Reviews by namekuseijin

Plenty of procedural generation seemingly of places to explore to find items to feed into the mainframe to explore more and rinse and repeat. Bland prose (hopefully generated too, but guess not) in a stereotypical something-went-wrong-in-the-space-station-and-youre-amnesic. yawn...

if someone wants a more interesting game with similar setting, try Babel, by Ian Finley in his teens...

This was a fun and entertaining short story. Why spoil it by calling it a game? Though it indeed seems to offer quite a few choices that don't affect outcome much - just more text to explore. Enjoyed the witty prose, concept and characterization - a demonic parody of any high school jealously gig. Genuinely funny. The only thing I didn't really enjoy was the dynamic text: sometimes you'll just miss it as you go clicking links. This IF also reminds me of Hunger Daemon. :)

these meta-comments me laugh real hard: (Spoiler - click to show)The reader is invited to employ imagination to simulate elaborate special effects such as multicolor text, and shaking, glowing, sparkling, or glittering words. (Spoiler - click to show)Oh, if only it were as easy as clicking a hyperlink, you would have done that long ago, and you wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. and (Spoiler - click to show)Don't go crazy searching for a winning ending. There are no alternate endings.

wacky it is, with some strong and slimy imagery. You begin vengeful and turn out to have all your plans spoiled and end your days very humbly...

BTW, whatever music there is (implied by a text), it went mute on my PC, thankfully.

It also ostensibly reminds that it was created with some AXMA Story Maker, a commercial tool. The "play" mechanics and interface are just like any other twine thing, though: click your way through wads of links...

You have until he reaches your apartment.

sorry, I have what?

10 Second Defence

oh, thanks for clearing that up in the title. So far, this looks like a sparsely implemented one-room defense game with bad prose. yes, it indeed is.

The prologue text doesn't really mention what Kiernan is about to do, so I just took 15 turns waiting for him - perhaps he's the PC's boyfriend or boss? He enters the room and I'm blasted away. ah, good, so it really is about defending yourself against some lunatic.

Well, gotta say, it's a finally crafted small situation you've thrown us at here, worthy the few replays it demands. It evidently requires some trial and error before a good ending - which evidently means (Spoiler - click to show)your ex-lover dead while you draw a shaky breath and head off.

It's already 3 stars for being a proper game, but the short length, sparse prose and implementation got the better of me and I took 1 away. :/


Now let's look at some implementation fails:

wow, I have a sensory enhancer implant! Let's try putting it to good use:

>listen
You can't hear anything.

:/

>smell
The air of your apartment is so familiar, you no longer notice it.

>smell Kiernan
You can't see any such thing.

I know I can't see him, but I assumed the implant would give me wolverine-like powers. Perhaps I could smell his stink or fear miles away :/

>throw knife at hitman
You lack the nerve when it comes to the crucial moment.

:/

yet another clickable-static-fiction-passing-for-game. Like many of its brethren, this one too being a political manifest about some poor minority group being morally harassed - in this case, women. Everywhere they go, they are closely followed by those terrible monsters - the men.

anyway, one of the strong points of IF is putting you in the shoes of another self - the Player Character, in this IF, you take the role of one such poor harassed woman. You really feel sorry for being the object of desire of those damn bastards.

this snippet made me smile, so I gave the "game" one more star:

You're eyeing up the chocolate biscuits when a man starts tutting at you. "It would be a shame if a pretty girl like you let herself go."

Surprise! You've been sexually harassed. You feel so embarrassed that you have to go home and cry to your cat.

what game is here? It's nothing but text and links. Is Wikipedia a game too? The tag for this "game" is "Nonfiction". If it's got neither fiction nor it is more interactive than a regular book pageflip or linkclick, what is it doing here? I read in that text something about IF evolving. If this is an example of that, it's actually devolving. Perhaps next people will go back to pen and paper rpgs and then to poetry rapsodhies... Why is it that people these days just refuse to call a story a story rather than a game? Is it to lure youngsters in, so they can think of reading as something more exciting? Whatever it is, IF it's not.

what IF people actually got a clue about IF? Then we'd never have to cope with idiocy like this short static page. Perhaps I should list Wikipedia on ifdb...

I seriously fear twine because by lowering any entry barriers whatsoever it's getting all kind of loonies loose...

this is not fiction, static or otherwise, it's a hyperlinked Q&A thingmajig about the author's particular obssessive view of the universe he wants us to swallow. whatever, I decided to give it a chance after seeing it scored so low on IFComp14, but that's what it deserves...

Fine prose and setting as well as organic puzzles in the form trade-this-for-that make this a charming little IF work. I have to agree with the reviwer for BAF's that characters are very underdeveloped, leaving you watering for something while you hunger just as much as the protagonist. Still, one IF I'd no doubt recommend to beginners.

ok, I may bash lame twitter fiction to death, but not so much poetry -- I like it. This is poetry, and good one at that: carefully woven verse interplay between what is said and what is meant. And that it is interactive and allows you to be in the shoes of the poetic persona is fascinating.

It seems Porpentine, when not in the mood for blatant puke-inducing passages, is able of showcasing fine word craftsmanship. The short poetic prose is quite excellent, and the metaphors creatively apt. Each verse pulsates through the screen vividly, each given proper screen estate as you usually don't find in static poems.

There are quite a few game-like aspects -- the few lock-and-key puzzles, a few tasks to complete -- and a few meta-game aspects -- like chosing this or that setting or your personal features -- but the poem really shines in the writing and message.

On the whole, an enjoyable renunion of fine presentation choices (including the loveable font, font effects and sound effects). Even though what it presents us is a bleak story of (Spoiler - click to show)rape, abortion and dehumanization. Poetry that matters, after all.

kudos

You're a general sent by the king to help out the defense at Swineback Ridge against the barbaric hordes of the Phartipu. Only once you get there, (Spoiler - click to show)the troops have deserted and the leader has commited suicide. It's up to you to come up with a way to revert this terrible situation.

The author seems to think this is a good beginner IF. And indeed it has many good points going for it, like a built-in hint system and, best of all, the PC won't take actions that should deem too stupid, effectively canceling possible dead ends. There's also no timed puzzles so you can go at your own pace at solving them and the puzzles are mostly fair and sensible enough, though a few require careful attention to the surroundings. Except that to win the game you need this item from (Spoiler - click to show)close to the beginning. :) but even this makes it clear you need to come back later with another item by the description to a failed action.

It features no NPCs but still tells a sensible tale of warfare and courage against adversities wrapped in finely crafted prose. I've gone through it this evening and though it doesn't let you get stuck, I had a replay to see if I was following alright.