atmosphere of the Victorian age. The prose is extremely rich, has literary quality; sometimes it is almost too rich, so objects mentioned in the room descriptions are not implemented, resulting in contradictory messages, which were a bit confusing sometimes. On the other hand, deceisive objects are implemented with thorough descriptions and proper names that prevent ambiguities.

Furthermore the game is quite player-friendly; an elaborate menu of hints is contained. There are different endings, so it has replay value.
It is clearly recommendable for both beginners and veterans who like a steampunk setting.

This is a nice story, a very brief speed IF. It is principally not too difficult, but the solution requires knowledge beyond the game -- surely common knowledge in the US, but for me it was not so common(Spoiler - click to show) and resulted in an annoying guess-the-verb moment: 'man, how am I supposed to warm up?' I knew the story which the game is based on, but unfortunately I did not know the original line (by now I checked it, and okay, the order of unusual verbs makes sense as soon as you know the line; probably every kid in the US knows it by heart, but they told me different tales here when I was young), so in the end I had to read the code, which luckily was available.
Anyway, a cute story and in the end a new lesson for me.

The idea of CHEATER is not new, but surely interesting; it is a big advantage if you tried to program with Inform yourself. It is not difficult once you find out the principles.
It is a very short game. I played around a bit until I found the solution, and unfortunately, despite its shortness, there were some inaccuracies.
(Spoiler - click to show)The pillar that supports the cave can be taken in a normal way. Meh. The pedestal can be purloined and will still be mentioned in the room description -- and the toaster, resting on it, will still be present in the room, maybe hovering in the air. Meh.
These things are a little shoddy and could have easily been detected with a little testing (Spoiler - click to show)(applying the commands that are required for the solution to other possible objects). Nevertheless we must honor that it is the authors first game and it is finishable. I recommend it to people who like to think outside the box.

Checking this I had the impression of reading a short story instead of playing a game, and a second playthrough with different choices just confirmed this impression: the selections did not change much and the story would return to the predetermined course soon. So in the end there is not much interactivity, and not much replay value.
The writing is okay though, despite some typos and inconsistency of the tense (most of the story is written in past tense, but some paragraphs or single sentences are written in present tense without discernable motive). The writer should have proof-read and revised the text thoroughly. Nevertheless I want to acknowledge the content of the story. I suppose it is the authors first work and it is well worth a try in my view.

Basically this was probably a programming exercise, so it is centered around some common tropes such as obtaining keys of different colors and unlocking corresponding doors. It is just what an author does to check out the mechanics of an engine (I did the same and later expanded the results).

It is short and I cannot say that it is really bad. The solutions can quite easily be found and I did not encounter too annoying moments that made me give up. There is a good will behind it, it contains a story (more or less) and it is finishable. Of course there could have been more to this and it cannot be compared with the masterpieces of interactive fiction, but for a first try it is okay.

All in all a very good game with a tight story, probably influenced by the Matrix movies. Considering the short time in which it was assembled we can overlook missing implementations and little inaccuracies (there should not be the possibility to drop a tattoo, for instance). Regarding the fact that Quest was used for creating this game, I instantly tried the "use a on/with b" command when I did not find the required synthax, and mostly it turned out to be what the program was waiting for (as opposed to Inform, Quest contains "use" as a standard verb). For instance, in a certain situation I was unable to put one thing into a container, but instead could use it on the latter; or I could not enter a certain device, but use it instead.

The game contains two endings and I discovered the bad one first -- the game then mentions that there is a better ending and suggests further investigation, so replay is encouraged.

The puzzles are quite logic and once you get accustomed to the "use a on/with b" command, you can easily make progress. I recommend this game to everyone who likes a short science fiction story and does not back off from the mechanics (which sometimes may appear unusual to many gamers).

The project consists of a room and an art object to fiddle around with. There is no aim, no plot, just the art object. This is an interactive art show, not a game.
The main thing to do is to turn the wheels and get random sentences as a result, which is entertaining for at least some minutes (not a spoiler, there is not much more to do). The implementation is sparse, not very thorough outside of this context; but the actions are centered on spinning the wheels and reading the sentences. I tried to examine the parts connected to the wheels, but I did not get to know much more; the only deceisive thing to do was to spin the wheels, and that worked fine.
I would have liked some more implementations, more to examine about the wheels. An exit of the room could have been provided to leave the art show, it would have been more authentic.
I like the main idea despite the aforementioned shortcomings.