Reviews by Kinetic Mouse Car

The game starts with an intro that explains the post-apocalyptic circumstances. In 2017 a short global war turned the planet into a wasteland. More than a century later in 2163 survivors have managed to pull together communities. However, controversy and strife remain. You live in a village called Mountain Mission which is under threat of being attacked by a clan called the Alpha Revolution. This section of the game has a cool map that shows the location of Mountain Mission in relation to its surrounding areas, giving it a survival-like edge. Your village is about to be attacked and how you respond is up to you.

The main gameplay begins in your shack in Mountain Mission. You have some money and some weaponry. Your only choice is to go out. Once outside you can go to the market, the barracks, or decide to leave the village. No matter what you choose you (Spoiler - click to show) always end up at a gate with attackers on the other side. You have two choices: defend or hide. The game immediately ends soon after. Here is an example of a sequence, starting outside of your shack: Go to the barracks > Hide > Stay hidden. Then the game suddenly says, "Thank you for playing Alpha 1.0!" Beneath it is a link saying to restart. It was the ultimately feeling of "that's it?" I feel that the author could have at least add more of a transition between the player choosing their final action and the game ending. Choosing to defend stretches out the gameplay because you can choose how you fight although it too ends in the same way.

Like the gameplay, the story has yet to develop beyond the intro. The game hints at letting the player dabble with moral choices. How do you respond to newly sprung conflict amid a post-apocalyptic setting where daily life is still fragile? Unfortunately, the game ends before these choices can be explored.

The game may be incomplete, but the author says that they plan to update it. I am not sure if that will happen, but I hope that happens since apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic themes in interactive fiction can be a draw for players. And if it does happen, I will definitely revisit this.

The game begins at the edge of a dead city called Chloe. Not much is described about the protagonist, only that you are determined to enter the city from one end and escape from the other side. Sadly, it is much harder to leave, and you are being hunted by a strange icy figure that moves closer with each passing day. Meanwhile, a tall spire attached to a mysterious egg loom in the distance.

Gameplay
The game uses several types of currency that are represented as colourful symbols on the screen which adds a neat visual flair. Along with coins the player collects manifestations of will, movement, and language. These currencies allow you to access different locations, acquire special objects, and engage with characters. The few characters you can meet are all ghosts of past inhabitants. They are summoned based on location and can assist the player.

The management part is balancing the amount of currency that you need for your objectives. For example, if you need coins, visiting (Spoiler - click to show) the rooftop in the labyrinth is a plentiful place to look. But it always costs you manifestation-of-will currency. Therefore, if the objective I am saving up for requires both coins and manifestation-of-will I end up having to make up the slack somewhere else. This tight inventory management is key attribute to the game. Management of time is also a major variable, and this is where my criticism starts.

Gameplay is marked by the passage of the moon cycles, starting on a new moon, and ending at the tail end of a full moon. This gives the player several days. However, this does not give the player enough time to gather resources needed to make progress, especially (Spoiler - click to show) with Ending 3. On one aspect this is where strategy comes into play. But it feels too tightly constrained to permit exploration of the game’s world. I found myself so focused on micro-managing currency that I felt like I was missing out on some of the world-building.

For instance, you can learn (Spoiler - click to show) more about the ghosts’ former lives by visiting the screeching room in the spire, but the effort and resources required to look up just one character entry would mean running out of time to make up those resources that I would otherwise need to win the game. My hope is that more people will try this game. Who knows? Maybe some player will prove me wrong and glide through the puzzles effortlessly. I would love to know if anyone had a different experience than I did.

Story
We do not know exactly why the protagonist is running or why Chloe is a dead husk. The events behind the city’s destruction or the purpose of the spire and the egg are never fully explained. Based on what (Spoiler - click to show) Ran, Lady of Stone says the spire was possibly as a punishment on the city by some unnamed entity. Ending 3 (SPOILERS), where you take the elevator to the top of the spire and climb into the egg, delves a little more into this but still leaves questions unanswered. (Spoiler - click to show) (Comment if you want my notes on the endings).

