Reviews by MathBrush

This placed below every other game in 2013's IFComp. Much of that was due to the fact that it was a web game that only worked on Internet explorer.

However, by inspecting the page source, it's easy to figure out how the game would go otherwise. After a brief introduction, this game leads to a sequence of 8 math and history questions. You type the answer in a box, and in Internet Explorer, you can check your answer and move on. In all other browsers, you can't.

Overall, the questions are interesting, and the commentary is descriptive, but overall I didn't feel that this was a compelling game.

The Lift is the first last-place IFComp game to be written in Twine. In this game, you are in underground bunker of sorts and have to choose from four weapons. You then have the choice to use pornography or not, then you choose from four rooms of monsters. If your weapon works out, you win! If not, you die.

So there are 16 possibilities, 3 of which are winning ones. Theres not really any rhyme or reason to which ones work, so its just bare experimentation. Also, the pornography just seems thrown in.

Overall, this game is somewhat memorable in a B-movie way, but doesn't take advantage of Twine's power.

This game feels like a slightly unfinished trailer for a very cool book. You wake up in a crypt, apparently resurrected, and have to find out what happened.

Doors and gates are very common in this game, apparently disambiguation by plurals. A room will have "a door" and "a doors". You travel by using "enter doors" and so on.

The game is story driven, but puzzle light. The puzzles that are there are made difficult by spotty implementation.

I found this game entertaining in its promise and concept. I found it not satisfying on its own.

This game came in last place the year it came in IFCOMP because the author revealed that it was incomplete.

However, as an incomplete game, it is better than quite a few completed games. You play as a researcher exploring an odd facility in space. A blast of energy transports them to an area with a time travel device.

The game is short, and the backstory is never developed. The time travel mechanic has confusing rules about where you appear, but overall, I enjoyed this game. The writing is descriptive. John Evans is known for writing great but unfinished games, so if you like this one, check out the others.

This game looks like a first game that was over ambitious and was entered unfinished into the IF competition.

It is a 30 or so room game with Zork inspired objects scattered about, sparse descriptions, grammar and programming errors, and some bugs that render the game unfinishable.

The game concept is just fine, and what's here isn't bad, it's just unfinished.

This is a semi-random maze, with a thin plot. The other reviews have touched on this game a lot, but it's safe to say that this is not the worst IF game of all time.

Apparently, the maze is small but solvable. The name of the winning item uses unicode, so you can't type it, but you can GET ALL.

Not as interesting as other "bad" if.

This was the lowest-scoring Inform game in IFCOMP the year it came out. As was common due to IFCOMP'S rules about updates at the time, it was only in the lowest place due to a game-crippling bug.

The version now on IFDB works fine with the Play Now button. So what about the game itself?

It is a surreal adventure, where a fourth-dimensional person takes you to their world to turn off a leak in the pool of knowledge.

The game is rough, and the interactivity is off. This is a game where that author knew exactly what they wanted a playthrough to look like, and coded only one way in. Plot progresses only by waiting around or by guessing precise sequences of moves to advance the plot.

Hiwever, the writing was evocative, if raw, and the surreal feeling made the game stand out. I would enjoy playing it again.

This is a game that would have been much better in Twine, and shows how people were trying to bend Inform to do Twine like things for years.

This is a game where you play Sisyphus, condemned to pushing a stone up a hill in hell forever.

And that's what you do. This game gives out the emotion of sisyphus very well, evoking boredom. It's polished and smooth, and descriptive.

Unfortunately, as Sisyphus, there isn't much to do.

This is a joke game. It has a long spiel about using science to make the most enjoyable game possible.

Then you make (Spoiler - click to show)two choices and end the game. This makes the game very short..

This sort of game, using short CYOA to mock game culture, came into vogue a decade later with authors like Soda51.

This game starts out at your house, but quickly shifts locales. The main location is a 5-level space station.

The game is mechanically impressive, with forced input, ASCII graphics, a topology machine and other nifty tricks. These alone make me want to play again.

However, the puzzles are hopelessly underclued (including one that is only possible if you have experienced a certain Infocom game or its imitators).

The writing is also rough. Bugwise, there was one room where I couldn't leave and had to undo.

This game didn't call out to me emotionally. It was the lowest placing z-machine game the year it came out in IFComp, but it is much better than other last place games.