Ratings and Reviews by Kinetic Mouse Car

This is something new. I believe this is the first Twine game I have played that has animated GIFs. It is a Christmas themed poem about low expectations during the holiday season.

Gameplay
There is only one page in the game. It consists of a poem with links that reveal GIFs related to the subject matter. It is fun to find and watch every GIF. Many are taken from TV shows or movies. Not all the GIFs matched with the text’s content- they could have been more concise- but some were spot on. I loved the one with the (Spoiler - click to show) cats and dogs eating off the table. Also: Save us from a world of trouble! That link’s GIF is a lot of fun.

Story
The writing is a bit vague but maintains a consistent and clear-cut tone of cynicism about the Christmas season. It looks at the grandeur of Christmas and the consumption of food and gift-giving which is tied to societal expectations about partaking in get-togethers of family and friends so everyone can be cheerful in ways that would otherwise be unlikely at any other time of the year.

It seems like the author is saying that not everyone wants to celebrate Christmas (or decline to celebrate it at all) with tons and tons of people. People do not always feel the spirit of Christmas and want to be roped into joining the festivities, especially since they do not share the enthusiasm of everyone else.

Of course, "everyone" is subjective. There is often an impression that "everyone" around you love this or that, when in reality the sentiment is a bit of an exaggeration. Still, it feels that way, and the stifling effect seems to be a main idea in the poem.

Similarly, the poem considers the instant cheer where "everyone" goes from living in the rat race to embracing a sparkling life when infused with the Christmas spirit. Obviously, this is not the case for everyone whether it be for personal reasons or circumstances out of their control, but it is easy to overlook the statistics when caught up in the season.

As for society’s (again, subjective analysis) positive attitude towards Christmas, it makes sense that people would be more joyful during the holiday season because of its correlation with traditions/practices that one can enjoy. The main argument that the author tries to make is how emotions and sentiments cultivated during Christmas time often dwindle once Christmas has passed.

Visuals
Now, I am pretty sure that this is made with Twine. It uses a pale backdrop, black text, green links. The only notable visual element is a large drawing of an angel at the left side of the screen, adding some Christmas cheer. And of course, there are the GIFs that offer fun visuals.

Final thoughts
This game offers an alternate look into celebrating Christmas. If you want to switch things up with your Christmas IF playlist, consider playing Christmas Greetings.

Lord Cephyis Alikarn is hosting a party at his opulent private estate on the Alikarn family's planet. It's kind of a big deal. This will not be a run of the mill party. Manners, etiquette, and protocol are critical because a slip-up can result in death or scandal. Maybe, just maybe, you will get to see the Emprex.

Gameplay
The nuts and bolts of the gameplay is where the game presents you an etiquette-based situation and you then must choose the right way of proceeding to avoid death or scandal. For example, (Spoiler - click to show) you are served a delicacy of a crab-like creature renowned for its meat. However, to preserve the flavor it must be alive when served and killed right before it is eaten. You must kill it yourself. The catch is that its pinchers are highly poisonous. The PC clearly has no experience with this, so the player takes a guess on how to kill it without being killed themselves. This takes table manners to another level.

I like how the game puts you on the spot to capture how the protagonist is not in familiar territory. It leaves the player thinking, "oh no, oh no, what do I do? Don't mess up."

Applaud enthusiastically
Applaud politely
Remain still

This selection of choices should make you nervous.

I would have loved to see more of these challenges in the game. Hopefully, you will stick it out long enough to reach the end. Total gameplay is short but there is a lot of content to absorb.

Story
It is a potent story of grandeur on a galactic scale. We see things that would not be possible or practical in real life but are commonplace in the story's world of raw decadence and political power spanning a galaxy. Along the way we hear information about other planets and societies. This is not a humans-only universe. There are also alien races, some of which are guests. But any world-building is typically limited to discussion of Emprex Hasina Alikarn’s role as galactic leader as the honored guest at a party hosted by her brother, Lord Cephyis Alikarn.

The big pivotal scene is when you (Spoiler - click to show) notice that the Emprex's drink has been tampered with, a sign that she is about to be poisoned. You have three options: Ignore it, turn her glass to the left, or turn her glass to the right. This is based on a tidbit of knowledge you can learn from one of the guests.

At a past formal event, poison was added to guests’ drinks and the cups turned a certain way so that the conspirators knew which ones were safe to drink. The Emprex was about to drink a poisoned glass when her brother intervened, saving her life. In return she granted him considerable power. Since then, turning glasses at parties has almost become a symbolic tradition.

When you turn her glass to the left to indicate poison she picks up on the cue and requests a different glass. She realizes you saved her and asks for the person behind the assassination attempt. It’s not hard to figure out, but I don’t want to spoil everything. I thought this was a clever way of incorporating information gleamed from the gameplay into a final decision that determines the ending.

The ending where (Spoiler - click to show) she is poisoned and dies ends on a cliffhanger. She tries to speak, but then the poison overtakes her and she goes limp. And? It felt incomplete to leave it like this. The winning ending leaves some unanswered questions but otherwise wraps up the story and gives the player a few choices on how to use the Emprex’s favor. I was surprised that (Spoiler - click to show) she allows you to suddenly be promoted to such high-level positions without any formal experience but if the protagonist managed to survive an Alikarn dinner party than perhaps they have more going for them than what meets the eye.

Characters
Ah yes, the protagonist. The intro in A Tragedy of Manners stresses how seeing the Emprex face-to-face is an extremely rare privilege reserved for the most elite. It builds rumor and secrecy about the odds of someone being allowed to visit the Alikarn family’s planet let alone be invited to a family party.

You have heard rumours that the Emprex herself might be present, but such a thing is impossible. Someone of your lowly status would never be allowed in her exalted presence.

The whole point of the game is that you are in over your head. The protagonist comes strolling in late to what the game calls “the most dangerous dinner party in the galaxy.” But the gameplay can undermine the societal exposition provided at the start of the game. (Spoiler - click to show) You pretty much walk in and bam, Emprex sitting at the table. For the player’s meager standing I figured that there would be more ceremony involved before they could meet her.

Some additional background on the protagonist would have helped. There are some mixed messages and I feel like I am overlooking something. The beginning suggests that the protagonist is a nobody who somehow managed to snag an invitation. They lack social standing and knowledge on formal protocol, admitting that the Emprex would have no reason to grant them an audience. And yet, (Spoiler - click to show) the Emprex vaguely mentions the protagonist in her toast, acknowledging that they are an invited guest before making an announcement. She wants decision making in the empire to be witnessed by individuals other than nobles. Excellent. By why was the protagonist invited? Why them? Seriously, who is the protagonist? I would like some clarification, that’s all.

You do not interact with NPCs as much as you see them and that is just fine with me because appearances and fashion come first. The Emprex’s dress was cool. This game takes the idea of a formal wear sci-fi dinner party and multiplies it by ten. One memorable NPC interaction was with a Legacy staff member. Legacy is where (Spoiler - click to show) entire families serve as staff from generation to generation. Each new generation has a cybernetic implant containing the knowledge and experience of past family members so they can perform their job with the equivalence of centuries worth of expertise. A creative character concept with unsettling undertones.

Visuals
This is an Ink game. Visually, it sticks to a standard appearance of a white screen, grey text, and orange links. Simple and easy to read. Nothing notable to share.

Final thoughts
I love the idea of a space opera etiquette game, and I would be eager to play it more if it were longer (I wish it were longer). The ambiguity of the protagonist’s social standing caused confusion and occasionally backtracked from the exposition but there is still something rewarding about a low-key PC succeeding while totally out of their element.

