Ratings and Reviews by chairbender

Definitely worth playing unless you know you don't like the superhero theme. Took me about 2 hours for one playthrough.

I haven't encountered this format before and really liked it. It's choice-based instead of the parser-based stuff I'm used to. I appreciate the fact that it's clear what you can examine and can do, so you don't encounter situations where there's a disconnect between what you want to do and the parser's ability to interpret it.

At the same time, there's still a disconnect at times between what you want to do and what the story will allow you to do. You are roleplaying as someone rather than as yourself. As such, some of the decisions in this game feel less like a question of "what do YOU think is the right thing to do" and more of "what do you want to happen next?". I think I came to this with slightly the wrong assumption, thinking the decisions are about providing a simulation with which to test my decision making ability. After playing, I think I realize more that it's about exploring the consequences of a particular line of thinking (it's a "game" in the sense of being something that lets you play with an idea, rather than being something that you win or lose). Overall, though, I think the main character's mind is pretty made-up with regards to what he's going to do with his newfound powers. I would've appreciated being able to do something else.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because I like to leave a little room at the top for something absolutely mindblowingly amazing, and this wasn't that (though it was very enjoyable). I don't know if the limitations inherent in a choice-based IF would ever allow for something to achieve the level of 5 stars, for me.

Good prose and good puzzle design. The puzzles do a good job of hinting towards the solution. If you are experienced with IF, you'll probably find them to be pleasantly easy and not frustrating. If you aren't there's a convenient "hint" website that can give you some tips if you are stuck. There's really only one "puzzle" to speak of in this game, that's pretty much it as far as challenge.

Overall, I have no complaints, but it wasn't particularly engrossing to me. It was short (about an hour) and the subject wasn't particularly interesting to me. Can't really talk about the subject without getting into spoiler territory, all I can say is that this IF didn't leave me "in awe" or anything like that - it just wasn't very memorable. I say that as someone who has never been a fan of short experiences.

You don't really stand to lose anything by playing it though, so go ahead and give it a try at some point.

Likes:
-Not frustrating. The lack of challenging puzzles and presence of an adequate parser and adequate descriptions made it so I didn't encounter any frustrating moments.

-Non-linear storytelling makes things a bit more interesting than if this story were told in a linear fashion as you learn more about the story and piece it together yourself. This approach is not without its problems, though (see dislikes).

-Short. Even if you don't find this to be the most amazing thing ever, it's so short that you probably won't really feel worse off for having played it.

-Use of images and color. It's not particularly flashy, but it's a nice break from typically monochrome IF.

Dislikes:
-Not particularly exciting or touching. The story is quite short, so I don't really have time to develop an attachment to the characters. I don't blame the game for a lack of characterization, I just feel like I need more time with the characters in order to care more about them. Maybe it's my fault for not letting myself get drawn in, but I suspect the non-linear nature of the story also made it a little harder to get drawn in to caring about it. I sure did care about that wolf, though (I have that not uncommon habit of caring more about animals than actual people).

-Not particularly challenging. There aren't really puzzles in this game. I like the sense of accomplishment I get from solving puzzles, so in that regard this game isn't as fun as other games that do have puzzles. I don't think puzzles really fit with the theme of the game, but I can't help myself having a desire to overcome challenges.

-On rails. I didn't get a sense that the presence of a parser and text-based interaction really enhanced the story.

Conclusion
Overall, I recommend giving this game a play due to how short it is. Other than that, I don't think it's as exciting or remarkable an experience as I've gotten from other games. I've come to expect a high level of stimulation and engagement from playing too many video games, though.

I'm new to IF, but I still had a good time with this game.

In terms of the gameplay, I was never frustrated, but I still found the puzzles to be enjoyable.

I wasn't a big fan of the old (50s? 60s?) setting, but I appreciated the opportunities for humor that it afforded. It made me chuckle quite a few times.

I particularly liked the conversation system. I've been constantly frustrated by conversations in other IF, and having a multiple choice system like this works well, IMO. I've heard a common criticism of this type of interaction is that it feels too much "on rails" and doesn't feel immersive because you're not able to do whatever you want with regards to interacting with a character. I don't really agree with that criticism - in practice, you ARE limited to what you can do with a character even when it's not a multiple choice dialog system. Sure, you can type whatever you want, but a large class of actions are going to receive an identical or very similar non-response, so, effectively, you get the same experience. Even for choices that may seem like valid things to say to a character, the author might simply not have had time to implement responses or the parser might not be good enough to anticipate them. I like the compromise the multiple choice system achieves. Instead of spending time figuring out how I'm supposed to say what I want to say, I can just see my options right away.

The choice-based dialogue may not work so well, though, for a more first-person type of game where you're supposed to get more of a sense of "being your character", and it also has issues with regards to hiding information from players and having the dialog choices change when certain events occur, since, as the player, you don't always know when an event is going to let you say new things to a character. But I still liked it for this game.

I also really liked the inclusion of character portraits when you start a conversation. Just a few images to characterize the characters and give you a bit of an easier time imagining what the author intended adds a lot to the game, in my opinion. I thought the style of these portraits really went well with the style of the game, too.

So, overall, I definitely recommend it if you're new to IF. It's quite short, but it's solid and lacks some stuff that can make other IF frustrating to new players.