Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

Years after Infocom died and Activision was about to put out a graphical Zork game, this parser game was commissioned and then produced by two Infocom writers (Marc Blank of Zork and Mike Berlin of Infidel).

The game is almost pure nostalgia, and fairly short. It compares to Unnkulia One Half, which was similarly a small promo game riffing on older material.

In this game you find an undiscovered part of the Great Underground Empire and explore it. The game is very small, with one big square that has doors leading to three smaller areas, each with 3-5 rooms. There are little models of Zork items, Grue references, and the heads of the two implementers waxing nostalgic. There are references to the IF MUD (essentially an elaborate chat room that was once a multiplayer online parser game) and so on.

If you have nostalgia for infocom, this game could be lots of fun. If you have just barely learned about ibfocom, maybe not so much. The actual games themselves are more fun.

This game adheres closer to creepypasta tropes than most Twine I've seen, and it does a faithful job of recreating the creepypasta vibe of stories like Asylum or No End House.

You are driving down the road when you have to pull off and go the bathroom. But the bathrooms are boarded up, and the rest stop is deserted.

The game is polished, with good CSS. It never becomes exceptional to me, but it's a fun, short play for fans of creepypasta. If you don't like creepypasta, however, you may be put off by the over-the-top horror, casual language and amnesia common to the genre.

This Twine game is longer than most Twine games running from 30 to 60 minutes.

It is an adaptation of an old short story about a Griffin and a church official that had a good grasp of location to begin with. Groover has assembled all the locations in the story into a coherent world.

The story itself is poignant and meaningful, which has led to its enduring popularity as a short story.

Overall, the writing is descriptive, and I enjoyed the interactivity. At the time that I played the game, there was more timed delays than I preferred, but the author was contemplating shortening them.

This game placed near the middle of IFCOMP 2002. In this game, you play a spy who must infiltrate a building, steal information, but leave no trace.

The leaving no trace bit is interesting, similar to Sub Rosa and the orange room in The Recruit. However, all of the puzzles are difficult, as they only admit one solution, even if other reasonable solutions are avilable. Also, the game is inconsistent in what it considers as leaving a trace or not.

The writing was descriptive and the game would be thrilling if not for the frequent interruptions due to odd puzzles.

This game is a shortish parser game about a trial run of an automatic typo corrector. The majority of the game is spent trying to fix a bizarre machine.

This game had several implementation issues, including fatally crashing the game when looking up various topics in the manual.

The puzzles in this game are fiddly. I have a distaste for machinery puzzles, but those who enjoy them will like this game.

The writing is descriptive, and though the first part was bland, I loved the ending, so I'm giving this 2 stars.

This is a short game with multiple paths to getting through each puzzle. You are trying to get coffee to stay buzzed at work.

Many of the puzzles are unintuitive, like (Spoiler - click to show)looking in a book to get an apron for a different store. However, at least there are multiple routes for each puzzle. The implementation is spotty (TAKE ALL let's you take a door). Overall, I recommend it only for fans of the office genre.

John Evans is know for large, complex games that are often unfinished or broken. This game is the most polished of his that I have played. It is complete, and free of typos.

However, the plot and puzzles are confusing. You are wandering around a cave with colored crystals and rooms corresponding to elements. There are tons of interactions that just make no sense, and some guess the verb

Recommended, with hints, only for fans of big puzzles games.

This longish game is a text port of the graphical game Return to Zork. This text port was entered in IFCOMP.

Porting this game was a big task, and many parts of it were rushed. Typos abound, and some implementation is spotty.

Overall, though, I enjoyed playing this as an alternative to downloading the graphical game. I've played most Infocom games so this was a nice way to continue onward.

In the game you have to return to the areas of Zork I and Zork II to investigate disappearances.

In this game, you visit a small village and learn a terrible secret.

This game begins with a very unrealistic but mercifully short sex scene. As others have noted, the game accepts only one command in each scene to advance the plot.

The writing is vivid and descriptive, but the plot zigzags. The main path is implemented well. Overall, an interesting storyline with some potholes and weaker implementation.

I've always enjoyed Lovecraftian interactive fiction games. This one hits up a lot of the good elements: a cult, unspeakable horrors, creative monsters.

You explore a mansion, trying to rescue the father of a little girl from an untrustable friend.

Unfortunately, the game is marred by both bugs (like room text appearing in incorrect rooms) and questionable puzzle design (like having 20 hiding places to search to find 2 or 3 items).

Also, there is a lot of goofy humor interspersed throughout the game, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.