You lean back, basking in the glow of conversational victory.

Especially when that element is a dramatic futuristic dinner party with (Spoiler - click to show) cybernetically enhanced staff and (Spoiler - click to show) deadly main courses. I had a lot of fun at seeing the outlandish and imaginative world of Sanctum, the ruling planet of the Luminous Empyrean!!!!

This game is NOT for kids.

Page 1: This is Jo. Jo wants to go on an adventure!

You are reading a storybook about a boy named Jo who seeks to overcome adversary to reach a mountain and climb it. The narration depicts a fun adventure but inserted text on each page reveals how Jo really feels about the story.

Gameplay
Gameplay structure follows the concept of reading a storybook from start to finish. You click on a link at the bottom of the screen to flip to pages in the "book.” On the screen are additional links that allow you to explore Jo’s perspective as the protagonist of a storybook.

(It's almost over. Stop reading. Please.)

Turn to page 10...

There is more to this game than clicking on links to read a story in a picture book.

"Stop reading" and "Turn to page 10..." are both links that places Jo's predicament into the player’s hands. One hears what Jo has to say about the scene while the other simply moves forward with the story. This opens new avenues for the player to explore which then changes the gameplay.

Story
The main plot element is that (Spoiler - click to show) characters recognize that they are cartoon characters in a storybook and that there are countless copies of the book that feature the same characters with the same struggles. As for Jo, he has experienced the same linear story of climbing the mountain repeatedly. Every time someone picks up the book to read it, he must relive the whole thing.

If you dutifully follow the page sequences straight to the end, (Spoiler - click to show) Jo manages to make an appeal when you reach the final page. He wants you to free him by ripping out the page to ensure the story never ends. That way he no longer endures the pattern of traveling to the mountain and climbing it.

The player has two choices. (Spoiler - click to show) They can rip out the page like Jo requested or close the book. Both led to lackluster endings consisting of a few words on the screen. I was expecting them to have a little more substance. Fortunately, it is possible to (Spoiler - click to show) reach an alternate conclusion by diving deeper. If you ignore the page sequences and explore the links on the screen you reach hidden content that takes the game in a whole new direction. That’s when the story starts to take off.

Clicking on other links reveal (Spoiler - click to show) Jo’s daydreams and idle thoughts of what he would do if he had free agency over the storybook that he is trapped within. These scenes depict violence, self-harm, and other subjects that depart from the picture book’s cheerful story. It also details the frustrations he endured and outlines his plan for vengeance on the author of the picture book if he had a chance to escape. If you explore these grievances enough, you can reach an alternate ending. It is similar to an ending that I previously mentioned but feels more like a solid outcome that ties the story together with no loose ends.

Characters
There is some cynical humor to the story and its protagonist. A (Spoiler - click to show) “children’s book” that jumps off the deep end with a dramatic shift in story tone. One minute a good-natured boy meets a friendly bear, and the next thing we see is the boy killing the bear instead. However, not all of it is a laughing matter. There are themes that make the humor less lighthearted and the story’s content more serious. But different elements can add dimension.

This is a PC who feels trapped. Jo often looks (Spoiler - click to show) for ways of committing suicide to escape the story but fails every time. The difficult part is that once Jo shares his grievances in an alternate scene the game then launches us back into the main storybook gameplay so that Jo can go through the exact thing he was talking about. At least I can say that it is possible for Jo to be free and seek vengeance. Closure, if you will.

Visuals
A white section of page is used for the picture book which is then set against a pale blue backdrop. As a picture book it naturally features cartoon artwork. If this were a book for kids, I would say that the artwork’s style is a tad mediocre, but it has a crude quality that suggests a dissonance (or maybe it’s just the parts with the (Spoiler - click to show) blood). I have no idea if this is what the author intended but it pairs perfectly with the story and gameplay.

I like choice-based games that reveal a sinister truth and convey it with an abrupt change in visuals that tells the player in unveiled terms that they overstepped or disobeyed and should get with the program. The player has no choice but to follow the game’s orders, infusing the remaining gameplay a sense of dread. The game i love gardening comes to mind. If you refuse to garden, well…

This Is A Picture Book is a bit different in that the player is not being herded into making one specific decision. They still have choices even if Jo does not, but the change in the game’s appearance still indicates that there is a darker layer underneath this sunshiny story book. Things escalate.

The shock value comes in when you first encounter Joe’s (Spoiler - click to show) alternative narratives that dispose of the bright colours and outdoor scenery. Disturbing imagery is used. For instance, a friendly bear frolics on the green grass next to a clear blue lake. Next, the bear is dead on a stretch of concrete with red blood pooling from its neck. A noticeable transition that packs a punch.

Final thoughts
Right from the start you know that there is something wrong with Jo’s situation, but you do not know the extent of it until you go off the beaten path to explore the links that reveal the story underneath. I liked how the game rewarded the player interacting with more links by adding an ending that felt cohesive, humorous, and a place to finish playing. Hidden cynical horror with a catchy concept. I feel like people are either going to like it or dislike it. If you are comfortable with its graphic themes (Spoiler - click to show) (violence, self-harm, mentions of suicide, blood) then try it.

Several days ago, I visit IFDB and see this:

News on Even Some More Tales from Castle Balderstone: OFFICIAL PLAYER'S GUIDE November 22, 2022 An OFFICIAL PLAYER'S GUIDE is now available for Even Some More Tales from Castle Balderstone, with all kinds of tips and hints and solutions and maps. - Details

I wasn’t sure if I should cry. I had thoroughly played all the games (within the game) and completed them but one. Meanwhile, I was hearing all about (Spoiler - click to show) some secret bonus game that would be unlocked by completing the first four. The words “tips,” “hints,” “solutions,” and “maps,” in this announcement immediately pulled me back to the game so I could finally play it from start to finish. It also means I can give this awesome game a review.

Overview
This was an entry in last year’s Ecto-Comp and offers quite an experience. My understanding is that people besides Ryan Veeder wrote and created stories that he then implemented into parser to be showcased in Even Some More Tales from Castle Balderstone. An anthology.

It is the first game that I have played that splices Twine with Inform/Vorple. It begins in Twine. You are a guest at Castle Balderstone and are brought to a room where four cover art photos are displayed on the screen with the games’ titles. It felt like walking into a movie theater and looking at the posters. When you click on one you “walk” to an area where the author of the story is getting ready to read the story to an audience. This transitions to the parser where you can play the game. Immersive approach!

During the gameplay a sketch of the author is included on the right side of the screen with a small bio. It helps you appreciate the amount of brain power that went into each story. Even Some More Tales from Castle Balderstone is the amusement park and the games set within it are the rides. It has nothing to do with amusement parks/rides but that is the analogy that came to mind.

Letavermilia
I will discuss this game first because it is the one that I could not complete without the walkthrough.

In Letavermilia you are playing as a bounty hunter tasked to hunt down a hacker who goes by, Letavermilia, the same name of a deadly plague that has run rampant across interstellar space. This is probably the most elegant space bounty hunter IF game I have played. The protagonist has worked their way up to become an “A-list bounty hunter” with high paying clients, and it shows. For one thing, the ship has been upgraded to something classier. If “space bounty hunter” does not sound like your cup of tea- think again. There is something about it that strikes a unique chord. Rather than a typical high action speed chase through space, an emphasis is placed on subtlety. If you try to examine a detail, chances are the game will have something to say about it.

