Reviews by verityvirtue

You are looking through the memories of an Agent aboard some kind of space outpost or spaceship. Your job is to figure out what was behind some unnamed disaster.

Characterisation is one of the stronger points of this game. As the PC switches between their own memories and those of the Agent's, the viewpoint characters' affection for their colleagues becomes clear.

I liked the switches between narration styles as well, to distinguish between the two timelines. The banter between the PC and the operator is casual, riddled with jibes at each other; the crew member's narration, in contrast, is stilted, almost, but contributes to a sense of distance - and, if I may say so, alienation. Dimensions are given to the nearest 0.1m; descriptions of dialogue and people are conveyed through lists of adjectives; body parts and bodily functions described as if the narrator wasn't used to them.

It's a slow burn, and I can see where readers might be put off early. The story slips between different timelines. Tenses change, not always consistently. Sometimes there's a wall of text, carrying information that the reader doesn't necessarily need to know. This, at least, is not necessarily bad. It suggests the author has thought about the game universe in depth. But what made me finish playing A Time of Tungsten wasn't the meticulous world building or the thought given to the technology in the world - it was seeing the characters gradually grow and warm to each other.

Someone - or something - has been stealing your butter and you, dairy farmer extraordinaire, are going to find out who.

Molly and the Butter Thieves is a well-designed, lovely game drawing on fairy mythology: there's the insubstantial but beautiful fairy castle; there's the thieving, mischievous, capricious fairies themselves.

There are some noteworthy design decisions - the first being the FOLLOW command, which allows you to follow NPCs, and a nifty trick which (Spoiler - click to show)allows you to wander around only in places the NPC leads you. This creates the feeling of messiness, of space, without having to implement every single bit of it.

Similar to The Warbler's Nest, content-wise, Molly and the Butter Thieves has relatively small game locations (i.e. number of rooms) and the actions the player needs to do to progress are clearly stated. Where The Warbler's Nest turns dark, though, Molly and the Butter Thieves keeps light, by keeping the stakes relatively low - it's more about protecting what's yours rather than rooting out an unwanted visitor in your home. Despite its brevity, there are still sufficient interactions with NPCs and environmental details to make it feel like a small slice of a vibrant world.

You, the PC, are mired in grief for the loss of Celine. Everything in the house, the initial setting, reminds the PC of Celine, down to the most trivial detail.

The setting, here, is both used to elicit the PC's memories and to create a sense of claustrophobia. Despite the social nature of funerals, the PC's grief is so intensely private, that to share it with others would be an invasion, almost. The tone is bleak - actions are sometimes rebuffed with terse messages: "You've been better"; "You can't remember anything important now".

Unusual turns of phrase - the curve like that of a human spine; the baboonish chatter - make everyday settings seem strange, something highlighted with the reality-bending lyre, one of the most obvious elements borrowed from the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The game allows for exploration and is generally forgiving, except for the endgame, in which the player's sequence of actions is crucial.

This is a short, cosy Twine set on the back of a wagon, in which the PC and their partner discuss their future. It's been a while since the apocalypse happened, but you're alive, and the town up ahead is a new opportunity...

The setting borrows elements from Westerns, though it is not unique to them: travellers on the road, never knowing what lies ahead, being separated from human company for prolonged periods at a time.

There is something comforting about discussing what seems so trivial, so individual despite the world crumbling all around you. There is something comforting in planning for the future at the end of the world, and even more so in the NPC, Sam, who responds to even the most cynical of conversational options with good grace. Emphasising that is a gentle soundtrack, partly guitar, partly sounds of nature.

Design-wise, this game features the thoughtful use of colour schemes - with different colours for each speaker - and cycling links to present conversational options.

A peaceful, intimate diversion, not unlike laika's Heretic Pride.

This is a technically strong, very attractive game in which you deliver messages and courier goods, all to maintain the delicate balance of power between Sonnenblume, Einzapfen and Angel Temple.

The puzzles in To Spring Open, if you call it that, are so steeped in the mythos of this world that they didn't feel forced or contrived. They're minimal, and the game establishes a routine for the player early on.

