Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

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.

This game is a one-trick pony. At first, I thought it would be a random text generator like Begscape. However, it turned out to be much simpler.

Once I thought it through, I enjoyed it. Not much else to say.

This game is known for 3 things:

1. Doing a good job of recreating the vibe of Varicella, where numerous NPCs are on strict timetables and can be manipulated.

2. Having a strong narrative voice of a competitive kid with a stage mom.

3. Being very, very (perhaps unfairly) hard.

I played through with the walkthrough and really enjoyed it. I don't know anyone who solved more than 1 or 2 of the puzzles on their own. In such games, I like to play through once with the walkthrough, and then play it again a month or two later so that it's still a challenge, but you know what you generally have to do.

This is a frankly fantastic game, and it should have more recognition.

This review has some early spoilers and spoils one big concept; however, it let's you know how to avoid any explicit content
(Spoiler - click to show)

Narcolepsy has a great concept; the main character has narcolepsy, and every time they fall asleep, they enter a different, randomly chosen dream, each written by a different IF author.

Even better, this is actually three different games, and which game you play is governed by your first few actions.

Unfortunately, some branches have pretty explicit and unpleasant content.

One branch involves a klutz spy agency. This branch was my least favorite, requiring a lot of wandering around. Also, it has a running joke where you got port spam emails which are just as explicit and gross as real life ones blocked by filters. I stopped playing twice because I was disgusted; but I'm glad I tried the other branches.

Branch 2 involves your sister a lot. I loved this branch, and it was one of the funnest games I've played in a while. Also, it had very little adult content.

The third involves holes, and this one was pretty funny, with some old school game references. Part of it takes place in a strip club, though, but it's not very explicit.

I can strongly recommend the middle branch, obtained by answering the phone first.

This well-researched difficult game takes characters on a tour through the history of New York, much like A Mind Forever Voyaging took players through a fictional city's history.

Unlike Voyaging,this is a very hard puzzle game. I've been playing many early XYZZY awards, and this is a classic late 90's game. Excellent writing, clever puzzles, but no way on earth you'll get them. Multi-object puzzles involving creative uses of items from every area of the game, bizarre required actions, etc. This is not bad, it's just the period's ideal. I used a walkthrough the whole time.

I loved the writing, and the obvious love of the author for New York and its history. The various ranks you get correspond to real historical New York mayors.

This is a speedcomp game (entered in Ludum Dare) about an old west cowboy who is being pursued by a mysterious figure. You can remember advice, choose something to help you, and choose where to hide.

Every page has 8-bit style graphics, which reminded me a lot of Oregon Trail.

The game invites you to replay it several times. I went through three rounds of playing through the game.

The twist is not really my cup of tea, but overall, this is a strong game.

Best of Three is a menu-driven conversation game by Emily Short set entirely in the real world.

The game is a vast labyrinth of twisting conversation and topics. The characters are classic Short characters; young, independent, world-wise woman and slightly older, cynical and slightly dissipated man.

The game has a grey and 'ending' feeling. I have only played to one ending so far, and I assume there is a better one, but no matter what, there is no black-and-white happy ending in this game. But I still enjoyed it.

I put off this game for a long time because of the profanity in the opening scene; often. Once I started it, I was pleased to see that it had disappeared.

One playthrough took around 15 minutes.