We begin on Ligeia, an oceanic planet where you are vacationing. As you lounge peacefully on the hull of your fancy ship you get an urgent message to track down Letavermilia (the hacker). You are following a trail that she leaves behind. Gameplay involves decoding her messages to find the coordinates for the next planet you travel to. Before the walkthrough was published, I was stuck on (Spoiler - click to show) Zante, trying to decipher the message on the (Spoiler - click to show) etched panel. I feel like I should have been able to figure it out on my own. But I didn’t, and that’s that, I guess. Now I was able to go to the next planet. I was really excited to see what world was in store (and tired of guessing pitifully at travel coordinates). After that, I used the walkthrough on and off.

While gameplay has a narrow focus on one objective at a time, it still injects intriguing overarching story along the way. The big concern looming over everyone’s heads is Letavermilia, the plague. We get a smattering of interplanetary politics. Entire planets infected by the disease are quarantined. Meanwhile, uninfected affluent planets form an alliance called “Isolated Worlds” that cease contact with worlds outside this group.

The player is in a unique position because the PC’s bounty hunter credentials allow access to worlds that would otherwise be unavailable. I feel that the portrayal of bounty hunters in both IF and non-IF (or at least in what I’ve seen) tend to use a profile of a battered scoundrel who accepts shady contracts and walks a fine line with the law. The protagonist in Letavermilia is more privileged with glitzy clients and jobs received from entire governments.

I was not happy with the ending. No, no- It’s a fantastic ending. It’s an effective ending. I disliked it simply because it did not end how I wanted it to end. This may surprise you, but if I were to assess the ending of every story in this game and decide on the scariest, it would be this game without a doubt.

What do I mean by scary? I don’t mean spooked scary where everyone around the campfire screams because they heard a small noise out in the words. The feeling I associate with this ending is deep dread that sets in only when it is too late. You realize what just happened, quietly, without the game having to spell it out for you. (Spoiler - click to show)

Your nose is bleeding.

This bounty hunter had in the bag only to discover that the villain (who, technically, we still never meet) has been holding everything in the palm of her hand. I was rooting for the PC. If it weren’t for the villain, we would be swimming about leisurely on Ligeia. Plus, there is only one ending. In the other three games you can negotiate for happier ones.

This sense of dread is not a sudden event. It develops slowly through the gameplay, and you hardly even know it until it reaches the end. A trend is that (Spoiler - click to show) planet locations generally have small maps that you navigate freely and yet they manage to convey a feeling of being funneled along in a direction regardless of your choices. The anxious man who is a little too zealous about your presence (and your teeth, for some reason) as he escorts you up and down the narrow stairwell to look at the server room. The dust storm that keeps you confined to the area around your ship. The deep elevator (my favorite) that shuttles you deep underground to a concrete room. And somehow this hacker manages to leave her messages before you arrive. You are in control, but ultimately, you are not. The extent of this is not revealed until you paint yourself into a corner. Then- surprise! Down you go. That’s what makes this game scary.

Before I move on, I want to share my favorite planet, (Spoiler - click to show) Ulalume. Here, you are at a planet devoted to the nightlife. While planets are consumed by disease, partygoers continue to live extravagantly without any thought that the vast resources of the Isolated Worlds could be spent- I don’t know- coming up with a cure, maybe? Or maybe they simply want to distract themselves from it. People on this planet have a lot of ways of trying to distract themselves. You use an elevator to reach the bottom level. Its glass walls allow you to see the establishments on each floor. The farther down, the more unsettling things we see.

Now you can see through the haze. Humans are sprawled over velvet pillows, wearing expressions of vacant satisfaction.

No one cares that you are plunging deep underground in an elevator to reach a cold concrete room with a message from a hacker who borrows inspiration from a deadly plague. Now, that’s atmosphere.

Visit Skuga Lake
Your boss went to write some articles on a little-known town but has gone missing. As her intern, you travel to the town to investigate only to be thrown into a motel closet. Seems like outsiders are unwelcome. I did not need the hints for the Visit Skuga Lake because I had already devoured back when I first found the game. I mapped that place to death. Notes, lists, you name it. I did consult the guide’s amulet/eyestone chart because it is much more organized than the table I created.

When I first played Visit Skuga Lake last year during Ecto-Comp, I remember the parser being a tad slow with my commands. It would take about half a second- just enough to be noticeable- for the game to respond. But not really a big deal. When I replayed it a few days ago the delay time was even slower. The longer I played the greater the lag. By the time I managed to (Spoiler - click to show) retrieve the key from the sleeping guard and get the boat running to reach the smaller island it was taking three full seconds for the game to respond to each command. I’m not sure why. This was not a big deal since I already knew what to do, but if this were my first ever playthrough, experimentation would be a nightmare.

This game has heaps of cool content. Every animal, landmark, and found object have important content attached to it. What I like best is how there are plenty of puzzles, but their solutions are flexible. While many puzzles are optional, pursuing them are still relevant to your objectives because they follow a similar concept. (Spoiler - click to show) You collect animal amulets and eyestones. When paired together, they give you powers- a wide variety of powers. Experimenting with them is so much fun. You do not need to find every (Spoiler - click to show) magical item, but it is a welcome task, and one that will likely prove useful later in the gameplay. Experimentation is the main attraction. I hope the lag is just an issue on my end. That aside, the story, gameplay, and characters are excellent. Lag-time or not Visit Skuga Lake is a must play if you feel like sampling the stories in Even Some More Tales from Castle Balderstone.

Singing for Me
Definitely, my favorite in all of Even Some More Tales from Castle Balderstone. It is meant to be played repeatedly and offers a lot of strategizing. My high score is (Spoiler - click to show) $1938. "I suppose this is adequate," said the Waldgrave. I’m still proud of it.

The protagonist is a young man returning home after college. He tells the story through humorous journal entries shaped by the player’s choices. The entries depict an oddball town that grows weirder and weirder in a way that suggests normalcy in its community. If you keep shuffling along with the town’s traditions, you get sucked right in. Next thing you know, the (Spoiler - click to show) Harvest Festival arrives. The ending is delightfully disturbing and unexpected. Even better is the redeeming ending. The game makes the player work for it, but it is fulfilling. I’d share more but I’m already starting to sound like (Spoiler - click to show) Darren.

Nyvo the Dolphin
This game gave me a lot to think about. If you happened to be standing on a tall cliff while staring at the ocean and see a dolphin equipped with a (Spoiler - click to show) prosthetic arm, a (Spoiler - click to show) grenade launcher, and some (Spoiler - click to show) foreign object in its eye, what scenario would play through your head? What explanation would emerge as you try to rationalize what you just saw? Nyvo the Dolphin has the answers. An adolescent dolphin comes across a shipwreck. Not some storybook pirate shipwreck but the wreckage of a high-tech ship carrying (Spoiler - click to show) classified military cargo. The highlight is the writing. It has a dramatic yet clinical tone as it narrates Nyvo’s encounter with (Spoiler - click to show) dangerous human technology…and how he is changed by it. It’s also in third person which makes it even more potent.

You mean there’s (Spoiler - click to show) more?
Finally, this was the moment I was waiting for. (Spoiler - click to show) The bonus content: a FIFTH game. Hunted , if I remember correctly. A stop and start Christmas nightmare. I think. This kid is on the run in the North Pole. When he gets caught* the gameplay switches where you are the “Bad” version of the kid. The Good and Bad version of the kid’s identity battle it out as you flip flop between two gameplay sequences. And then sometimes the parser would kick back to the Twine format where everyone is sitting in a circle to hear a story before launching into more gameplay. It was overwhelming. Cool, but overwhelming. At one point I was in a cozy house, but then that changed. The entire time I was all, “wait- stop, stop, stop. I wasn’t done yet!” I would gladly replay the entire game to revisit it if not for the lag issue I had with Visit Skuga Lake.

