Reviews by streever

This is a CYOA take on the white-collar grind--think Office Space without the absurdist humor--which examines the tedium and pointlessness of modern office work.

There are many typographic errors and a few grammatical errors as well. This is a work that needed some proofreading and copy-editing, and could benefit from a quick clean-up on some of the most well-worn phrasing.

Visually the game is attractive, and the cyclical nature of it was interesting and communicated the tone effectively.

It reminded me of "My Name Is Tara Sue", a strong text game about white-collar misery which was recently released. If you enjoyed Workday Choices, I highly recommend My Name is Tara Sue.

This short narrative is not badly done; it is a successful exploration of culturally normative masculine gender identity.

This is essentially a twine or hypertext game, concerning a linear story line told from three different perspectives. The third perspective (that of the unicorn) is an "unlockable"--once you've played through as either of the two starting characters (father or son) you can play as the unicorn. Unfortunately, the Unicorn and the Father both present the same macho/bully/entitled male gender identity, so there wasn't as much variation here as there seemed.

The actual writing is fairly good, although the story could have benefited from better characterization. The father's final, binary, choice seems superfluous/gamest and not in keeping with the plot. I had no sense from reading his narrative that he'd be even possibly be willing to make the more noble of the two choices. In that moment, it was clear that I was the player and not the character, which was out of keeping with the experience so far. This game is very linear; you do not get to change the perspective or behavior of the character you are playing as.

Ultimately this game says something meaningful about gender identity, particularly as it applies to American masculine identity, but the message is hindered by the actual mechanics and style. The tone seems to suggest you can make meaningful decisions (and you do have one choice, at the end, depending on your character), but the choices do not seem particularly illuminating or realistic.

I think of the 3 narratives the son is the strongest. It features the feelings, emotions, and thoughts in a way that felt real. I found the character to be irritating and not particularly sympathetic, but still well-written. To be clear, I think the author succeeded at portraying an unlikable character in a sympathetic way, which is a success.

The story for the father was much harder to appreciate. The father is a parody of American fatherhood, and didn't feel real or even vaguely sympathetic. I suppose the final choice in his narrative could feel real, depending on how you viewed him or how realistic you believe the stereotype of American fatherhood is, but it felt empty and meaningless. Choice for the sake of choice.

The unicorn worked better as a portrayal of bullying male macho masculinity; there is no attempt at humanizing or making the unicorn sympathetic, so I didn't feel any disconnect with his actions and the narrative.

I think this is a good story, and the graphics are fun. I would suggest improving the father character, but on the whole, I thought this was a successful game.

I enjoyed this game, but found myself in unwinnable situations that weren't clued well, which was a bit frustrating. This game has several ways to make what appears to be unrecoverable mistakes, and doesn't give you a heads up, so you'll want to save the game often.

The writing is good, and the denouement was satisfyingly complex and difficult.

The puzzles are satisfying and require multiple steps, leading to very creative implementation.

This is an engaging and deep take on an incredibly divisive situation.

I don't think the game goes far enough in the warning; I think it should employ a trigger warning. I know people struggling with the exact situation depicted in this story, and I know some of them would feel an enormous set-back post-reading. If you think you may be in that camp, please read the following spoiler for the trigger warning. (Spoiler - click to show)This game revolves around a father who has sexually abused his daughter. Themes include sexual abuse, guilt, fault for sexual abuse, and a question of culpability.

Ultimately, where this story is successful is in the way it presents a bleak moral situation without moralizing or judgement. The player is completely free to arrive at the emotional resolution they are seeking. I appreciated that the game never sought to dictate how I should feel, but rather asked me at every step. This is an excellent mechanic for other games dealing with morality that want to go beyond the subtle.

I appreciated the nested easter eggs which gave greater context and clarity to the situation and revealed in small ways that something is wrong in the narrative.

The puzzle mechanics can be frustrating; the solutions make sense but could use subtle hinting. As it was, I had to refer to hints often for certain segments, and wasn't quite sure what my deadline was. Play this game, enjoy it, and don't feel bad when you check a hints file occasionally. The strength of the story and the solutions you do figure out will be rewarding enough.

