Ratings and Reviews by Simon Deimel

This was an entry for a speed IF competition in German language.

In dem Spiel geht es darum, zwei Plutonite (bestimmte Arten von Gestein) zu finden und so eine Wette zu gewinnen. Man wandert also in den Wald und untersucht die verschiedenen Orte, um der Steine habhaft zu werden. Dabei gibt es auch ein kleines Puzzle, welches sich jedoch wie von selbst löst; es wäre auch nicht klar, daß die ausgeübte Handlung einen Stein zu Tage fördert, also ist das eher im Sinne des Spielers.
Für einen Speed-IF-Beitrag ist die Geschichte ganz ordentlich gemacht. Mir hat sie jedenfalls Spaß gemacht und ich denke, man kann sie gut und gerne weiterempfehlen.

It is also recommendable for people who learn German as a foreign language. There were no obvious mistakes in the writing, and the prose is sparse, so there is not much translation work required.

There is not much time spent on finding out what to do in this game: the player simply has to behave like a tough barbarian, destroying everything which can possibly destroyed.

The game offers some little puzzles, but they can be solved quite easily. There is hardly anything like a plot -- so the story is about doing what the title of the game is, and there is not much more to be done. Just kill everything. And if there is not any such a thing, try to find it. And then kill it.

It sounds dumb and it probably is, but in a funny way. The ending highlights the joke behind it all. As the puzzles are quite easy, this game is recommendable for beginners of the genre. It is short, straight to the point and positively worth a try.

It is just a joke, alright. I get that. It might have been funny in some way, but it does not work for me in the current version.

It may be a coding exercise, but there is not much exercised here: "straight" and "left" and "right" are not defined as proper directions (the game simply demands the cardinal directions to be used -- in a way that makes them meaningless), the commands not in use are not implemented or deactivated (so "X car" produces the standard response of not seeing any such a thing), and there is no proper ending (the player ends in a room called "End Game" with the room description of the victory). There is no prose -- some descriptions should have been added to convey a feeling. These are just some of the things which might have been improved and which deviate from what I am used to find in Z-code games. Joke games are okay, in fact I like them. A short play with a punchline, a nice ending -- it is good. But jokes can be polished too. The basic idea is not bad, but needs more prose and some improvements.

The game is set in modern times, but contains elements of a Zorkian adventure: spell scrolls. So you basically have a modern slice-of-life setting with a modern aim to be achieved, but to finish the game you have to draw on casting a spell (not much of a spoiler, the player is going to find this out very soon). The game is easily solved and ends with a joke.

I did not play the whole bunch of Infocom games when I was young, so there was no nostalgia effect for me. Nevertheless I found the story entertaining enough to make me find a solution. The method how to solve it was easy to find, the trick is very obvious.

Recommended mainly for beginners -- it is short and does not cause much frustration. Veterans of IF will probably feel unchallenged. Then again the game is very short, so there won't be much time lost.

This is not really a game, but an electronic book. There is no real interactivity, each of the short paragraphs presents a drawing of the scene and only one option, so choosing it is like flipping a page in a book. The player, or in this case reader, cannot make decisions which change the progress of the story line. There is not a possibility to win or lose -- the ending is predetermined.

Regarding the fact that there is not even the illusion of interactivity, I would give a rating of two stars, but the drawings have heart, I like them; there can be a moral interpreted into the story; it is short and the colours of the background are friendly; so I want to add one star.

I recommend to take a look. It is a very short lecture and there is not much time wasted if the concept is not your cup of tea.