Reviews by MathBrush

This Ectocomp game was a speed-IF, but it turned out really well. An abusive boyfriend chases you into a laboratory, where you have to run around in the darkness, hiding, distracting, and trying to get out.

The writing is compelling and creepy, and the puzzle of surviving was good enough to get it nominated for an XYZZY for Best Individual Puzzle.

Overall, great for horror/stalker fans.

This game is a bit like a mix of Walking Dead and My Boyfriend's Back. You play a zombie who is trying to help stop their headache; this can only be stopped by eating more brains.

The game has only a few puzzles, but they can be difficult to get right, especially just getting out of the door at the beginning.

Your body parts can fall off, remain animated, move around, etc. The game gets somewhat gruesome; there was at least one part that made my stomach sink.

Overall, an interesting game. Only recommended for fans of the zombie genre.

This Adrift game is a brief prelude to a much larger proposed work by David Whyld called Scarlet. It shows how a woman named Suzy obtains her superpowers.

It is a small game. There are 5 locations, and I found 2 NPCs and 2 items.

This game was nominated for an XYZZY for Best Individual Puzzle for 'putting out the fire'.

The game has pretty typical writing for Adrift. Similar to the PK Girl (by a different author), the female lead is described in a kind of anime/pedestal way; for instance, it says:

". You’re small for your age (“short” as your father would so
eloquently put it) but pretty in an elfin sort of way (so you like to think) and you have perfect,
sparkling blue eyes (again, in your opinion). You keep your hair (light blonde) at shoulder
length, having neither the willpower to let it grow any longer (and look like a bimbo) or the
nerve to cut it short (and look like you’re one of those horribly professional business women)."

Overall, it was a fun, short exercise. I beat it with only 9/22 points, so there may be more I didn't see.

Together with Last Day of Summer, Playing Games, and The Life (and Deaths) of Doctor M, this game was part of a meta-puzzle in IFComp 2011. The idea was that four games would have connections, and by pursuing clues in one, you could open more in the other games.

Cold Iron is Plotkin's contribution, and he has said that he rushed to get the smallest Plotkin game possible. It's charming; you are a bumpkin searching for an axe. By recalling stories, you progress through the game.

I felt like this game contained more of the hat puzzle than the other 3 games. Also, I didn't really understand what happened in the plot.

Playing all 4 games together is great. Doctor M is more independent and large, a real good game by itself. The other 3 are great en ensemble.

Together with Cold Iron, Last Day of Summer, and The Life (and Deaths) of Doctor M, this game was part of a meta-puzzle in IFComp 2011. The idea was that four games would have connections, and by pursuing clues in one, you could open more in the other games.

This game was shorter than Doctor M, but more well-developed than the other two. You play 3 minigames where you have to move stones about a maze. It's a fun use of z-machine displays. There is an option to bypass the puzzles, intended for screen readers, but they form the bulk of the display.

Together with Cold Iron, Playing Games, and The Life (and Deaths) of Doctor M, this game was part of a meta-puzzle in IFComp 2011. The idea was that four games would have connections, and by pursuing clues in one, you could open more in the other games.

Last Day of Summer is probably the slightest of the games, finishable in just a few minutes. You have to sell you cranberries, so you go to town. You wander through 5 or 6 scenes, examine stuff, take stuff, etc. It's hard to guess the right verb some times.

The ambiance is charming. Playing all 4 games at once really blends well together (except for Life and Death).

Asgard is a game that I deeply enjoyed. The first part is not like the rest of the game; you play a deeply ticked-off repairman that has to fix a hole in a roof. This is an odd segment; there are dozens of items, a mood counter, and some small puzzles. But it turns out that you don't need to worry too much, you don't have to get everything right... yet.

But as the game suggests, you pass on to an afterlife that is a blend of Norse, Greek, and Judeochristian mythology. You have access to several areas, and an opportunity to revisit them on multiple occasions to get them right.

I had fun with this, getting 2 of the areas right on my own. After checking the walkthrough, I made it to another area with 8 subareas. By then, though, I was stuck using the walkthrough.

Overall, this game is pretty hard, and the best part is stuck after a less interesting intro. But I just loved it.

This game was intimidating before I played it, but I was able to complete it to 3-4 endings before going to the walkthrough for the best ending.

You are in a jeffries tube in a ship that had an explosion. Your job is to get systems working and then transfer oxygen to various parts of the ship, deciding who should get what.

The game has an in-game reference manual that is helpful on several occasions. There is also an NPC whom you can converse with after some work (as the ABOUT section of the game hints).

I've had an opinion recently that hard puzzles aren't as fun as puzzles that make you feel smart. Even though I didn't get the best ending on my own, getting any ending at all made me feel smart. I recommend the game for that reason.

I swear I remember playing this game from years back, but I only finished it in 2015.

It was originally in adrift, but now in Choicescript. You are a young man (?) offered a cursed ascot, and embroiled in a quest to find a hidden treasure. This sounds like a big game, but there are less than 15 choices in a typical playthrough. The only options are yes/no (and, in choicescript, ?).

It turns out, on multiple playthroughs, that there is more to the game than it seems, making many people rate this game highly.

This game (which is a play-die-repeat game) is the combination of three themes that were suggested to the author (mild spoilers):(Spoiler - click to show)zombie pirates in space.

You are in a single enclosed room in a space station with a variety of buttons that control video (including recording and playback), temperature, self-destruct, and so on.

Each playthrough is short, but it will take a lot of work to get it right.

The game is funny and enjoyable.

On a side note, I always thought the cover art was a hunched monster with its head on backwards, but I think it's actually a brain-like monster on an asteroid.