Nonetheless, I am so happy to have reached this point.

*Also: (Spoiler - click to show) I found a key that presumably unlocks the office door, but right before I reach it Krampus gets me. Is it possible to outrun him or is failing the whole point?

Final thoughts
A truly ambitious piece. It also defies the notion of quality over quantity, or quantity or quality. It’s a quality game, and there’s lots of it! A lot of planning and care seems to have gone into its creation. Sometimes you may find yourself coming back just to revisit one of the stories. Especially Singing for Me. There is something in it for a wide range of audiences in terms of length, technicality, and subject matter. Make sure you turn on the rainy music that the game recommends before you start playing.

You are fourteen-year-old Kyle, a Boy Scout looking to earn a Community Service badge. Peanut the cat has run off, and this is your chance to show initiative. Time to investigate the local neighborhood.

Gameplay
When the game began my first impression was that a Boy Scout troop was out looking for a cat (does that occur in real-life?) which immediately creates a cool ambience. A closer look soon showed that Kyle is the only Boy Scout around. Meanwhile, a group of middle-school aged kids, are running about and talking about a kid named Max. Naturally, the player is roped into participating in Max’s plans.

I really, really, like the (Spoiler - click to show) occult twist. Yes, you heard that right. The start of the game sounds like a light, wholesome game about a youth trying to save a cat (which also sounds like fun) to earn a badge only to surprise the player with an unexpected thrill. Eerie ten-year-old Max (Spoiler - click to show) wants to hold a ritual in the groundwater tunnels. Sounds cool! Max needs three Native American artifacts for the ritual. He has one and wants you to find the other two. By now, finding the cat falls to the wayside as you pursue this new objective.

This is not a puzzle heavy game but there is a lot of exploring. The gameplay has a moderate sized map consisting of a suburban area. You will probably want to make a light map of the underground tunnels. Nothing too fancy, but you may find it helpful.

There is one bug/issue that made the game unwinnable. (UPDATE: I've received feedback that this is NOT an unwinnable state. I'm leaving this paragraph in as a formality but understand that my calling it unwinnable was an incorrect assessment on my part). (Spoiler - click to show) Max wants Clem to solder the three artifacts together. Clem follows you around for most of the gameplay. You are supposed to retrieve the hand-held generator from his garage, fill it with gas, and give it to him so he can use his solder iron. I put the game in an unwinnable state by giving him the generator before Max has all three artifacts.

He looks at you, “Give me the hand-held generator.”

I already gave it to him at the garage. I tried to take it back, but…

That seems to belong to Clem.

I restarted the game because I could see no way of soldering the artifacts together to start the ritual. CORRECTION: While Clem may still ask for the generator even after you give it to him, he will solder the artifacts together once everyone arrives.

Story
I was expecting the story to have more focus on the protagonist’s goal of earning a badge, perhaps incorporating themes of “character building.” Maybe I am misinterpreting the process of earning a Community Service badge. Point is, Kyle obviously takes this seriously, and as a game, the idea of earning a badge takes center stage. This is the first Boy Scout PC I have played in interactive fiction, and I was excited to see where it would go. Ultimately, this part of Kyle’s identity was not showcased as much as I thought it would be.

The setting is intriguing. After snooping around you come across some newspaper clippings that outline two main controversies in the area. The first follows the development of a (Spoiler - click to show) new museum on Native American culture that has been delayed over conflicts of the museum’s focus. There is also mention of Native American artifacts being discovered while the neighborhood was being developed. The second controversy looks at a trend of (Spoiler - click to show) health issues in residents that seem to be connected to the water supply. Plans were made to re-design the water drainage system, but those plans were brought to a halt. The story focuses more on the former issue.

The storyline reminded me of an element in Anchorhead where a (semi-spoilers for Anchorhead coming right up!) (Spoiler - click to show) specific tribe- I believe it was a fictional tribe- of indigenous people who worshiped celestial entities that were of interest to the Verlac family because it was connected to a vast ritual that had been planned for generations. The player, lucky you, gets to deal with the impending doom of this ritual. Right near the center of town is a big obelisk that covers the tribe’s ancient burial ground that also seals off a hell-dimension on the other side of mortal existence. You learn about this through newspaper clippings and content from the library. It’s wild. I mean, it’s Anchorhead, obviously.

Max (Spoiler - click to show) speaks of a monster in the southernmost tunnels that had been sealed off by Native Americans. This can be unsealed with a ritual using the three artifacts. Max himself also seems to be possessed. Disturbing, but not disturbing enough to dissuade the other neighborhood kids, including Kyle, from helping. Don’t get me wrong, (Spoiler - click to show) suburban Boy Scout cat search + occult ritual hosted by a ten-year-old named Max is novel as it brushes on Anchorhead themes. My complaint is this: there is hardly any story (or gameplay) about (Spoiler - click to show) finding Peanut the cat.

Start of game: You have been tasked to find the missing cat, Peanut. You're hoping this simple mission will earn you your Community Service merit badge. You head into the woods where the cat was last seen.

We’ve seen Peanut at the start of game. She’s behind a storm tunnel grating and runs off when you open it. Onwards, you try to run and chase her. Throughout the gameplay are cues such as, “You hear the tinkling of a small bell,” and “You hear a cat meowing,” amongst NPCs’ advice to look in the tunnels! And from there on, the cat takes a back seat as the gameplay shifts to finding artifacts.

When you save your friends from the monster and win the game, Peanut decides to appear and jump into your arms. Great resolution, but I just sat there realizing how much time I wasted trying to corner the cat into one of tunnels, using the dead rat as bait (probably not as appealing to cats as I thought), and experimenting with the various exits and entrances in the tunnel maze to map out her movements. The kid doesn’t even get his badge at the end of the game!

Characters
NPCs wander independently. I always enjoy seeing this in interactive fiction because it feels more dynamic. That said, their behavior does not have much substance. When you first meet them, they introduce themselves to you which is a strong start. Then they wander around until aimlessly until you make progress towards the (Spoiler - click to show) ritual. To be fair, designing seven (plus Peanut) independent NPCs is probably not an easy task. And you will find moments where NPC behavior triggers a surprising effect, such as when they all (Spoiler - click to show) suddenly gather in the meeting room to start the ritual. That was cool.

I have criticism about the dialog. The game uses the “topics” command to offer a list of topics to ask other characters. I thought this was smart because it keeps the player close to relevant subject matters. The issue is that A, topics do not acknowledge the player’s progress, and B, the “topics” feature lack subjects relevant to the situation. To use an example for the first case, (Spoiler - click to show) if you ask Max about the artifacts after the ritual, he still acts as if you have not found them yet. This put a dent in the interaction.

The other concern become more apparent as the story developed. Characters were limited in their responses to these events. The topics list never expands. In Clem’s introduction he says, "'I'm Clem. I'm in charge of the reconstruction effort.'" But asking him about it (I wanted to know if this had any connection to the (Spoiler - click to show) water quality controversy) results in, "Clem doesn't have anything useful to say about that." Alright, maybe I am being a stickler on this one. Still, subjects about the (Spoiler - click to show) ritual, the Andelmans’ house, and characters’ immediate surroundings are excluded from conversation. (Spoiler - click to show)

Guarding the room is a fearsome pitbull. He eyes you while growling.

Clem comes up from below.

>ask Clem about pitbull
Clem doesn't have anything useful to say about that.

I was expecting some response.

Also, who are the Andelmans'? It’s in the title. First impression was when I tried to enter the basement before meeting with the NPCs in the meeting place near the start of the game.

You begin to head west when suddenly you hear a girl's voice scold you, "We don't go in there. We think it's the Andelman House."

