Reviews by MathBrush

This was David Whyld's first IFcomp game.

This game is just really, really big, with tons of conversations and features.

It's just too big; page after page of text dumps make it difficult to pay attention to what you're trying to do.

It involves a fantasy land where everyone references american pop culture and you learn DnD spells.

This game contains a wide variety of scenes that are not related to each other very much, except by a small thread at the end. It includes things as diverse as Dr Who and fantasy as well as American history.

Only the main thread of the game; anything else was not implemented (for instance, you can't PRAY at Mecca).

It was interesting, but ultimately incoherent.

This game is just terrible. In it, you are a misognyistic, sadistic, horrible man, whose goal is to make everyone's life worse.

The game jumps from genre to genre, and in my version, was unfinishable due to a bug near the end, but I wasn't interested in finishing it anyway.

This game placed near the bottom of the 2002 comp, and it's not hard to see why.

The game opens with an error message; typing 'walkthru' says 'insert walkthru here'. it says it was written for a 7 year old later, which could make sense, but it seems like the authors knew it wasn't anywhere near done, and gave up.

It has a huge, mazelike map with empty rooms all over. You are given goals, but the winning walkthru ignores all of those goals.

A truly bizarre game.

This game has a good mix of red herrings and regular puzzle items.

You are wandering around a house, looking for your auntie. Magic intervenes.

This game has a fairly large map, but because it's organized so well, it feels compact.

A couple of the puzzle solutions surprised me, and I feel they could have been clued better.

This game has you teleporting to a moon base to investigate a disappearance and stop a monster.

It has an instant death puzzle, but thankfully no mazes or light source puzzles. The game is well-clued, and its fairly easy to know what to do at all times (except right near the end).

The game has numerous spelling and grammar errors, but otherwise could be dressed up to be a fun game.

This game casts you as an unusual 'we', with unusual descriptions of rooms and a bizarre atmosphere.

I am surprised this game is not discussed more; however, like most little-discussed games, this is likely due to the lack of cluing.

The game is reminiscent of some ancient dark ritual, of Beowulf or Peer Gynt.

This game has you wandering around a space ship with slowly evolving goals. You begin as a tourist and end up as much more.

The game was competently programmed, but dry. I found it difficult to be invested in the game.

One of the biggest sticking points is a maze with randomized directions (so every turn the game spins you around). There is an item that helps, but it's a bit tedious, especially since there are 4 locations leading off of it that you need to get to.

This game is one of those frequent IFComp middle games that are big, fairly well polished, but without the snazzy setting or good cluing that would make it wonderful.

You explore an office with several cubicles, each presenting its own challenge (dealing with an npc, helping a tech repair guy, etc.)

Overall, though, you're unlikely to finish without a walkthrough.

In this game, you commit a series of unwitting (or sometimes witting) crimes, ending in worse and worse prison-related situations.

The story-telling uses really effective techniques, but the writing and puzzles aren't up to the challenge. By techniques, I mean cuts between scenes, timed events, actions with delayed effects, etc.