Reviews by Simon Deimel
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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.
A very short lecture, February 4, 2014This 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.
Kudos!, February 4, 2014For a speedIF entry this is an extremely well organized game with well crafted details and a hilariously unpleasant NPF (non-player fish). The atmospheric messages are funny and give a personality to the fish. The game can be solved within a few moves, but the enjoyment of it emerges from realizing the little details found in the room and exploring the life and motives of the acting person.
A question of causality, February 3, 2014This is a quite short game which does not take much time. The story is okay, there are some puzzles and an ending, and a solution to prevent getting stuck.
The story presents the player being stuck in a subway section, unable to escape from that place. The player has to deal with various items. The puzzles appeared a bit arbitrary to me -- I sometimes failed to see the causality of them -- I solved one puzzle and then something happened, and I did not necessarily find it related to my previous actions. So it was not always easy to find out what to do next, and I had to consult the walkthrough sometimes to find sense in what was going on. The aim is a bit unusual, one would expect that the player is supposed to escape from the tube station, and in the end he might succeed, but it is not explicitly made the purpose of the game. A player will maybe find the actual aim a bit unspectacular to feel motivated.
I can recommend this game anyway, it is surely a nice diversion, as long as you don't expect a masterpiece.
A good purpose, February 2, 2014I 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.
Creating a world of its own, February 1, 2014Probably no other beginning of a noncommercial game is as well known as the opening paragraph of FOR A CHANGE. It gets right to the point: that is what happened, that is what you have to do, and for some reason you have something.
The game comes up with a world that is different from what we know. To show how different it is, the language makes use of unusual words for common things -- the player gets hold of a dictionary soon and can consult it about the unusual expressions.
The atmosphere reminds me of graphical adventures like Myst or Riven -- even without using graphical elements FOR A CHANGE succeeds in depicting a surreal world. Exploration is one part of it, even if the player gets to know what has to be achieved in the first paragraph. There is no reason explained why the player has to do it, but you get the feeling that it makes perfect sense. There are not too many locations, not too many objects, but they are parts of a comprising puzzle and have to be put together.
The game is puzzle-orientated. Some of the puzzles are cleverly made up, some let me stumble over unusual expressions. But that was probably my own fault. I clearly recommend this game: although there is not much characterization of the player, the puzzles will be a worthy challenge.
Bad in being bad, February 1, 2014Sure, 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.
Tricky -- but too tricky, January 31, 2014First things first: for a speedIF this game is astonishingly rich. There are only two locations, but many items that are implemented, some of them with nice descriptions. The story concept is also nice and motivates the player. Also good: after a while it is clearly stated what has to be achieved to win the game.
But then it becomes incredibly hard to deal with the different objects; I had to take a long look at the walkthrough. It is almost impossible to find the solution: exact timing is necessary to make progress, and if the right moment is missed, the game can easily be brought into an unwinnable state without any information about it. There are hardly any hints given which object has to be used at which time. Some aspects can only be found by guessing them. The difficulty level is increased dramatically.
So, playing this without a walkthrough is almost a waste of time in my view; it is a pity that the author has not revised this game with an otherwise fine premise and added more hints to make it more accessible.
A brief clicking, January 30, 2014A 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.
Impressive, January 27, 2014Having 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.
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