There you go. Mystery. It creates a chilling, sinister vibe to the gameplay. A hint that there is more to this maze of storm drain tunnels than what meets the eye. Right away you think, Who are the Andelmans? Sounds like a neighborhood legend. Your curiosity is spiked because this suburban adventure just got a whole lot interesting. This never went anywhere. We explore the house, almost abandoned, if not for the (Spoiler - click to show) guard dog in the kitchen. I kept wondering what the big secret was. Turns out, I was on the wrong path. I was thinking of this in terms of character names. Andelmans' Yard is (Spoiler - click to show) apparently named after a song of the same title. I would never have known that if I had not looked up the game’s title on a hunch. The song’s lyrics details exploring tunnels and themes that are seen in the gameplay. That was the connection I was missing.

Final thoughts
This game has a good start. While character interactions could use more polish, the game has been tested and it feels like completed piece. I enjoyed the surprises. Especially (Spoiler - click to show) Max’s surprises. The author does a nice job in mixing the everyday with the (Spoiler - click to show) paranormal. Even though I was expecting the gameplay to go through with its (Spoiler - click to show) original plot of searching for Peanut, I am glad that, in the end, we find her anyway. If there are any more games about Kyle trying to earn a badge, I would be interested in playing them. An enjoyable slice of life game mystery with a horror twist.

This is not a spoof. Do not let the cartoon cover art make you think otherwise. After playing URA Winner! I probably jumped to conclusions. Some educational games look convincing at first only to reveal its nature later in the gameplay. Parodies are a lot of fun, but Nick’s Dilemma is not one of them.

You work for a company called MediSales that distributes surgical equipment. Sheila, your boss, calls for a meeting about a hiring issue. The company has been unable to find a long-term employee for a sales management position. Candidates are selected, trained, and months later they leave because the job was not a good fit. This pattern is expensive and needs a lasting solution.

Gameplay
Sheila guides the player by having them ask appropriate questions about hiring. Then she then guides the player by talking to co-workers and using digital resources to learn about factors in the hiring process. The gameplay is structured into units. After each unit you get a badge before moving on to the next unit. It is all incredibly straightforward. There is even an embedded video tutorial for the game on the title page. Everything is painstakingly designed to be user-friendly.

When I went to restart the game, I got a popup message saying, “Are you sure you want to restart this Educational Game?” For some reason I thought it was amusing that the message went through the effort of noting that this is, in fact, and educational game.

Story
This really isn’t a story intensive game. It gives everything up front. Find a candidate who will be compatible for sales management. There are multiple endings based on your hiring select. Not all of them are ideal but the game always urges you to return to the gameplay to make choices that result in a favorable outcome. This is where it deviates from being a “game.” For some games, the fun is seeing the “bad” endings, the ones that crash and burn. But in Nick’s Dilemma the goal is to learn about the proper steps to success (oh no, I’m started to sound like a training manual), hence why it wants the player to win.

Characters
There is a diverse range of characters in this game, most of which only make a brief appearance to discuss key points in the game’s content. Sheila is the NPC you interact with the most.

One problem: I still have no idea who Nick is.

When I first saw this game, I was this close adding it to the poll titled, “Games Where the Title Is You,” but hesitated. I thought that you were playing as Nick. That is, until the game asked me to type in my character name instead. I guess we are not Nick. The game features graphics for the characters, and the PC’s is rather generic. We only see the backside of “Nick” never the face, probably to minimize characteristics. I’m not at all mad at this if that is what you’re worried about. I just spent a lot of time scanning the game to try to find any mention of Nick.

Visuals
The game uses a white background with black text and blue links. Sometimes it dabbles with fonts for emails or notes which was clever. There is a panel on the left side of the page with a list detailing your progress. For completing each milestone in the story, you get a badge which is displayed in the corner of the screen. The badges are visual appealing but kind of useless and yet receiving them feels oddly rewarding.

Congratulations! You have earned 2 badges. You have unlocked the next section of the game!

Oddly rewarding.

The game would not succeed without its graphics. The character graphics give you something to look at and draws the player’s attention away from just reading text. Other visuals are more vital because they provide useful examples of material you may create for yourself. If you decide to (Spoiler - click to show) put out an online add the game shows a picture of what the ad may look like if it were posted it on a job search website.

Final thoughts
Do you walk away with the basics of sales management? Honestly, no. Not really. I cannot say I know more about the field of sales management (or the management of sales). HOWEVER. I did learn a lot about protocol, process, and the reasoning behind making hiring decisions. Of course, in real life this matter is more complex than what can be covered in a Twine game, but it does provide you with some insights. A couple of times I almost felt like I was taking one of those interactive training video exercises you complete after being hired.

You learn more about basic communication skills. Things like writing brief but thoughtful emails and follow-up emails, initiating conversations with co-workers. These skills seem trivial, but they go a long way in real life. The game does not sit you down and start a “Writing Emails 101,” spiel. Instead, it provides examples that serve as a reference. This way, the game is more helpful regardless of players’ emailing skills. Nick’s Dilemma is reasonably short and surprisingly practical. It is one of the most educational interactive fiction games for subjects unrelated to interactive fiction that I have played so far.

You are in a cryotherapy room, awoken by a smiling AI who has a little task for you to take care of before you go back to sleep. Of course, you will comply.

Gameplay
The game begins on a one-person ship called the Silver Lining. A ship called the Charitable Donation had gone missing and reappeared without any sign of its crew. Survivors? That is for you to figure out. The Charitable Donation is a research ship designed to be a floating lab in space to conduct experiments deemed too dangerous to perform on a planet. Behind this looms CORPORATION UNLIMITED, a mega-corporation that holds modern society in its palm.

After waking up from cryosleep you are briefed on your mission by DOC, the standard AI built into CORPORATION UNLIMITED’s ships. You learn that you are a Reclamation Unit (and human, even if CORPORATION UNLIMITED does not act that way. Speaking of which, the game insists on spelling that in all caps so I will do the same!) and can even choose your serial number. I was Reclamation Unit #7. How exciting!

It is slick how the game incorporates a general parser tutorial into the game by having DOC test your motor and cognitive skills as you re-orient yourself. It is a tutorial that does not seem like a tutorial even though you obviously know it is one. It is super short, so it does not drag on for players who know what to do.

This is time travel game. I want to be careful but do not consider that to be a spoiler because it is established early on and is the focal point of the gameplay. Soon after boarding the Charitable Donation, you trigger a time loop that sends you back to the cryotherapy room in 50 turns. Using clues found on the ship you try to identify tasks and complete them before the counter runs out. Then it’s back to cryotherapy.

I like how the solutions are revealed in layers. There was never a point where I was unsure of what to do. For example, (Spoiler - click to show) the captain left a password in her room along with a message saying that hints for a second password could be found on her computer. I knew that this was my immediate objective, and the information from this puzzle had clear applications in the rest of the gameplay. The crew literally lays it out for the player. They even give you a (Spoiler - click to show) passwords log that you can carry in the time loop without losing it.

The game does use some cliches such as learning about the story largely through journal entries (extra points because it is on a spaceship). But what makes Reclamation different is that you are not merely reading things that were abandoned. (Spoiler - click to show) Those entries are for you. The crew wants you to find them. Suddenly, these entries are no longer optional deposits of story exposition. They take an active role in the gameplay which gives them an edge. Plus, the amount of material, I feel, is reasonable.

Not just another time travel game
When I play time travel games, I sometimes find myself placing them into two categories (I know, there are plenty of games out there that do not fit either one). In the first, the player can navigate the timeline and are free to decide when to leave. Often, the protagonist rides around in a physical machine that they operate. There are no time-based restraints that control the gameplay. Examples include First Things First and Roger’s Day Off.