The game's surrealness and use of descriptive imagery carries itself through. A lot of it seems to be left up to interpretation. What exactly is the egg? Is it biological? A dormant organism? A weapon? The implications for any of those and the city's fate are interesting to think about. Regardless I would have liked to know more about this compelling story that the author portrays.

Final thoughts
This is a strong game with a few tradeoffs. It is tightly timed, a sometimes a bit too unfairly. But it also forces the player to use strategic thinking to keep them on their toes, so they do not waste resources. If you are interested in that type of gameplay, then definitely play this one.

Intro
Society is managed by A.I. created by corporations. But it has not been a seamless experience for society. Oneiri Global, creator of the ATHENA A.I., seems to be hiding something, prompting you to infiltrate their HYPNOS Labs to learn more about their projects.

Story context
The start of the game has some visuals that add atmosphere and world building, especially the news articles. And they really do look like a print-out from a website. One news article explains an event called "Dark-0" where the mainframe network went dark. The official claim was that a city mainframe was in the middle of a large update that caused the power grid to blow out from overuse. That constant networked reality that people depended on suddenly disappeared. Social unrest resulted. But even after everything was brought back online, people started to question corporations' claims about the resilience and reliability of ATHENA. Spray-painted signs on the building indicates that people feel like that the truth about the cause of the power-grid failure is being covered up.

Gameplay/Characters
The protagonist's background is not given much explanation. Their name is not mentioned. They seem to be an undercover agent but is unclear if they belong to an organization. For now, the game refers to them as an activist. An inside source has outlined a way to learn more about a man named Lucien Durante. The protagonist’s partner, Klein, communicates through comm lines, creating a suspenseful espionage vibe. He narrates the player's choices and shares instructions.

The gameplay consists of navigating the lab to reach the server room. The goal is to retrieve Durante’s files from the server. The player makes decisions based on information they receive from Klein or the personal data device they carry with them. The device is a creatively implemented feature that contains messages with information on your tasks. It even has a map of the facility. If the player fails to follow the instructions and is intercepted, the game sends them back to a checkpoint to try again.

When the player finds (Spoiler - click to show) Durante’s files they can choose a text file, audio file, or a video file. Once you click on one the game ends. The only file with content seems be the text file. In it, Durante says the development of high efficiency A.I. for day-to-day management has been honed to an art. The project has been a success. And yet, he is worried that society has become overly reliant on them. He once scoffed at people who opposed this new technology but now finds himself with second thoughts. Then the game ends. But by this point the game’s author has set a foundation for an interesting story into the ethics of automated technology in daily life. The (Spoiler - click to show) file may not explain why Durante is worried about ATHENA, but I suppose that will be explored in the next part of the series.

Visuals
Game maintains a basic yet trendy colour scheme. Uses a black background with white and orange accents for text and links. Other colours are occasionally used for colour-coding. I also liked lab logo that we see at the title page. Text is large and easy to read. I touched on this earlier, but the game makes use of photos. Awesome selection of images to “build” the facility, particularly the photo of the supercomputer. I like how there is an actual visual of the poppy paper with the username and password scrawled on it.

Klein’s dialog is shown as scrawling text on the screen as if he were right next to you speaking in your ear (and in fact, that is what he is doing with the protagonist). What I applaud is that with this dialog you do not need to wait for the text to load before proceeding to the next page. The links are there, and you can click them right away. This is nice if you are replaying the game and want to skip over rereading everything.

Not every design feature was seamless, however. Sometimes when I open the message section it will close before I have a chance to fully read it. You do not click on them but instead hover your mouse over them to open. When they open the whole page shifts, causing your mouse to move off the link, closing everything again. It also would have been helpful for the map to be displayed horizontally rather on its side where you must tilt your head to read it. None of this is impossible to manage but it does make it inconvenient.

