Reviews by AmberShards

Although it is set in an apartment, All Alone is head-and-shoulders above other such room-limited games, because it successfully induces all of the claustrophobia that other games only hint at. Here, claustrophobia, paralysis, and isolation, all spiral together into a cold sweat of undiluted terror. On the analytical side, this is pure stalker-horror with the player as the potential victim. The setup uses the limitations of the setting and even of IF itself to bring the aforementioned emotions into play. It's quite effective, and the emotions are compromised only by the profanity towards the end.

However, there is nothing original about the antagonist, and the PC's inability to fight back is also rather stereotypical. I found it frustrating that she could not use the phone as a weapon or that she had not taken any precautions at all, especially given that there had been multiple murders recently.

Still, it is a well-done example of the stalker-horror genre, and it's worth playing.

The game starts off cutely and then right after that smacks you with a puzzle that defines unfair. It's not clued and there is no way to get anywhere in the game without pulling the good old "examine everything" bit.

Then you have a parser that doesn't know common verbs (like knock), and a lot of purple prose. Seriously, there are very few objects in the four-doored vault area and there's purple prose? Not only that, but there are bugs.

Once you make it past a door, you'll find puzzles that are just as annoying, and perverted NPCS to boot. One of the puzzles is a riddle. Another puzzle (get this) is a mathematical word problem. It was at this point that I gave up. I thought games were supposed to be entertaining.

Building is an atmospheric surreal/horror game with puzzles that are loosely connected together. As far as tone goes, it is darkly romantic through and through. It won't appeal to puzzle fiends, but atmosphere junkies will find it more to their liking. Theme? The nature of the modern workplace, seen through a very cynical and mourning mirror.

There are no bugs that I'm aware of; the game is playable and winnable. The puzzles are fair and not difficult except for one, which is challenging. I designed it that way so as to not disrupt the atmosphere.

It is influenced by Babel, so fair warning would be if you don't care for that style of gameplay, you won't enjoy Building much either.

This game is like a sketch, a very rough one done in charcoal, that shows some hints of what the finished drawing could be. I wish folks would not release unfinished games as you go into a game expecting to be able to DO SOMETHING and find out that you can't. Sigh.

I doubt that this was ever finished. You're standing in the shadows, waiting for two goons to reach you so that you can incapacitate one, but the parser doesn't know any words for attacking. Waiting does nothing, either. It could have been interesting, but it's not finished.

If I had to condense my feelings to a sentence, this game is what IF is all about. The writing is lush, evocative, and tinged with the stoic sadness of the Japanese (I presume) medieval period. The puzzles are just difficult enough to draw you further into the dread revelation that builds and builds into a cathartic end, but no harder than they need to be. Yes, this is a deliriously wonderful and refreshingly non-frustrating work. The Moonlit Tower is far more memorable than many of the games penned by IF legends.

The main character's nature makes the parser as game construct a useful representation of reality. Very cool! However, the game is poorly implemented and to this day, has not had obvious and glaring bugs fixed. Yes, the trainers are not shoes, even though Mrs. Go tells you to get the shoes. You still can't do anything with various objects, even though you refer to them exactly as the parser demands. It's frustrating beyond reason. I've read that even the walkthrough doesn't work, so I have no idea how you're supposed to finish the game.

It's a three-point parody game. The humor is a send-up of romance novels and all their emotional pretentiousness, which is not exactly new stuff. The first room is a parody of a well-known adventure game, which also, isn't exactly new stuff, either. The revelation in the end about the gender of the main character is tired, as well. I guess I just didn't see anything really interesting or blow-me-away fantastic in this game. At least it's easy.

The concept here is comedic; the execution is also fairly humorous, although having the parser yell at you every other turn can be a bit grating. As far as I can tell, there's no way to win, so a gaming session consists of exploring a pedestrian apartment spiced with humorous descriptions and ends with you being blown to bits. There's not much in the way of replay value and it won't win any awards for its prose, but it's enjoyable for what it is: a good way to spend ten or fifteen minutes on a lazy day.

It is fairly detailed and interesting, so if you're an atmosphere junkie, this will draw you in. However, the broken puzzles and the ridiculously small amount of time allowed to explore the mansion will prove frustrating. There are typos, too, and a lot of the rooms are threadbare, as if the author lost interest in the game by the time the later rooms show up. It feels like the game needed a few more rounds of beta-testing.