Ratings and Reviews by AmberShards

Are you ready to be clobbered over the head with the 2x4 of modern man-hating female disparagement? If so, Galatea is the game for you. Many have crowed about the interactivity, but interactivity with a self-righteous female, statue or no, is not enjoyable. (Modern spineless males will enjoy the exercise in self-torture, doubtless.) Because the game goals are so vague, there's no real way to advance to the next state of conversation without playing an updated version of "guess the verb" called "guess the conversation topic". Thirty minutes of futile guesswork was enough for me. Galatea gets two stars for coding genius alone. As far as games go, it's a dud.

Fine-Tuned evokes the feeling of an early radio drama that doesn't take itself completely seriously. Narrative, puzzle, and the right amount of prose drive the game. It proves to be an evocative and engaging, but the author wasn't satisfied with that achievement alone. He also throws multiple perspectives into the mix, alternating main characters with each episode. A few bugs remain unsquashed but none of them prevent you from reaching the final (and very difficult) puzzle. In short, memorable characters, uncommon atmosphere, and medium-difficulty puzzles add up to unfading fun. (I would rate it 4.5 stars had the rating system allowed.)

One of the effects interactive fiction generates a strong feeling of "being there", due to the description of your environs and your interaction with them. The Act of Misdirection features stunningly evocative prose; you never doubt that you are in turn-of-the-century London, seen through the veil of Victorian horror. The game also features a flashback, which is a rarity in IF. However, there are no choices in this game. It is more like you fumble around where interaction is required until you discover "the" answer, which allows the plot to continue. The ending is satisfying in a cathartic way, but still feels hollow. It's like someone is reading you an engrossing story where you have to guess what comes next at certain junctures. Fiction it is; interactive, it is not.

Honestly, that's the only way to sum up this game. While it features well-written prose and probably the best use of weather in IF, the puzzles utterly destroy any enjoyment you can wrench from the game. Not only are they timed puzzles, but feedback is wholly missing. Result: you die over and over again until you finally throw your hands up and find something more humane. It's a shame that the prose is wedded to such monstrously unfair puzzles.

Games like Spider and Web are why I've never understood the wide appeal that the author commands. At the beginning, the mechanism that drives the game lures you in. "This is different," you think. But then you realize that the entire game works that way, and the spartan storytelling style provides neither clues nor room for exploration. If you don't get every single detail right (and you have no way of determining the details ahead of time), you're sent back to start over. So you start over, and over, and over again.

I'd rather spend my free time any other way than being told, "You're wrong. Try again" repeatedly. That's just not my idea of fun.