The other category focuses on a time loop that the player cannot control, such as Reclamation. Some of the best time travel games out there use this approach, although it can be difficult to map out the passage of time relative to the gameplay. I think of games like Möbius which are high quality but features a (welcome) challenge with matching the time loop with the player’s turn count. In Reclamation, time travel is streamlined and easy to visualize. If you compare time travel games, you will get a sense of what I mean. I am not bothered by accepting hints, but I am pleased to say that there was never a point where I needed to use them.

Even better, Reclamation adds a unique premise to its portrayal of time travel that also provides an integrated explanation as to why the player is always sent back to the cryotherapy room. The logic is that (Spoiler - click to show) if you are in a lab and perform a time loop that resets, say, after an hour, you will not end up in the lab. Instead, when it resets you are sent to the location where you previously woke up (unless you sleep in the lab, of course). This unpredictability was a side effect that the crew could not control and noted the dangers it could pose. As for the player, because they woke up in the cryotherapy room that is where they are transported. I thought that this was a creative way of tying parts of the game together.

Story
Reclamation takes place in the 22nd century and has familiar dystopian themes in its storyline. It reminds me a bit of Vicious Cycles, another parser (made with Inform) time travel game that considers the ethical implications of a vast corporate entity having the sole access to technology that can alter time. The player is stuck in a time loop that repeats until they find a conclusion. In both stories the creators of said technology start to have second thoughts about their work.

We know that CORPORATION UNLIMITED calls the shots when it comes to scientific progress, but you can only go so far before people snap. (Spoiler - click to show) Discovering how to create a temporal time loop was not enough. According to the captain’s correspondence, CORPORATION UNLIMITED wanted the research team to stay longer in space to develop a way of building this time travel technology into a nifty hand-held device.

By now everyone had figured out how this technology would be used. (Spoiler - click to show) CORPORATION UNLIMITED planned to put people in temporal time loops to maximize productivity. Time spent in the loop would feel like nothing to everyone outside it. You could get a year's worth of productivity instantaneously at the expense of people working away in the loop like a hamster on a hamster wheel. The crew of the Charitable Donation (such a cynical name, really) (Spoiler - click to show) have no intention enabling people to be turned into temporal hamsters, let alone accessorizing the technology for CORPORATION UNLIMITED's convenience. And so, the crew decided to destroy their own research. Discreetly.

Of course, that leads to (Spoiler - click to show) the question of, “where did everyone go?” The crew disabled their AI and made a small temporal copy of their ship and are hiding in it. The crew figured that CORPORATION UNLIMITED would investigate by sending a Reclamation Unit and decided to initiate a time loop to keep the protagonist from dallying with the corporation and instead follow the crew’s instructions to submit a report saying that the destruction of the time travel technology was an accident.

I have one question. It is about the (Spoiler - click to show) cat. Why did they not bring the cat with them? Was this intentional? Djamila's datapad says, "Once the cat was out of the bag,” which typically is a figure of speech, but I wonder if this is also a reference to the ship’s cat (who is named Pluto, by the way).

Characters
This is a world where everyone is formally identified by their job position and a number. You, for instance, are a mere Reclamation Unit (at least you get to choose the number). On record, the crewmembers of the Charitable Donation are units too, but their casual correspondence reveals lively personalities with real human names. The crew is interesting even though we never seen them in person. By reading their messages it really felt like they were guiding you along.

And no, (Spoiler - click to show) DOC is not on your side. He kind of reminds me of Georgie from lighthouse.

Visuals
This is an Adventuron game that utilizes some basic visuals. A built-in map is added for the player’s convenience. The map shows an outline of the Charitable Donation with boxes representing rooms. Nothing fancy, but practical. The screen also turns white as the time loop restarts and sends you back to the cryotherapy room which creates an intense effect.

There is one other visual besides the map: DOC, the ship AI. He is a cheery hologram of a beaker with a face, glasses, and a red bowtie. He is filled with blue liquid. (Spoiler - click to show) Despite his appearance do NOT trust him.

Final thoughts
This game has all the tropes: Cryogenic suspension at the start of the game, a single all-powerful megacorporation, a mysterious and seemingly abandoned spaceship, a mainframe AI, frequent use of journal entries, and time-travel thrown in for fun. And yet, it takes these tropes and sews them together into something novel and fun. While Reclamation has many similarities with other games, it feels like an original piece. It offers gameplay challenges without being too difficult and was rewarding to complete. There are two endings, and the (Spoiler - click to show) Humanitarian ending was brief but quite human.

Even if an NPC-less scavenger hunt in a dead spaceship is not of interest to you, Reclamation may surprise you with its player-oriented gameplay and interesting story.

You are Royal Councilor for the King. The Queen’s birthday is next week, and you have been tasked with finding the perfect jadeite stone. The game has it all. Glamour. Travel, freedom to journey to different places in the world on a whim with a platinum credit card and a personal jet. Every resource is at your disposal to ensure that the Queen receives the desired gem. And, on top of that, a deadline which requires the player to use their time strategically. Great concept. But the game’s implementation sours the experience.

Gameplay
The game begins in your lush, personal office where the first chunk of gameplay focuses on researching clues on jadeite using resources found in the Royal Manor. It is Monday, and you are expected to find the perfect jadeite gem by Sunday. The second portion of gameplay involves traveling from country to country to track down some jadeite based on leads from your research. It is possible to travel and return to the Manor if you wish. (What is jadeite? Jadeite is a rare mineral, typically characterized with a light green colour. Like jade, but more precious.)

First half: Manor
Besides researching the whereabouts of jadeite, an interesting objective is to find different forms of jadeite. For example, there is a type of cabbage called jadeite cabbage. With this knowledge you can ask the chef to prepare the dish to be served later. Finding these themes were fun, though poorly implemented. I will discuss the (Spoiler - click to show) gown puzzle later.

Second half: Jet-set travel
Travel! The player goes from country to country to buy gems and then use those gems to lower the asking price when you buy more expensive ones. You alternate between buying gems and making offers. And traveling in luxury, of course. It follows a pattern: buy a gem and use it as leverage for the next gem you purchase. That way, you only juggle a few gems at a time. This mechanic simplifies the gameplay and gives players the chance to leisurely take in the geography as they travel across the planet. An adventure for someone preferring a single, streamlined gameplay over technical puzzles. If only it worked. Unfortunately, this game is overrun by bugs.

Now, before you flee, understand that this is a game worth exploring for its novel ideas. However, I do not recommend pressuring yourself to complete it because you probably never will. I ran into several walls that halted progress. Of course, there may be things in the gameplay that I did not notice. I could be wrong. If anyone is reading this and thinking, “challenge accepted,” good for you. By all means, play it. After running around on the face of the Earth, I would love to complete this game.

Bugs & issues
When I first started the game, I marveled at how descriptive everything was at the Manor. The room descriptions featured lavish scenery, and your surroundings glow with the decadence of your position as the Queen’s Royal Councilor. It reminded me of the phrase, “you can look but don’t touch.” If you try to “touch” (interact) with the game, the shiny image unravels. Talking to characters, examining items, and testing verbs reveal some holes in the game’s fabric.

The game is extremely buggy, both cosmetically and mechanically. Some of the most important functions fall apart. At best, it feels awkward. At worst, it prevents you from making progress. Early in the game there were tasks I was unable to complete, but these were relatively non-vital enough to be ignored. The first sign of trouble was about (Spoiler - click to show) preparing the Queen’s gown.

