Reviews by streever

I say "actually" because I was skeptical at first. The premise (a CYOA of the Machine of Death webcomic concept) just seemed too derivative at first.

Actually playing it however was a novel experience. The author has managed to present the CYOA as an engaging, witty, and surprising work of fiction. The outcomes of my choices frequently surprised me in pleasant, consistent, novel ways.

The surprises and twists made perfect sense in the structure of the story.

Well-written, comedic, and a strong effort.

The writing is good: I'm not typically one to sit through a game with large amounts of text, but the presentation and writing on this game were both very well done.

The story centers on a 12 year old detective investigating a murder, and makes clear nods to how ridiculous the premise is.

The writing is funny and engaging.

This CYOA is low on choice--like many classic CYOAs, it seems to have one outcome. The lack of choice didn't hamper this entry, however--it was still engaging and enjoyable.

I appreciated the formatting of the page--in general, I think the better CYOAs lay out the page in a way that makes it easier to read than the default layouts.

This isn't a bad piece of fiction--it is called an homage to b-vampire films, and it shows!

The author has written a campy and frivolous vampire story. It isn't bad, but I think it could use with some editing: while the subject matter is b-film quality, I think the writing should be a little more finely-tuned. Of course, ludicrous things happen--and are supposed to--but the actual writing could have used some editing at times and maybe a few surprises that broke the genre would have made this a stronger effort.

I much preferred the same author's noir mystery piece based on an Agatha Christie novel.

I have to say, I really didn't enjoy this story. The "choices" were simply too obvious--do the right thing morally to progress.

The writing felt clunky, and the games premise felt a bit too on the nose.

The basic mechanical concept was interesting, and I could see that mechanic being useful/interesting elsewhere, but in a simple morality tale of self-sacrifice, it felt a little pushy.

I don't disagree with the premise or the actions you undertake, but they seemed so self-evident to me as to be meaningless.

This is a very clever and easily re-playable game.

Too much description would spoil the pleasures in it--be prepared to play several times, interacting, examining, and testing different things.

Narratively it is a very funny game. Descriptions are well-written, red herrings are nicely done, and the sense of exploration is high.

I'm looking forward to seeing "highest attainable score"--the nature of the game is such that it isn't obvious how high of a score you can get without extensive replays.

I enjoyed this--the writing is good, the points it makes are done well--but I was a bit leery about it when I first read the brief. I thought this might be an attack on minorities entering the tech world from the brief, and was glad it was not.

It does not feel particularly game-like--there aren't recognizable challenges nor are there puzzles--but it is well-written and engaging. Perhaps one of my favorite of the non-choice/non-puzzle entries in ifcomp 2013.

This was a good, short, "one puzzle" game.

The only real frustration was an incredibly hard to guess game of guess the verb--there was no real clue or suggestion that what I was doing had any bearing on anything, and if I hadn't read that the game was beatable, I would have assumed it was a broken implementation.

I won't give any spoiler here: the game is beatable (and fun!) and worth playing. Just be prepared for a moment of frustration...

The writing is clever and enjoyable, and the puzzle is fun--I recommend playing this game.

I'm not a huge fan of CYOA, so take my negative feelings with a grain of salt. My 2 stars doesn't reflect negatively on the technical implementation, and I think most of the writing was adequate, but the actual game elements were lacking.

I felt like there was a lot of text to wade through--it was mostly well-written, but just a lot, and I didn't feel like I had a good idea of what was going to influence what. Many times my actions produced the opposite outcome, and I didn't really see why, or how I could choose differently in the next situation.

My main problem with (many) CYOA games is I feel like the choice is meaningless, because I don't get enough data or feedback to make my choices intelligently. I felt that way with this game as well.

It has a good atmosphere, but the insistence on making the person playing the game the actual character (through the use of non-specific nouns and identifiers) hurt the immersion for me. The opening has several (potentially) strong scenes with "your parent"--not dad, father, mother, mom, etc, but "your parent", which killed any emotional impact it may have had for me.

I think it is better to be brave and risk not representing everyone by choosing a parent and making it a little more specific, when going for narrative immersion in emotional topics. I wasn't particularly interested in pursuing romance with the non-specific figure I met at a cafe.

I think if you like heavy text games and want to explore themes of alienation and loneliness this may be a good game for you, as it does do that. While I finished it (getting a bad ending), I wasn't interested in trying again to get another ending. The 2 stars reflects my subjective feeling about the style of the game--it is very well done for what it is.

I wouldn't call this a game: besides poor implementation, it features no challenges at all. You have 3 doors, and can only open one. If you can figure out what direction that door is, you can walk in it and obtain a key, which opens the other door, etc.

The game is finishable in 12 completely obvious moves, and the writing could use an editor. (The initial sequence with the man is the prime example of editing needs.)

I would encourage the authors to revisit this concept and flesh it out--the basic premise could make for an interesting game, but it would need some sort of tension and better technical implementation.

The game that exists isn't bad: there is an interesting premise with the buttons/switch/time travel concept, but unfortunately it seems to lack any resolution or ending.

The rooms that do exist are not implemented very well--they are sparse and lacking in interactivity.

A frustrating experience as it currently stands. I don't know that there is much value in playing this with so many issues. There may be an ending, but owing to frustration from failed attempts at interacting, I moved on.