Ratings and Reviews by AmberShards

Zegrothenus was a real learning experience for me -- mostly about how long things actually take, and secondarily about the massive complexity of any IF authoring system, but I6 in particular. I had to fight against my instincts every step of the way. There's not a lot of rooms; there is no epic sweep and only a little bit of symbolism and theme. In retrospect, it's also probably more frustrating than it needs to be. If I had to rate it myself, I'd put it at 3.5 or 4 stars on the basis of the writing quality and the nice touches, and take points off for the frustration factor.

In one sense, the game is a typical "escape the room" setup, although escaping in this case depends upon creating a potion to prove your worth as a wizard. It's a complex affair because you don't remember making the potion and you only have so much time. The timer runs backwards, showing how much time you have left, and the points correspond to your progress on the potion.

There are no hunger puzzles, but several timed puzzles show up. The NPCs can frustrate your progress, and it is possible to lose all your progress in the game via the actions of an NPC. With that said, Zegro provides warnings and clues that should allow most players to avoid the consequences of the timed puzzles, and the timing is generous.

Zegro provides cluing at the macro level as well the micro level, although probably not enough at the micro level. (I really didn't want to hold the player's hand, though. Who knows where it had been?). It also places the characters in a distinctive larger world, and that's something that very few one-room games even attempt. Humor is used throughout, but it is an acquired taste, and one that hinges upon reading the About section. If you miss that, you'll probably feel insulted.

So, black sheep or crazy uncle, this game is probably one that will appreciated by only a few people.

The Golden Shadow provides a faintly interesting premise: a gilded room and a man that cannot remove his top hat. Throw in a darkly enchanting poem and you have several elements that could result in a taut and eerie game. However, that's not what the Golden Shadow is. Instead, the Golden Shadow is another frustrating excursion into the land of one-roomed-ness. After not being able to examine anything -- even after turning off the lamp -- I resorted to the walkthrough. The very first line involves a vague verb that years of IF schooling have taught me never to use. Given that I would have never resorted to that verb, and that the game told me to do something which it then told me was impossible, I just gave up.

Given that this is the first outing by the author, the problems here derive from simply not knowing or a lack of time instead of a desire to maul the audience. There's a few things that could be done to improve the game -- a couple rounds of copyediting and more clueing, for instance. It's a shame to waste a good setup, so I do hope that the author returns to this game and polishes it up a bit.

Or, if you're less of an intellectual, it's an office game where nothing you do matters and it repeats forever. Oh, and the point of the game is fighting the parser. With that said, there's not much hope for this game to please anyone except possibly masochists. Even the score is futile -- zero out of zero points if you "win" (and by "winning" I mean, giving in to the parser).

As far as depressing goes, this is not very depressing, but rather tedious; to really convince us of the depressing nature of the situation, more is required. Aren't most of us familiar with the office life anyways?

This doesn't get close to the satirical fun of SuperMarket Robbery, and it's not even as interesting as Magic Travels. (If you know the latter game, that's how uninteresting this one is).

So, this game is complete, small, and falls short of the mark of the author's other works.

Fear does a lot of things right. It is darkly atmospheric, yet not plotless; the plot provides a reason for the puzzles; in-line hints are available (word to the wise: HINT works; HINTS does not).

However, Fear also does quite a few things wrong. The puzzles are fiendishly difficult and their unclued nature only added to the problem. Worse, when you do use the hints, you'll find that the solutions often turn upon either guessing the verb or manipulating objects in wholly unexpected ways. (Spoiler - click to show)If I can't manipulate the statues, for instance, why the heck would I think about MOVING them? At times, it betrays its age with the lack of synonyms and purple prose.

Fear is a game that I spent hours upon before eventually giving up. It's a shame, really, because the game welds atmosphere and challenge in a way that only the best games have ever done (for example, Zork I). In most games, puzzles are artificial, inorganic constructs that don't flow from the premise and pace of the game; not so here. They are fully organic, just far too difficult to be enjoyable.

I think even the game designer knew that he might have amped the difficulty past the pain point; look at the detail of the hints to see for yourself.

