Reviews by MathBrush

In this game, you take a metaphorical journey through a fantasy land that you have created to avoid your abusive father.

At first, I was intimidated, and stuck to the walkthrough straight to the ending. I found the game intriguing as it dealt with blood, innocence, betrayal, and basically a lot of metaphors about women and femininity (such as a unicorn you can kill or help, a female vampires, and so on).

Afterwards, I heard there were several endings. I tried to find hints on them, but finally I had to just look for myself. And it wasn't hard to find a lot; many people give you quests, and if you finish them, you get an ending.

Some events were traumatic (like a (Spoiler - click to show)rape, not in the walkthrough) and others were mysterious.

The implementation is spotty in places.

Excellent game. Highly recommended.

This game is divided into three parts, the first being least like the others.

You are in the army, and you are interested in your friend Simon. You have the opportunity to sneak more information about him, but it's not necessary, as you will have the chance to talk to him more later.

The game has a well-developed and smooth story, but it has oddly obscure puzzles. Most of these puzzles involve hunting around for objects, often finding them before yo know you'll need them. This is typical of a classic adventure, but odd for a story-driven one.

I found that the game frequently had trouble with alternate solutions to puzzles.

Overall, I would recommend this game, but it has some pretty heavy profanity in a scene or two. If that's not an issue, you should try it out. The first part is the most difficult, so I recommend a walkthrough to get through it.

In this shortish game, you have to escape a dungeon, slay some monsters, and find the dragon terrorizing the neighborhood.

The puzzles are a bit hard; I stuck to the walkthrough. The game has a hidden subtext that makes you question what you want to do.

I found the game to be effective. Even once I though I knew what was going on, it pulled out another surprise on me.

Recommended for the twist; however, aside from the twist, the game lacks polish or direction.

In this short and simple detective game, you play Jack Mills, who is tasked with recovering a stolen rare coin.

The puzzles are fairly simple; the hardest ones were ones that have featured in a great deal of detective games (Spoiler - click to show)specifically searching the trash.

Despite the length and derivativeness, I enjoyed this game as a pleasant yarn. It was fun to see how the story unfolded, and I did feel like I was doing something good by solving the puzzles.

There are two ways of beating the game.

This is one of the earlier time travel games, being introduced in the first IFComp.

You are in a museum of time, trying to take its final treasure, a diamond ring. But its existence is not secure yet; you have to ensure it will be there when the time comes. So you travel back and forth between several time periods trying to create the diamond and glass cover and find the setting for the ring.

Some actions that you take don't seem like they'd actually work in real life. Other actions can be relatively straightforward.

Good for fans of puzzle time travel games.

This game actually has a pretty consistent approach of its puzzles. You are an adventurer in a temple in the Everglades, seeking the water of life.

Each room has some sort of death trap. If you wait around too long, you die, but you often get hints right before you die. I only needed a hint for the very last room.

The setting made me smile on numerous occasions, such as the perfectly normal room.

Highly recommended.

This game draws a lot of inspiration from planetfall. You wake up from cryogenic storage to save your ship with a wisecracking robot companion. By accessing computer systems and elevators, you try to figure out how disaster struck.

I played for about 10 minutes without the walkthrough, but a power countdown was stressful, leaving (it seemed) little room for error.

It wasn't bad, but I had some issues with guessing verbs and the aforementioned timer.

This game is a classic-style puzzle adventure strung together into a thin plot. Your keys are stolen in a cheesy Christmas area at a mall, and you have to get it back by operating a series of complicated machines.

This game hits up a lot of the classic puzzle types. Light source puzzle, complicated lock and key, disassembling and reassembling items, removing obstructing NPCs, trial and error puzzles, etc.

The puzzles are mildly difficult for a puzzlefest and the game is not too long. A compass rose aids navigation and the writing spruces up the whole affair.

Basically, if you like Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina, you'll like this, it's younger, smaller cousin.

In this game, you play a knight who has defeated a powerful evil. You are attending a boring party, hoping to see the love of your life there.

The world is one of magic and mystery and intrigue. Many have commented on the powerful draw of the story, and I felt it too. You have scars and a history.

The game primarily depends on ask/tell. I won mostly by asking people about other people's names, plus a few topics that came up in conversation.

The game lasted about 15-20 minutes.

This is a pretty long IfComp game about an author who is sucked into the world of a manuscript which he has attempted to destroy.

The puzzles aren't too bad; the worst is skippable. There are some color coded key puzzles, but you are told in the notes that they are a parody of other adventure games.

Overall, I enjoyed the first few chapters, but it stretched thin by the ending.

Mildly recommended