Final thoughts
The meaning of the title is that everyone is always logged in to a network that manages their lives. In this case the network ATHENA A.I. system produced by the corporation Oneiri Global. The AI crisscrosses through networked computers to allow it to manage people's lives more effectively. But having a highly connected online presence 24/7 is bound to influence people's behavior. The game ends before it can dive deeper into these implications, but it does skim the surface.

Obviously if this were a stand-alone game it would get poor marks for being incomplete (it would still score for visual design). HOWEVER. The author made it clear that this is only the first part of the series. and in that case, I think the author ended the game on a nice cliff-hanger. The game was not as long as I expected but I was still impressed with it nonetheless given its paced espionage vibe. I highly encourage the author to keep producing the series because I am eager to see what happens next in this compelling dystopian sci-fi story.

The gameplay is extremely simple. Each turn, or "act," you choose two qualities from an action list and a manner list. For example, I could choose "fast" from the action list and "eagerly" from the manner list. The game then combines these two factors into a sonnet. The whole process repeats itself. You can make as many sonnets as you want and there is no ending. It ends when you no longer feel like playing.

The authors seem to take a reflective approach in the notes section of their game by explaining the process of cycling sonnets to tell a story. In this case, stories are produced gradually, and emerge through patient reiterations of sonnets formed by the player. According to the notes, an individual story cycle can easily involve the creation of a hundred sonnets (although less will work as well), and that the process of this would hopefully provide a centered and meditative experience. But from a practical standpoint, players are likely to only give this game a go for a few rounds, possibly not as much as the game intended. The sonnets are quite similar to each other at first glance. Carefully reading them reveals their differences, and within that, paints a story, but you have to feel compelled approach it slowly. I am not sure if players are going to stick with it. I tried for a bit, but it is easy to experiment with different word combinations without focusing on the sonnets that are produced from them.

The notes continue on and leave things open-ended. If you are curious to know more, read them and test the game out to see what you think.

Final thought: I liked the peach colour scheme with the pink links. It made things feel more stylized and complete.

The premise is a spunky one. Enter a tv competition show for popstar contestants (99 total). It follows a familiar reality tv pattern. Everyone is presented with a challenge and is ranked by their performance. At the end of the season the top 5 ranking individuals win. Unfortunately, this game never makes it past challenge 1.

You are Kim Nayoung. Your mother was a famous performer named Anna Nayoung and it is implied that she died. Being the daughter of icon adds some flair to the contest, but we never have a chance to learn more about the protagonist or the circumstances behind Anna’s death. As Kim you eagerly apply to be a show participant and are accepted. You pack your bag and are transported to a world of competitiveness, glamour, and talent. Players choose which abilities to specialize in, such as singing or dancing, and your actions are largely based on stat management. The player must also manage the fine line between working with others to advance through teamwork and weathering the other contestants by only focusing on yourself. Your personal skills and relationship with others impact your performance and rank.

The gameplay has flaws. Some of it is formatting. If you choose to help Fuko with dancing the game says, "Fuko's Affection +10, Fuko's rank improves by 10, You should have already reached the Dancinggoal for this challenge but if you haven't Dancingprogress increases by 10 for helping out Fuko. Lucky you!" This was awkwardly worded and reduced the polish. Another problem with the gameplay is the flakiness of some of the stats. It seems like they always match with the player’s choices. For the first challenge the (Spoiler - click to show) judges gave me an F, but then the next day when everyone meets in the pyramid room for the overall results I am announced as the challenge 1 teamwork winner (and if you try all the "bad" options with Fuko, such as shoving her on stage, you still win). And yet, they rank me in the 80s (it varies, which means at least the stats can be functional), which is confusing. The best I have been able to place is 84th. Even so, I was still looking forward to more gameplay.

