Reviews by anjchang

I had to chuckle. I enjoyed the concept and the actual play through took me a while to figure out. But I had fun and the whole idea (Spoiler - click to show)of just obfuscating the nouns with one letter was interesting. There were only so many things I could think of to try, but it worked out in the end. It took a long time, and I think the concept was more fun than the actually playing. Still, I think it was clever and it could have had more different responses-- but it is a good hint of what could be done and I found that mildly entertaining. I had gotten some hint of the puzzle from the IF meeting, so it was just a matter of guessing the sequence to try. The challenge is what you type, and what you mean as you type...

It brings back memories of going to chain restaurants and some of the people you might see. I thought it was well written and fun to play.

This game reminded me a lot of choose-your-own-adventures mixed with Office Space mixed with a Heinlein book. It was a fun play, even though there were some typos and small proof-editing things that could have improved the reading. It's ironic, because I also ended up using Google to look up some words I had seen before but never read anywhere (demiurge, monad, cast mares, aeon, gynoid) in this game (so I am happy to walk away with some new words).

The story revolves around a programmer working a corporate job who lives out an existence (what David Foster Wallace called the "grind of day-to-day living"). I could relate to the character's desire for adventure. I liked the overall theme and enjoyed the different characters that were introduced. I most enjoyed the different paths and was intrigued by exploring how the story would play out. Even after I got the optimal ending, I kept playing to explore every option. I used to do this with CYOA books when I was a kid. It left me satisfied learning about all the possibilities in this fictional universe that was created. I would recommend playing it just to get a sense of what it must be like for people with jobs who feel trapped in grueling jobs working for companies that are too demanding on their personal lives. I know it is a work-in-progress, so I recommend some more play testing from friends to edit the text-- or running the text through a spellchecker/proofreading tool grammarly.

Unlike some other IF experiences, I didn't quit in frustration. It was a pleasant escape. I'm glad I played it.