Marina, the head fashion designer, asks you to retrieve a gown from the Queen’s closet, and gives you a key to unlock it. When you collect the gown the game says, "Take it downstairs to the stylist and she will deliver it to the King," the stylist referring to Mariana. But then you run into this issue:

>ask Mariana about gown
Try giving the gown to the Stylist.

>give gown to stylist
Mariana doesn't seem interested.

I found no way of fulfilling this task. Nor can you also ask her about jadeite more than once. She delivers her line and becomes unresponsive. All I have is this gown that no one cares about. But oh well, I suppose I could just skip this and jump to the gemstone hunting part.

The crippling part of this game by far is the failure of the offer/give command. As I mentioned earlier, the whole point of the gem seller encounters is to offer a gemstone to lower the asking price for the gemstone on sale. Out of all the characters in this game, NONE are responsive to the player trying to give them things. The player is helpless. The only choice they have is to buy it outright, which is bad because the game insists that you will need to conserve money to buy the jadeite later.

To use an example, (Spoiler - click to show) you can buy a Red Beryl Emerald from the seller in the Wah Wah Mountains. This is what the exchange looks like:

>ask Louis about red beryl emerald
I might have a small sample. It is worth ten grand per carat. Are you a serious gem collector?

>yes
You are becoming somewhat of a gem collector. Try giving Louis Potosi the Black Opal to lower the asking price.

>give black opal to Louis
Louis Potosi doesn't seem interested.

Louis was not interested in anything. I have a gut feeling that this was not because I was offering him the wrong gem. I offered him every gem, but no change. None of the characters in the game respond to the player’s attempts to engage in buying and selling which is an issue because this is the backbone of the gameplay.

Cosmetically, the game is unpolished. Sparseness combined with surface bugs. Poor formatting and awkward character dialog with messages like, “(southwest then east)” tacked on at the end. Though trivial in comparison to the rest of the game, these areas still stick out. A sad part is that you can hardly examine or interact with items in the intriguingly described locations. I did like the interactivity of Tsimbazaza Zoo.

If you are interested in fudging the gameplay, here is a tip (major spoiler tip) you can try when you leave the Manor: (Spoiler - click to show) If you go east from the limo circuit, you end up in Hong Kong where you can attend a diamond auction. After the auction, you can buy the jadeite. Is this a bug, or is the rest of gameplay optional? Why bother running around buying and bargaining (or at least trying to bargain) with people across several continents when you can skip to the main event? The exit to Hong Kong is not listed in the limo circuit’s room description. I stumbled across this by accident while randomly testing different directions. Anyway, yes, you can buy the jadeite. But there is a bug that prevents you from finishing the game. I have not found a way around it, but someone else might.

Story + Characters
The story is not deep but is an eye-catching premise. Buying and selling gemstones while traveling the world. It is a creative idea with some fun vibes. Even has the tones of a much more well-behaved and courteous version of Prima Varicella from the game Varicella. The protagonist in Jadeite for the Queen is male, but the game decides to stick with minimal details.

If you are lucky, you may find NPCs (besides Dante, but even he cuts it close) who will respond to more than two prompts. NPCs are like props. They add detail to the scenery and carry out one function, usually related to a transaction. I was not expecting them to engage the player in thoughtful discussion, but conversation is extremely shallow.

I think the game also tries to incorporate some geographical history and culture into its destinations. I like this idea, though it is frosting compared to having cohesive bug-free gameplay. The portrayal of some characters seemed a bit contrived, maybe stereotypical. Further development would make it more engaging. Regardless, the author has a strong vision that shines through.

Final thoughts
First things first, I have a feeling that this game was never tested. Testing goes a long way, and it desperately needs it. I want to cut the author some slack since it appears to be their first game, but right now it is borderline unplayable.

I am giving the game an extra star because of the creative concept and because it is interesting to play. It may be a chaotic mess as you try to make progress, but you cannot deny the some of it holds your attention for at least a short while. It captures the flair for travel and mixes it with glamour while also adding a reasonable deadline to keep the player on their toes. If the author were to refine and hone these elements, I think the game would gain popularity. Jadeite for the Queen may be incredibly unpolished but with some work I am confident that it has the potential to be a lovely gem.

Solve a murder in a near future world by diving into the Wikipedia of that world

This is one of the coolest games I have played.

In Neurocracy, you explore a website called Omnipedia, the apparent replacement of Wikipedia, upon its release on September 28, 2049. Days later, tragedy strikes. Sift through the articles to piece together what really happened.

Neurocracy caught me off guard at first. I opened Omnipedia and was immediately hit by an intimidating wall of cookie privacy settings that seemed to request access to things I had never heard of before. What does it mean by asking to use my "neurometric colloid" for neurometric montages? That sounded like a big deal. But sometimes you have to take things in stride. I opted out of everything I could and continued the game. Later, I made the connection.

Neurometric colloids are a technology portrayed in this game, implanted inside the brain. If you, the player, are supposedly reading a Wikipedia-modeled website in the 2040s, then it is quite possible that you would have a neurometric colloid of your own. The “privacy setting” idea was as seamless as could be for immersing the player. If this were any indicator of the game’s worldbuilding then Omnipedia was just getting started...

Gameplay
You navigate the game like you would Wikipedia by clicking on hyperlinks that lead you to different pages. You can also type in search terms. The central gameplay mechanic used to solve the mystery is the change history feature located on the right side of the screen that allows you to observe edits throughout the timeline. This feature uses red, yellow, and green colour coding to keep track of changes, additions, and deletions which opens a window into new developments and content that is trying to be concealed.

Neurocracy is overflowing with content but designed so the player can keep up with the exposition. Hovering your mouse over words underlined with a grey dashed line spell out the word’s abbreviation while words underlined with a blue dashed line provide definitions via a black popup box. You really learn things. It is a great sampler of modern-day subjects paired with more speculative, fictional ideas. This game will not give you a full working knowledge. But it does offer a micro bite-sized crash course for topics in real-world discussions about ethics and technology. Learn about AI, neuroscience, quantum computing, genetic engineering, genetics, biology, aquaculture, and even sushi.

There are some articles where if I scrolled down halfway to the page, covered all the dates, and then asked you to read it as if it were a Wikipedia entry, it would take you several minutes before you realized that it was fiction (consider the article titled, "Piscine transmissible amyloidotic encephalopathy”). There is even a convincing reference section at the bottom of the page. If only I could click on those articles. I was extremely impressed with the realism. The game also gives a shoutout to familiar topics such as COVID-19 or Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company, Neurolink. These topics are smoothly integrated into the gameplay and are fun to discover.

It takes a bit to adjust to the slick interface and gorgeous visuals before you stop flipping through articles excitedly and finally sit down to absorb the content inside them. Random curiosity-driven excursions through Wikipedia for me often consist of a mix of thoughtful reading and skimming. The deeper down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, the more I resort to skimming as my brain flits from topic to topic. Omnipedia was the opposite. Conjure up the idea of having so many presents you do not know which one to open first. That was me. I finally told myself to pick an article and read it, and for 20 minutes or so, that's all I did. The next step was piecing everything together.

Story + Characters
The lifeblood of this game. Here is an overview of the surface story:

The game’s overarching story focuses on Xu Shaoyong, founder of Zhupao, a huge technology conglomerate, and the wealthiest man in the world. On September 30th, two days after Omnipedia is released, Xu Shaoyong is assassinated when a security drone open fires at his private helicopter upon his arrival at an airport in China. Along with him was another prominent figure, Yuri Golitsyn, who ran a large-scale energy company. This ripples across the world in complex ways that you must decipher. The assassination narrative is spread across ten days, the tenth day still portrayed as being an ongoing event.

