Reviews by MathBrush

Krypteia is a richly textured hyperlink game, making extensive use of graphics, text styling, and music.

It's something of an rpg, with two stats (wolf and stealth) and a variety of items and battles that affect the stats. However, the system is very simple, so you don't have to grind and battles are finished in one click.

The two stats represent two ways of dealing with your feelings, most likely about transgenderism. Wolf stats make you fierce, and you wear stilettos. Shadow let's you hide from the world.

Overall, a well done game, if a bit heavy-handed at times. It has a very annoying habit of putting stealth related text as black on black text.

Mercy is an interesting game from a couple of decades past. Not entered in IFComp, it nevertheless managed to earn recognition, including a nomination for Best Story Xyzzy.

You play a euthanized at a hospital. The game is a linear thriller type game and has a branch and bottleneck structure which became the characteristic of Twine games many years later.

You wander around a relatively small map with a gloomy, moody atmosphere strongly reminiscent of Vespers, but less disgusting. Your goals begin to change around the halfway point, which is also where the game becomes more ambiguous and confusing.

I recommend this game for fans of a great story and/or atmosphere.

Seastalker was Oneida my least favorite Infocom games, but part of that is my own fault. The game is fairly simple, and I didn't need a walkthrough, until about halfway through the game I started some kind of timer and would die after 40 or 50 turns. It turned out that (Spoiler - click to show)there was some sort of black box I didn't fix that lead a monster to the base. So that made me lose interest, until I went through with a walkthrough.

The game comes with some hint cards that are missing some information. When the time comes in the game, the game itself will fill in the blanks in the hint cards.

There are some tricky parts to the game like using sonar to pilot a sub, and the endgame, but over all it was pretty fun.

Note: The GO TO command makes this game MUCH more enjoyable.

Trapped in Time is a classic "Turn to page 20"-style CYOA work. You are a Chrononaut experimenting with a time machine. Things start to go wrong. The game invites many replays, being a 'replay'-style game where you just try to get it write.

The real innovation here is something that is beyond Twine's basic capabilities (although it could be implemented if someone worked hard at it). The game starts giving you mathematical formulas so that you can use a limited set of commands (something like, "To examine a room, add 50 to the first page that you enter the room in.") this makes the game both fun and challenging, because you can't easily reverse engineer the game, and you have to keep track of all the formulas.

The game includes a variety of bonus material and is fun. The story is not quite as exciting as most good Twine games, but the novelty of the presentation really made this game enjoyable for me.

Recommended due to fun factor.

This game is set in a military school after an attack that has left you, a teacher, weak and helpless. You have to give orders to six children, each of which has their own problems. Together, you have to get out.

I played with this game for about a half hour to get a feel for it before going to the walkthrough. For puzzle fans, it's worth trying much longer, teasing out the next step, etc.

For those using David W's walkthrough, note that the walkthrough itself contains major spoilers at the very end (which makes sense), so it is perhaps best to go through it in order. However, I still enjoyed the game as I was spoiled.

The writing and setting are excellent, as in the other IFComp game by VanEseltine I tried, One Eye Open. If you like a sense of urgency, of hope fighting against darkness, of slick implementation, then both these games are for you.

Myriad is classic Porpentine, though overshadowed by her later work. Bizarre, surreal scenes filled with bodily fluids, strong profanity, gender references, and insectoids.

The game is clever and daring. However, playing it right after IFComp 2015 gave me a new perspective on Porpentine. I had thought that the emotional effectiveness of many of her pieces DEPENDED on the disgusting, gritty, profaneness of it all.

But I feel like Summit achieved a similar effect with a more subdued approach. Birdland gives a compelling portrait of LGBTQ life. I feel like the Twine world is developing in new directions now.

(Note that Howling Dogs, while it's a few years old now, also manages to be incredibly compelling while differing strongly from her ealier work).

This is the third Tia Orisney game I have tried. I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and Alistair Maclean, and this game was a great homage to them.

Set in Russia, you are a thief coming to pick up your stash. You meet a cast of 10 characters, and deaths start to happen.

The game is in Twine. Most paths are identical in result, but the game feels very interactive because the choices feel REALLY important (e.g. do you attack someone or team up with them?)

Orisney's games are their own genre, closer to old CYOA books, and in that genre they are superb. This game has more rough edges than Following Me or Kane County, though. The warden is called WARD once, some notes slipped into the text (something like "click snd choice to continue"), "brake" is mispelled as "break". Also, the plot has a few big holes in it, but most murder mysteries do.

Overall, the rough edges were made up for by the great story. I may come back and play this again in the future just for fun. I'd read a book by Orisney for sure.

In this game, you do everything you can to avoid having your son die. You have to replay the game over and over again.

The game gives you plenty of hints on how to do better next time, and there are 8 or less endings. Some verbs are hard to guess, but typing 'hint' gives some mild hints.

The writing and implementation are so-so, and the game does not last long. It's been about 7 years since the game came out, but I feel that a new release could resolve a lot of issues and make the game great.

Like So Far, All Hope Abandon, and a large number of other games, Losing Your Grip is a trip through the subconscious.

The game is filled with beautiful and crazy imagery. For instance, the opening scene consists of (Spoiler - click to show)you standing in the mud next to someone buried up to their neck who resignedly chides you.

I tried this game without hints, and it was very hard. I explored every room in the first main area, tried everything I could think of, and I only got 2 points out of 100.

The game was previously shareware (i.e. you got a limited version, then pay for more), but now the author has released it for free (well, over a decade ago). It comes with well-written feelies, and ifdb has a walkthrough or two.

I cannot say how much I enjoyed playing through this game.

This is the first IF game I've played in another language, and it was actually very enjoyable. I had to dust off my german and use google translate to get most of the commands (I didn't know 'look under', 'turn on the lights', 'extinguish' etc.) I got one hint from ifwizz.de

The game is set in a 6-room apartment. The girl you're interested in has to leave for 30 minutes, and has asked you to watch her 4-year old Kai. Unfortunately, as soon as she leaves, Kai steals your lighter and sets fire to a trashcan!

No matter what you do, Tanja comes home after a half hour, and she talks it out with you. The talks range from very bad to very good. Fortunately, the talks give you hints on replay.

As indicated on ifwizz.de, there is a bit of 'guess the noun' going on here. Occasionally, if you are looking for something, you have to use the exactly correct adjective-noun combination.

I'm grateful to have tried IF in a new language, and I recommend this game. Maybe the authors should translate it for next years IFComp.