Reviews by MathBrush

In this game, you play a graduate student who does investigative work with their supervisor, Dr. Todd. Dr. Todd accompanies you, and was nominated for an XYZZY award for Best Individual NPC.

The idea is that you are investigating a magician who's staying at a hotel, and you want to determine if they are legitimate or fake. You have to solve a series of puzzles to do so, such as breaking in, collecting evidence, etc.

The story is a bit odd; an old knitting lady is a bodyguard, a random child seems to have snuck into the magicians apartment (neither of these have anything to do with the rest of the story).

Overall, not strongly recommended.

This game was written to showcase the German extension of Inform 7. You play someone who wakes up with scanty memories and some wounds in a dark and deserted castle/hospital, in the care of a nurse named Mariel.

The game demonstrates a lot of Inform's capabilities: scripted scenes, openable containers, movable objects, alterable exits, consumable objects, hidable objects, conversation, locks and keys, books, and so on.

The atmosphere really worked for me. A large, dirty, empty castle/cathedral converted into a hospital, the combination of freedom and restriction under Mariel, etc. But the game felt like it just suddenly cut off at the end, with no real resolution. This makes the game more like a toy demonstration, like Graham Nelson's Balances or Michael Robert's Ditch Day Drifter.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this game. Recommended for horror fans.

This is the kind of game that I enjoy much more than most people would, as I am a big fan of Lovecraftian horror and of atmospheric puzzlefests.

This mid-length game has a bit of a bottleneck opening, followed by a non-linear map area. It's more of an old-school feel, with some actions that are not really fair but not too bad. Two or three of the puzzles are solved by returning to an old area.

You have a recurring nightmare, and this time you can't get out. You explore an abandoned city that is a mix of R'lyeh and of the fortress in Enchanter by Infocom. Ancient writing, mystical texts, haunting memories from a half-forgotten past, violent cultists, gibbering horrors, this hits up a lot of the best parts of Lovecraft.

The NPCs are a bit weak, as you can't talk about much.

This 1997 IfComp game is notable for several reasons. It was nominated for best PC and best NPC in the XYZZYs. It features a romance between two women and also a character of indeterminate gender, which is unusual for a 90's game. Finally, it is an allegory.

The game is set in a town of little people who love chatting, eating sweets, reading books, etc. Your character is a member of the secret service in this town, and has to investigate the disappearance of one of its members.

The puzzles generally lead you on bit by bit. There is one annoying thing in that you know you need a very specific kind of help from someone, but only one person in the game can actually do it, and you have very few clues who.

Bizarrely, the game is an allegory for the conflict between home brew video game programmers and the Big Consoles. The names of characters and places in this game are anagrams for Usenet groups and for programmers.

This game was nominated for an XYZZY for best individual NPC.

You are a dog named Ralph wandering around the yard with a cat and a boy name Christopher Robin, after the Pooh stories. You have to find your bone.

This game is cute and short, with only three puzzles. I did use hints.

This game was entered in one of earlier IFComps. You play a treasure hunter with a furry sidekick. You explore 5 or 6 different rooms with a variety of people and objects.

There is really no rhyme or reason to the game at all, but your pal Leo will give you hints. You explore moose lodges, ancient temples, and the end of the world, while collecting crayons.

Fun for fans of nonsense-surreality, or of good npcs.

This game is a sequel to the first Bible Retold game. In it, you play as one of the three kings as you travel west, finding gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and visiting Jesus.

The game's take on the Bible is sort of a slapstick comedy. You have to impersonate priests, steal, dupe guards, etc.

The puzzles are varied and odd, and I had some trouble with the parser sometimes, especially during an complicated math problem involving an astrolabe and latitude calculations.

Biblical games are always interesting in how they play out. Tenth Plague, about the plagues in Egypt, takes a dark and bitter look at God; Cana according to Micah takes a thoughtful approach; and this game takes a goofy and buffoonish look at God.

You are Jesus, and you have to feed the 5 thousand. To get the 5 loaves and two fish in the story, you have to collect them yourself. Throughout the game, God will accidentally hurt people, send you text-like messages, joke about sex, etc.

The puzzles are a bit uneven. At first, they are mostly standard adventure puzzles, but then they enter a weird mathematical-ish realm where you have to use arithmetic progressions to find houses corresponding to verses in the Bible.

In this game, you a farmer whose crops are destroyed by the devil. With a trusty puppy and an armful of veggies, you descend into hell to retrieve your bird dog.

Most puzzles have food or vegetable-related solutions. Many of them were clear, but some (including an early puzzle) seemed obscure to me. However, trying every vegetable can help.

The writing is great, and the game overall has high quality. There is a bit of adult content with a succubus, but nothing crazy.

Recommended for everyone.

In this short ectocomop game, you are trying to enter a tomb and lay a spirit to rest. However, the spirit copies everything you do, performing your actions two turns later.

This causes a lot of trouble, as the puzzles include latches that you can push open and push close, so he pushes stuff closed as you push it open.

I had fun with this. However, out of the three puzzles, I twice thought I had the right solution and failed; both times, it was because I didn't realize that the ghost goes first in simultaneous actions.

There are just 3 puzzles. Fun for puzzle fans.