Reviews by MathBrush

Baseball is the theme of this, Andrew Schultz's first IFComp game.

Unlike his later games, there is no wordplay here, and no abstract narrative about excelling at being smart.

Instead, there is a deeply implemented and simulated baseball game. There are all sorts of timers going on, and wardrobe changes, and so on.

It's so complicated that it's all a bit overwhelming.

This game has you going to Camelot to help Guinevere.

The plot is a bit and thin, and the ADRIFT parser is as weak as ever.

But the game is fairly detailed, and a lot of thought has gone into it.

The main weird thing is that wearing a ring is important to the story, but it always slips off your finger. Also, Hagrid makes an appearance in the game, talking about Dumbledore.

This is a large Adrift game, in which, after an extended prologue, you are cursed into a form of your choosing: rat, fox, or snake.

As an animal, it is your job to be restored to your original form and find your lost love, Princess Tevona.

Overall, this was done pretty well, but the Adrift parser was pretty frustrating (I used Adrift Runner 4.0).

This is a really big game, with some really big bugs.

I played this game for the first time a few weeks ago, and I never realized there was a fire in my room or that the door was supposed to be blocked. Instead, I wandered around the rest of the building for a while.

Following the walkthrough, this game does have some fun elements. The huge maze is not one of those fun elements, though.

Interesting when used with the walkthrough.

This game has you descend on a train to the depths of Erebus, where you have to find your way around in total darkness.

This game is centered on wordplay, involving letters (similar in a vague way to Threediopolis).

I don't want to spoil the main mechanic, but I also found it very hard to figure out the main mechanic. Lack of cluing seems to be one of the biggest issues here.

This game has an intro involving you escaping from and surviving a terrible disaster, separating you from your friends.

It then opens up to an open world where you have to gather money, clothing and weapons to survive the apocalypse.

One of the better Adrift games.

This game does two interesting things: everything is in poetry, and you are in a place where space and time are warped.

This is fun, but the game is really very difficult; it's hard to have any idea at all what to do. Much of what you do is based on paradoxes.

I enjoyed this game with the walkthrough, but I don't know how it would be without it.

Anssi Raisanen has written several Alan games over the years with a certain sort of puzzly style, and I've grown to enjoy them.

This game has you escaping from a wine cellar in a castle, finding and helping a wizard, and rescuing a king.

Anssi's games have a very consistent style, so if you like one, you'll like them all. The Chasing is another good one.

This was an entertaining game from IFcomp 2002.

You explore your house, looking for your notes. As you find notes, you have a sort of flashback or dream of a greek mythological figure.

I enjoyed these vignettes more than the house filled with greek mythology-named cats.

The game was a bit underclued, though, and it was hard to get invested.

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.