For a game that impressively recreates the passage of time and days (you can even attend an evening mass one night at the Catholic church!), it didn't give me a real sense of timing. I wasn't sure how much time I had before the trial, or how to manage my time.

I had to get my complaints off my chest first, so I could tell you how I really feel, with any sense of frustration mollified. This game is incredible. The writing, the characters, and the world come to life as you read.

It was engrossing, and I appreciated the hard difficulty--it kept me hooked to the game for much longer than if the puzzles were more obvious. Yes, it could have benefited from some subtle cluing in parts, but on the whole this is a really strong game with an impressive implementation.

The plot is deep and layered. It was difficult to know where to go at times, but this wasn't a real concern, as it lead to further exploration, conversations, and experimentation in the world.

I don't know if Irene Callaci is a pseudonym, but was hoping to find much, much more by her. It is a shame that the author isn't more prolific, as she has managed to create such a compelling and real simulation of a city, rich in detail and story. I would love to see collaboration between her and some of the more technical programmers for future mysteries.

I wasn't sure what I was doing or why. Ostensibly, I'm on my way to work, but my limited understanding of where I need to go and what train routes get me where left me feeling mostly frustrated.

Perhaps this game would work better with a map as a companion piece--perhaps not, because there doesn't seem to be any reason to go to any specific place. Essentially you wander the subway in a fashion similar to the classic Zork maze--there are areas and people to look at, but none of them advance you or get you anywhere.

I can't tell you why I switched lines, or why I swapped trains--as my protagonist said sometimes, "Or I could change to the Charing Cross branch. I could do that. There is nothing stopping me."

I found reading my protagonists stream-of-consciousness to be infectious. His sense of ennui and boredom made me wonder what I was doing and why I was bothering. I suspect this was the intention--but I found it frustrating. I prefer it when the emotions aren't told to me, but rather things I experience through good writing and plotting.

Finally, a twist occurs, but it is quite late in the narrative, and I had a hard time understanding what it was trying to tell me. It seems to be a meta-commentary, but I'm not sure on what--the nature of games, or a psychological statement? Ultimately, I was left wondering why my protagonist didn't just go into work, or get on a different train and go home to sleep off his hangover.

The blurb really nailed this one; this is a cute CYOA that might be a fun read for young people.

I think the text is a little long for young people, and I think it could use some editing and paring down to make it more readable, especially for the target audience of children reading on the web.

The game has a strong message, but was ultimately a bit frustrating--the narrative needs some tweaking and improvements to really convey the story and immerse us in the character.

I suspect that English may not be the authors first language, based on some of the typos and grammar issues I found, so I'd encourage the author to reach out to the IF community and get some help polishing the storyline.

An interesting game, from an interesting perspective, which is held back primarily by issues with the writing.

It is short, puzzle-less, and largely linear--while you have choices, they don't feel particularly fulfilling, largely because you're playing from the perspective of a character with very little agency and freedom in her life. A frustrating but worthwhile experience.

This was a fun game, but some of the puzzles could use some re-working or better cluing to help avoid frustration. One of the earliest puzzles had a very complex solution, which required the player to infer something in another room which was invisible--it was very frustrating! The red herrings in this section were doubly frustrating considering how secret the puzzle solution was.

I'm looking forward to seeing this game in a second version--it has some promise, but isn't particularly kind to a player. Something as simple as post-mortem hints would really improve the experience from a player's perspective I suspect.

The protagonist has run afoul of his new citizens after taking the throne in Shuffling Around. There are (very minor) tweaks to the gameplay, but this is still largely an anagrammers delight as you transform words into other words.

The story is still quite thin, which may disappoint more character-driven players, but the mechanics and prose are fun and engaging.

My main complaint about the first game--the ambiguity between the extra hint & the regular hint, and the inability to swap them mid-game--is reconciled in this version. You have a device which can switch at will between cheat/no-cheat mode.

In general, I found this game harder and less forgiving than the first; I didn't ever have to view help files for the first game, but sometimes had to consult them to complete Roiling Original.

I'd highly recommend this game to fans of the original and of anagrams. Have fun!