Ratings and Reviews by James Hall

Despite the relatively bug-free implementation and vividly imagined gaming world, I found I couldn't rate Varkana too highly.

The gameplay itself was rather unfocused and for the most part, left me wandering around wondering what I was supposed to be doing, which is rarely a good thing. The puzzles weren't always obvious (or fair, for that matter) and often required me to duplicate commands (generally considered taboo in modern IF) or perform an unlikely set of tasks.

The general quality of the game seemed to take a dive towards the end, where I suddenly found myself controlling a different character as the plot skidded in a completely incredible direction; most likely the hallmarks of a game completed in a rush.

Judged purely on the merits of the story, Floatpoint is a fairly impressive and well written piece of work, which is why I've given it a higher score than I did during the IF comp. However, in terms of an interactive fiction game, I found that the implementation left a lot to be desired, as I ran into several game-killing bugs in my attempt to complete it.

Fairly well written with some interesting ideas, but many of the plot events seemed rather contrived, occasionally borderlining on irritating. The Primrose Path is playable, but I fail to understand what many people saw in it.