What frustrates me is that the game is clearly broken. It just stops. After the first challenge (Spoiler - click to show) you get these tokens that you can use to buy things that upgrade your relationship with other characters or improves your stats. Unfortunately, the game breaks afterwards. There are simply no links on the screen for the player to click on. The only thing you can do is quit. If the author intended for it to end there they could have said, "that's all folks," but instead the player is trying to see if perhaps they clicked on a wonky link and wonder if they should retrace their steps to try a different route to bypass it. Regardless of which path I took I could not make any more progress.

Visually, it does fairly well. It uses a basic back screen and white text that is neatly spaced on the screen. On the left side of the screen is a list of stats for your abilities and rapport with other characters. When I first played the game, I thought it was going to be a jackpot for players who like stat-based Twine games, but sadly it becomes unplayable early on.

It was a promising start but a letdown as an entry to IFCOMP. Based on the detail I have seen so far if this were a completed game it would have had an immensely improved reception. I encourage the author to finish the game because a lot more people would be interested in tuning in.

The underlying premise of the game is that there is some sort of war between two entities called Kaden and Souden, the latter of which you belong to. Apparently, you were skulking around in Kaden cyberspace but were caught and are now trapped in a cell, waiting for the Kaden to put you through a loyalty transfer program. You also know that the Souden are planning to attack. It would be ideal to escape cyberspace before that occurs.

A lot of games about cyberspace (or at least those that I have played) take place in the "real world" with the player tapping into cyberspace at regulator intervals. This one almost entirely takes place in cyberspace. The player begins in a virtual containment cell. Any efforts to move around results in "You are contained." But as you are tracing the lines on the walls, floor, and ceiling, a piece of paper appears with basic instructions are the start of your escape. This, along with other signs, shows that someone is trying to help you which adds suspense and mystery.

There is also great atmosphere with a sense of danger, such as (Spoiler - click to show) a voice in the background announcing to who-knows-who that a scan is about to occur in the sector where you are hiding. The scan seeks out intruders and if you are detected a pulse will liquefy you. In addition, in the game’s world you will find strange sights. The multi-faced cube, the spider and its doll, the factory full of machines, and the mysterious sheet of paper were ominous but kind of cool. It all paints a surreal impression.

While intriguing, this is also a challenging and technical game. I can tell you now, I had to play with hints. An example is (Spoiler - click to show) finding the correct box needed to restore the cube's voice by asking it about different boxes and seeing if the cube nods, blinks, frowns, or smiles to indicate how close you are to finding it, almost like a high-tech version of a hot-or-cold game. I could not solve this without a walkthrough although I was able to understand the puzzle afterwards and replicate it without help in later playthroughs (this game can place you in an unwinnable state, be sure to save). Discovering (Spoiler - click to show) the spider's commands was another area that I needed help with because the spider is picky about syntax. It will accept "spider, help" but not "ask spider for help." Or "spider, status" but not "ask spider about status." I would find the sphere that halted the lxprog program but failed to realize that you need the spider to erase it.

I would have liked a little more discussion on the story. Is this solely warfare in cyberspace or is it in the physical world as well? What type of entities are the Kaden and Souden? Even the ending does not clarify much. (Spoiler - click to show) The man we meet at the end explains that the war is just the Kaden and the Souden taking people from the other side and running them through loyalty transfer programs, creating a back-and-forth type of fighting. The other thing I could pick out about the story is that the man also says that the player unknowingly created the cube that helped them escape, almost as if the player found a way out through sheer willpower. Or at least that is how I interpreted what he said. Regardless, I still have lingering questions about this war and its participants, as well as the protagonist’s identity. On a similar note, the cube, which was generally lacking in the number of things you can ask it, had something to say about the Kaden and Souden. (Spoiler - click to show) Kaden apparently means "electric charge" while Souden means "electric supply." I am not entirely sure of what to make of this information but still found it interesting.

But yes, this game is moderately cryptic and challenging to complete without guidance, but the setting and story drew me in (as did the title). If you like playing games in cyberspace experiment with it. It is not a game for everyone but know that it does not take long to complete with a walkthrough in case you are curious about how it ends.