Reviews by Stian

This is essentially a puzzleless IF and reads as a cross between Jack Kerouac and Quentin Tarantino if they were making a Sci-Fi B-movie together, very late at night. Or something like that. The main thing Enceladus has going for it is its humour, crass and absurd and with lots of attitude. As a work of IF, Enceladus wasn’t really my thing, but I would like to acknowledge that it’s quite well written, and I’m sure many will love it.

Island in the Storm feels like a classic game in a brand new interpreter. Classic, not only in the type of story and puzzles, but also in the sense that a lot of the verbs and shortcuts we take for granted are absent. There is no such verb as “move”, and pronouns are generally not understood. As the engine behind it is still in early development, such things are not entirely unexpected and may change in the future. I also met a few bugs during my play, including one which I believe has prevented me from completing the game.

That said, both the game and the interpreter were pleasant to experience.

The interpreter has quite a modern feel to it, with an enjoyable layout and style featuring differently coloured frames around the text. For being in early development, the look of it certainly gives a sense of maturity. Some aspects of the engine feels still a bit rough around the edges though, especially the default responses (such as “The passed out villagers doesn’t sell a drink in the villagers’ cups.”)

The game felt rather old-school in many ways: You can die, and there is no “undo”. It’s not strictly necessary to map it, but it does help with finding your way back. There are dark caves and number puzzles and beaches and keys.

Island in the Storm was not at all as hard as the old games I have tried, however, which was much appreciated. None of the puzzles are absurd or outlandish, but I did have to think and search around for a bit. If it weren’t for the bug, I think I would have been able to get through it in around two hours. I would definitely recommend this game after a bit of polish and bugfixing.

Turandot was actually a choice-IF I could enjoy, and not just because it was really funny. It is very different from a CYOA; here, the choices are as one part of a dialogue; no waiting, no clicking around, just a steady progress, always forward, and always hilarious. Great stuff!

This is a solid, well-polished game with lovely humour and great puzzles. Not mind-blowing, just very good. In the end I found it was rather perfectly balanced, integrating a lovely and fun story with a decent set of rather original puzzles. The flow and timing of Zozzled is particularly impressive, making it clear that this is the work of an experienced author. Of Steph’s earlier games, I have only played Brain Guzzlers from Beyond! which I found too easy, making it more of a story than a game. Zozzled, on the other hand, manages to combine story and game as well as any work of IF I have played. I’m sure it will be featured on many lists of recommended IF in the years to come.

A friendly and fun underwater game with a good spirit, which should be as suitable for children as it was for me. For the half-seasoned adventurer I am it took about 15-20 minutes to complete without hints. The puzzles were all very logical, though the syntax was at times a bit strict.

Clusterflux is truly an ambitious project, and a much larger game than initial appearances would suggest. It’s actually impressively huge, especially considering it’s a one-author game. Described as a “weird mystery”, it’s also right up my alley, and I enjoyed it immensely. It did, however, take me six hours to get through it and had to consult the walkthrough twice. I think it would be hard for most to finish in under two hours, though the first two hours were just as enjoyable as the rest. Well, perhaps apart from the half-hour I spent banging my head against a specific puzzle.

In general terms, I would like to describe Clusterflux as a modern self-conscious style puzzle IF, where an everyday protagonist enters absurdity as if it were the most natural thing in the world – not too dissimilar to Bill Lindsay’s excellent Bullhockey games.

While the plot is more than sold enough, and its absurdity intriguing, the puzzles are what makes this a great game. They are always clever, but generally not too clever, and solving them provides proper satisfaction. I was planning to stop after two hours, but this is the kind of game I can’t put down until I have finished it.

With a game as big and ambitious as Clusterflux, there will likely be several small bugs persevering even rigorous beta-testing and I did meet a few of these. Still, it is impressive how polished it is, with thorough descriptions for almost everything. The large gallery of autonomous NPCs made certain scenes a bit confusing, but useful conversations are limited by a topic list which made it manageable.

A tremendous amount of work has gone into this game and I’m immensely grateful for it.