The effects used in this Twine 1 game are also not to be sniffed at, and in fact added to the story. I particularly enjoyed the effects in the train, but the choice of colour schemes to denote different locations was well done as well.

The language in this game is distinctive - "Unsettled bones recall the shock of your notification." is one of the first sentences you will encounter - and the game's breadth gives it enough space to shine. The mythos recalls Egyptian mythology (you have natron and jackal symbology) and lots more things besides - instead of messenger pigeons, you have paper planes. There's depth to the setting, and indeed choosing different costumes gains you access to different places. As another reviewer has said, the world in To Spring Open could well populate a much larger game, and is one of the most enjoyable parts of this game. Recommended.

[Contains occasional profanity. Time to completion: 5-10 minutes]

This Twine poem is about human suffering and the inevitability of death, at least according to the blurb. I have difficulty understanding all but the most concrete poetry even at the best of times, and I did not understand this piece. It slams out metaphors and images and rhythms in what is sometimes wordy verse. It grabs references and images from cultures from antiquity to modernity. It's quite the wild ride.

If you like lines like "ancient archaeopteryx of crews and heathens/mollusks, plagues/black bastard symphonies, thousand talons/
lice and the lance of doomed reverberations," then you might like this.

[Time to completion: 20-30 minutes]

The PC is grieving for the loss of their husband, a professor, and they now have to clear his office. This is a short, one-room parser game in which the things you uncover reveal something new in the room.

The tone is weary and cynical: much of the trappings associated with academia elicit remarks on its futility, and the lack of lasting meaning - fitting, considering that the PC is rifling through the trappings of a life in academia.

Implementation is a bit spotty. It's not immediately obvious what triggers the appearance of new items, and some changes are triggered after a seemingly arbitrary number of turns, so it was hard for me to figure out how to finish the game. Some seemingly obvious nouns/actions were unimplemented (Spoiler - click to show)such as >OPEN CARDBOARD giving me "That's not something you can open.".

Boxes is a short meditation on futility and disillusionment, but is unfortunately marred by its less-than-comprehensive implementation.

[Time to completion: ~5 minutes]

This short poem, presented in Twine, is about the experience of walking home as a person of colour, and the fear of being seen as a monster and being attacked.

Links, here, act as punctuation, giving it the rhythm of song. So yes, it's better if it's read aloud, but it needs the player's interaction - of clicking on the link - to drive in the rhythm.

walking home uses the symbology of religion to represent the power of weapons, of always staying more dangerous than other people out there - there are lines such as "pray to the brand on its edge for protection" - but it is, ultimately, born of fear. And despite this, fatalism is everywhere - a fatalism born of weariness, born of helplessness.

It may be "just" dynamic fiction. It may not be technically spectacular. But it's powerful stuff.

[Time to completion: 20-30 minutes]

This cyberpunk-styled Twine is based on the Shufflecomp release. I could not access version 1.5.

You are a space baker in a galaxy where everyone's voice is surgically removed at birth. For entertainment and relaxation, people watch ASMR videos; in fact, people have implants to enhance the effect of such videos.

This game is broadly branching, with a few major decision-making points leading to different and distinct endings. The author has really thought about the setting, here, and merges the incongruous (Viennese pastries, ASMR) with the typically dystopian (a great plague, a disfigured people) to create something wonderful.

[Time to completion: 45 minutes-1 hour]

This is a short, surreal parser game which opens in front of a theatre on its opening night. You are here to see the actress Miranda Lily, but you're not well-dressed enough.

I underestimated this game at first, taking it for your usual puzzle game. The puzzles, though, used a bit of adventure game logic: (Spoiler - click to show)searching through a dumpster after attending a concert seems a bit off to me.

Opening Night is much more than the puzzles: it's almost dreamlike, and the single setting - the theatre - changes as you progress, reflecting the player's knowledge. The PC's identity also changes as you go through the game, ultimately revealing them to be (Spoiler - click to show)an unreliable narrator. The final reveal of their identity was not exactly unexpected, but was still satisfying.

Worth a whirl, it's not too long.