Ratings and Reviews by AmberShards

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.

Yes, it's a game about terrorists, but this one takes the side of a would-be suicide bomber. (Like you didn't see that one coming, right?) Everything from the name, to the intro text, to the only puzzle in the game, is about painting coalition partners in the worst possible light, in an attempt to make your heart bleed for the poor guy whose homemade bomb didn't go off and kill lots of people. Utterly depraved.

Ok, since it's fair game to comment on other reviews, here's mine.

1) "liberal neocon" is an oxymoron, and says more about the person pastiching together such an epithet than it does the original reviewer.
2) As far as "neocons" go (which is anti-semitic argot for "right-wing Jews"), ignoring abuses is not their claim to fame. However, many of them are skilled in sussing out bigots.
3) As far as people being angry about the game, they're angry about it because it lies.
4) Condemning reviewers because they refuse to take action on something that they're not convinced exists is illogical.
5) Panties on someone's head, disrespecting their Islamic masculinity, and psychological fake-out (as the cover clearly represents -- if you knew the story behind it), are not torture, yet they have perpetually been referred to as such. The very same people who claim that are the ones claiming that torture is widespread.
6) Finally, as far as this stuff actually occurring, once you get down to any actual, verifiable cases, you're talking about something that is statistically irrelevant; thus all the rhetoric about it empowers only one group of people -- those who want to take America down a notch for either their own twisted pleasure (keyboard cowards everywhere) or for their own empowerment (Hamas, Al Qaeda, national Democrat leadership).

Every so often, I come across a game that I cannot understand why it was made. TOASS (how's that for an acronym?) is one of those games. First, the underpinnings are gimmicky. IF based on an RPG from an alternate universe? Why? Second, the game is far too difficult. I heart RPGs majorly, but nothing sucks more than a game which you can't get past the first monster. TOASS is one such game. Third, the writing style is purposefully worse than an overdramatic grade-Z drive-in flick. It's not humorous because it's everpresent and unavoidable. Fourth, well, I don't even have a fourth, but my heart goes out to the author. Some people miss the mark by accident, but some miss the mark on purpose. To say that TOASS is worse than a Paul Panks adventure is probably not sufficient, because Pank's work at least had a sort of innocent incompetence about it. TOASS is bad on purpose, and is sufficiently well-designed so that you can't miss the point. People who enjoy RPGs won't enjoy this as it's like being slapped repeatedly. People who don't like RPGs will find it insufferable. TOASS seems designed to drive away anyone interested in playing it. I suppose there's a challenge in that and only people who won't let a game have the final word will survive this game.