A major theme is the balance of biosecurity and personal privacy. The gameplay is filled with the aftermath of the CMD (Cariappa-Muren disease) pandemic where an entire stock of genetically engineered bluefish tuna was found to be a vector for a prion disease. The resulting CMD phobia only spurred an argument in favor of heightened biosecurity. We see the usage of quantum computing, neural networks, and other technological advances to conduct surveillance and collect vast amounts of consumer and personal data, justifying it for the sake of monitoring biological threats. While part of this reasoning has merit, we see major problems with this approach. Whistleblowers reveal a lack of transparency in data collection and unethical usage of consumer products, often for corporate advancement. Neurocracy takes this a step further asks about the implications of these practices in more futuristic technologies such as brain implants. Cyberattacks are already a familiar phenomenon in our world, but what about brainjacking?

As technological advancements emerge, the realm of ethics only continues to grow. Even Omnipedia is shrouded in controversy. Wikipedia fizzled out and Omnipedia stepped in among criticisms of its supposed corporate favoritism. But by utilizing the revision history feature you can come to your own conclusions.

As for the characters, I found them to be intriguing even if we only learn about them through the pages of a website. (Spoiler - click to show) Connie Muren's death was especially saddening given her commitment to her work although her posthumous comeback against Spencer Hagen was quite moving. The characters themselves were just as interesting as the story.

Visuals
The best part. I could say that about most things in this game, but the visuals really are a defining feature. This goes beyond the visual interface which already boasts of a clean-cut design with a blue Wikipedia reminiscent logo at the top left-hand corner of the screen. Neurocracy also features plenty of artwork of people, logos, locations, and technologies commissioned by artists. As is the case with Wikipedia each page only has a few visuals, but the quality of the art makes each piece shine. I can recall at least one article that had a small video imbedded in the page, which was a cool surprise.

Thoughts on structural design
After a long while I reached the point where I had viewed and analyzed a large chunk of the story’s content and wondered what to do next. I went online to learn more about the game, only to make a startling (to me, at least) discovery: (Spoiler - click to show) the player’s investigation is independent from the gameplay. I thought that the act of going through the content, of digging deep, would have some payoff within the game. A payoff beyond the deductive reasoning that occurs from article to article. Excalibur comes to mind.

Excalibur is another excellent and ambitious interactive fiction game. It is made with Twine and designed to look like a wiki fandom page for a fictional TV show by the same name. You read the articles to spot the controversies behind the show while pondering fandom culture and the dynamics of shared memories of media content. It too is open ended, but the twist is that content surfaces as a result of your explorations. For instance, reading about certain material results in more material being “posted.” The pinnacle moment of the game’s interactivity (go play the game) comes later, but even after that, the game never ends. There is no winning or losing or a congratulations for “completing” the game. You dive below the surface, and the game quietly acknowledges your participation.

I was anticipating something similar for Neurocracy. But Neurocracy is not Excalibur. They are two different games. And quite frankly, this game does not revolve around me. I decided to see it from the authors’ approach. Originally, the game was released episode by episode in 2021 to the public where players were encouraged to take notes and share theories with each other while waiting eagerly for the next episode to be released. That is the true investigation of game’s story. You take the investigation out of the game and into the audience. Meanwhile, I play all of it in one go a year later without any attention to this structure. There is also something to be said about accepting that sometimes games do not intend to give you all the answers. That in itself is part of the experience. And on that note, if anyone wants toss around theories, do not hesitate to comment on this review.

I must admit, the game’s design cleverly maintains the illusion that you are in fact sitting at your computer in 2049 leisurely browsing Omnipedia. Having the game act like a game would risk breaking this. Briefly, I wondered if there was an angle with the neurometric colloid privacy permissions. If you had such a thing would your browsing experience with Omnipedia be different? I opted into the privacy to setting to see if it changed the gameplay. It did not, but that type of experimentation is also part of the fun. The game entices players to invent ways of interacting with it.

Ultimately, (Spoiler - click to show) my sadness was about not being able to learn more about certain subjects. I was deeply disappointed because I was drooling for more. I felt like I had barely scraped the surface of this story’s vivid universe. As I described earlier, blue words with an underlined dash have popup definition boxes, but later in the story, some words turn into links with their own pages. I had my eye on several character names and terms that I hoped would become articles. Learning otherwise was a bummer, but it also made me appreciate the sheer volume of content- writing, artwork, user interface- that went into this game to produce over thirty detailed pages of glossy, futuristic wiki material. It remains, without a doubt, one of the coolest games I have ever played. That is nothing to sneeze at.

Final thoughts
Now that you have (finally) reached the end of this review, all I can do is recommend playing Neurocracy. It will blow you away. Its story is fascinating and deep, the artwork beautiful, and the interface is effectively convincing. You do not need to be an interactive fiction fan or a sci-fi fan or a Wikipedia fan to enjoy this game. And even if you don’t, the game’s discussions about the intersections of technological advancement, personal rights, and societal ethics will still linger in your mind as you draw parallels from today’s world. I thank the game’s creators for creating and sharing such a fascinating piece.

(As a formality, I found and accessed the game through its listing on IFDB which took me right to the game’s website.)

Nineteen is about the author’s experience with gender identity during an important milestone: Turning 19. The story looks at personal struggles, not just in terms of societal stigma but also the frustrations of not knowing what definition you align with in a world where concepts of gender and sexuality are often placed in a ridged box: You either belong in this category or that category. This game, however, points out that the identity of oneself is far more complex than that.

The gameplay is in second person but built of the author’s own life experiences. As an almost-nineteen-year-old the player finds themselves moving into an apartment with an abusive girlfriend while being employed at an office job. Here, the game explores the loaded meaning behind slurs and their associations and assumptions with gender as they navigate new life changes.

Everything in the game takes a reflective approach. The interactivity does not consist of making changes to the storyline or directly engaging with the characters within. Instead, the player chooses links that reveal different components of their situation before cycling back. This created a fluid effect that made the gameplay a little more immersive. It gives the player an opportunity to “dig” through the story even if they do not influence its contents. Gameplay is extremely short, and you will have to play the game twice to see everything.

Nineteen is not a timeline of the protagonist’s life, but it does outline how identity can change. While the protagonist’s 19th birthday is in 2004, the game projects what life will be like in the future which includes life crises. We get a glimpse- just a glimpse- of the author’s experiences during (Spoiler - click to show) 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2014. In college the author identified as a transgender male and went by Aidan. Years later Aidan became Kiran.

At the end of the narrative the author identifies as neutrois. I have never heard about this term before and wanted to make sure that I used the proper pronouns and wording for this review. Neutrois, according to the definitions I looked up, means gender neutral and that “they/them” pronouns are used (inform me, please, if this is inaccurate) So, there you go. I learned a new term.

One of the takeaways in the game is the idea of considering a term about gender, and then considering the individual attached to the term. If I understand correctly, the author found hope in learning how people can be transgender, and yet, trying to transition did not bring any clarity to how they felt about their own identity. Terms do not necessarily explain the person behind it.

The subject matter is serious, but I found the author’s writing to be approachable. As a Twine game it also has polished formatting. It sticks to a basic appearance with a black background, blue links, and small white text placed neatly at the top of the screen. There quantity of text is moderate, but it is all concise and potent.

Ultimately, this is not a gameplay-oriented game. If you are merely looking for something to “play” then you may not enjoy this one as much. Rather, the heart of the experience is taking in the story and viewing every thread that the author has to say about it. And I am glad they decided to share this through an interactive fiction piece.