Lack of Vision consists of an awesome introduction and very little after that: no plot, no puzzles, and only four rooms. Those rooms consist of the game telling you that you can't see. Nice, but I figured that out in the first 10 seconds of playing. If it's supposed to be a joke, what it's supposed to parody has been lost in the sands of time along with the humor. If this was a Speed IF entry or an IntroComp, it'd still rank lowly; as it stands, I guess we're supposed to be happy that the intro finishes? I want that minute of my life back!

Although the Z-Files review nails the essence of the game, there's a few other aspects worth commenting upon.

Bloodline is probably the best use of the one-room game setup besides Marika the Offering. All of time telescopes to a single handful of fragmented seconds as you play a game with a guy you adore. It's not nearly that Romantic, of course.

The game is wildly inconsistent about the objectives of the main character. Is it to have a first kiss, or to get laid? Yes, 13-year olds totally like "going all the way" does happen, but that doesn't mean it's pleasant to participate in such a game. This is one of those situations where it'd be nice to know before playing what was in the game. (The game does not mention the main character's concerns about fitting in, although that could be a possible -- albeit poorly-worded -- conclusion that would also fight against her other comment.)

Outside of the profanity and the implications of sex, Bloodline captures the feeling of a slumber party well: the cliquishness, and the sudden emotional changes, particularly.

Finally, the pacing is lackluster, as the game really consists of only four turns at the end; everything else is simply waiting for your turn and additional cluing.

The Couch of Doom explores one of those humorous and almost painfully realistic scenarios -- motivating yourself to face the world (in this case, by getting up off of a couch) when you really don't want to. Sounds fun, right? Unfortunately, the fun in this case is mostly window dressing.

The small things first. Some verbs just don't do anything (like READ INVITATION). Some verbs that you'd expect to be there aren't (like PET SHAYS). Purple prose abounds, which is more annoying than usual given that this is a one-room game. It's even more annoying that the game mentions a computer many times, yet it's not accessible, which knocks the realism factor down quite a bit.

All those aren't fatal flaws, though. However, Couch also doesn't tell you when your mood changes, and if mood is roughly equivalent to points (or at least progress), it's important that the player realize the effects of his actions. What if I had done something to knock my status down and didn't realize it? It's unfair to not tell the player about important changes to his world. Yes, I used a masculine pronoun back there, and that's because the sex of the main character is never mentioned directly. You can discover it by interacting with one object, but that's not the point. Games shouldn't hide important information from players!

I might have been able to slog on to the end, but the final and dooming problem was that the game was dreadfully missing clues. The entirety of Couch consists of trying things at random until you find something that makes you feel better; that this could be argued as realistic doesn't mean that it makes for an enjoyable game. Besides, even the most dispirited have an internal dialog that gives them some clue what would lighten their mood. That's wholly absent in Couch.

I understand that the deadline for the Jay Is Games contest was aggressive and that many games didn't have the luxury of beta-testing. That's why the little things aren't the problem here, but the fundamental design issues are. If you have only so much time, then make sure that the design is solid first. The Couch of Doom, at least in its current state, would best be appreciated by puzzle-solvers with patience.

Yes, this is yet another Lovecraft IF horror, so you know what to expect: sea creatures, 1800's-esque mansions, the occult, and of course, nonsensical gibberish that's supposed to be ultra-scary, or something. I'm no fan of these boring horror tropes, but "Manor" sucks you in without presenting itself as Lovecraftian initially. Therefore, I have to give it backhand kudos for pacing.

However, pacing alone doesn't redeem the game. Spelling errors, underimplementation, lack of clueing, and guess-the-verb abound. Perhaps the game can be finished, but its unfinished nature will trip up many players long before they reach the end (or quit upon discovering its Lovecraftian nature). The descriptions it does feature are sparse, barely-there wisps of words, almost placeholders. The only thing that saves the game from one-star land are a few original scenes that crop up about mid-way through. (Spoiler - click to show)Particularly, when you read the journal in the office, and once you talk to your uncle. The latter I'd even go so far to describe as inspired.

Another good point that I must begrudgingly concede: the puzzles are not difficult. They don't get in the way of the story and they don't feel artificial when they do occur; some may complain that they are too easy, but I'd rather have it that way than the reverse.

All in all, Manor is a semi-interesting game, and probably a cult classic if you love yourself some Lovecraft. The game isn't finished, but I do hope that the author fixes it up, because it'd be a shame to let the few good scenes go to waste.