Ratings and Reviews by verityvirtue

You're a girl on her first day of high school, but you've got a problem greater than friends or horrible teachers on your hands: your reflection in the mirror is threatening mutiny.

The first thing that strikes me is that it's a very aesthetically pleasing game. Visual elements are used to great effect. The evil mirror-self is shown in the reflected text which changes, not very subtly, to insert negative thoughts about a situation; the text changes when you click through links to reflect what is presumably the PC's insecurity and anxiety about her new situation. There’s a whole lot of clicking through, though, not all of which I thought was strictly necessary.

The content - family life, high-school social minefields - is very much the stuff of many teen fiction novels, and what should have made it impactful would be the presentation of the evil mirror-self, but the goal of the game was probably nothing overtly spooky. Rather, it was more about the internal emotional conflict of the PC.

So far I've found two endings, (Spoiler - click to show)the triumphant and doppelganger one. I found the confrontation well-written and personally it struck a chord with me, though there was little to build up to this. The endgame could have been much stronger if the PC had been less generic. If we understood a bit more about her fears and personality, then it might have made the triumph feel more like one. That said, I enjoyed the sly ending (though really nothing surprising to one who reads horror fiction so often).

This game’s main gimmick is its extremely sparse prose, as if it had a strict word limit (300 words, anyone?). This extends to the parser responses (to things such as unrecognised verbs and so on), helping to set the mood.

However, the scarcity of prose also means there’s barely any feedback on the player’s actions (i.e. was I doing the right thing? Can I examine this thing?) grew frustrating after a while. I wouldn’t call it getting *stuck*, per se, since there’s so little to do that it’s pretty obvious how to get to the end of the story. But again it’s like those simple origami foxes or cats or whatever: it’s so stylised that it gives the *idea* of the thing,though it lacks many of the features that make the fox or cat or whatever it is.

Is it horror? Because of the prose, a lot of the content which would be considered horror is implicit, and depends on how you respond to certain situations.

As another reviewer has mentioned, the ‘epilogue’ feels rather rushed. The attempt to smoosh in some semblance of ‘story’ was a letdown, precisely because it felt so out of place. Still, it’s interesting for a one-time playthrough, as a writing experiment or a little piece of art.

The first thing in the blurb, and indeed the first thing the game mentions, is that it's set in the 14th centry. Why, then, does the author use such modern language? I mean, (Spoiler - click to show)was preserving evidence really a thing then?

There are some language issues which, again, take away from the mood of the game, especially what feels like an excessive use of ellipses.

This dovetails with a general lack of immersion. A 14th century setting should probably feel foreign to a 21st century reader, but this... this would come straight out of a rural police procedural. (Spoiler - click to show)There’s even mention of an autopsy (once generally frowned upon, would you know)! This game would do well with more investment into the 14th century setting, that being one of the features of the game.

(Spoiler - click to show)The interviews with the various characters felt very generic, and it was difficult to remember which character was which. Navigation in the room could also do with a bit of work to make it more intuitive. One main problem - main, because it makes up the bulk of the game - is that to leave the crime scene, you have to speak to Borin first.

Dead Deeds is exceedingly straightforward, with nary a red herring. On its own, this would not have been a problem, but coupled with the lack of thought to the language - not even faux-medieval language - that makes it a tiny bit disappointing.