Reviews by MathBrush

Unbeknown is one of those games that is hard to discuss without spoiling it. It is mostly a sci-fi game, mid-length, with two significant endings. It was created for IFComp 2015.

Alan De Niro has produced some incredible writing before, with Solarium and Deadline Enchanter being my favorites. So I entered into this game with high hopes.

However, it draws most of its imagery and setting from a place that I don't really identify with:(Spoiler - click to show)an MMORPG, a genre I tried one summer, but didn't really get into. This impacts my experience, but will probably enhance the game for those with more familiarity with that area.

The game offered a couple of choices that were especially interesting, and which were the highlights of the game to me: (Spoiler - click to show)the choice of name was especially significant to me; I chose the love interest's name once, and I let Able name me once, too. The other big choice is whether the past keeps up with you or not.

Overall, something didn't click for me, keeping this game from being perfect. But it is a good game, and I still recommend it to everyone.

This choicescript game was recommended to me, and I really enjoyed it. It is free, unlike many "Choice of" games, and well-developed. You are a dragon, and like other Choice of games, you have a variety of stats (honor/cunning, finesse/brutality, etc.)

The story was written well, with a good swords and sorcery vibe that I've really missed among IF games. Dragons, wizards, paladins, demons, goblins, all behaving like a D&D game instead of the usual introspective deconstructions popular in IF.

I really enjoyed crafting a cunning finesse dragon, although I died once and got my butt kicked another time. The delayed effect of the choices makes the puzzles significant. I had heard it was hard to get a mate, and indeed I was not able to.

I enjoyed the goblin NPC. If Choice of Games had been more well-known in the IF community in 2010, I feel this would have been nominated for some awards.

This IFComp 2015 Inform game has many parallels with Losing Your Grip; it includes someone taking an experimental medication that causes hallucinations/dreams; it includes a recurring grim authority figure; it includes boxes with hard-to-open packing tape; and it has several moments when you wake up.

Beyond that, they're pretty different. This game is open and non-linear, with many different avenues you can pursue at once. I played it first with a walkthrough, and then tried it again without a walkthrough two weeks later. I got stuck again at the very end, and had to check the walkthrough. There are two points in the game that are fairly underclued, including the main interesting mechanic.

The map consits of a small house and a rectangular grid-like city, with a path connecting them. The city is small, with one building or less per grid spot and each building having one or two rooms each with one or two items.

Overall, this is a game that is good but could use some tune-up on cluing and on some guess-the-verbs (for instance, you can CONSULT BOOKS ABOUT but you can't LOOK UP). A postcomp release would be great.

To Burn in Memory is an IFComp 2015 game. It has a visual style very different from other CYOA games such as Twine. It is all black with intricate white tracings underneath the text, and a series of icons on either side of the screen indicates what objects you pick up.

The writing style matches the visual richness. The opening line is a good example:‘Breathtaking isn't it?’ says Salandré, gesturing out over the vista, ‘Here is the city as I saw it — empty, painted in rust and gold, below tormented skies writhing in cruel fire.’ she continues, in a tone somewhere between opera and pantomime. ...

The gameplay consists of exploring an abandoned city, activating stored memories, and gathering keys to open different doors.

The game has a strong sense of melancholy. Because of its stylistic innovations, everyone should try out the first part of the game, until you've gathered a few items. Those who want to can then continue.

This longish game has a pretty big map, after a bottlenecking first room. You explore a world where philosophical thought experiments are given life (Plato's cave, Zeno's paradox, etc.) Philosophers are also there: Marx, Plato, Rand, and others.

The game was generally fun, but before I get to the good, I had three bones to pick:

1. The game insults those who look for a walkthrough. To me, this implies that the authors strongly believe that their game is coded well enough that someone who knows the solution to a puzzle will be able to type in the correct answer without a problem. This brings me to the second point:

2. The implementation is spotty; you must (Spoiler - click to show)LIGHT LANTERN WITH LIGHTER, not LIGHT LANTERN, and this is typical of several other parts of the game. When poor implementation abounds, it is frequently necessary to seek help.

3. The game has a condescending tone. The player is an educated atheistic male. The game has some issues with 'male gaze' (although see the comment below by Sobol), includes female philosophers but has little interaction with them, and has the same tone towards religion as reddit's atheism board: "Aren't we so glad that we are superior to those silly peasants with their moral fables?" In fact, the game bashes on religion as much as it can.

I normally don't point out flaws in the works I play, but I can't stand this much smugness.

Outside of that, the game itself is enjoyable, and the puzzles are fun. Quite a few of the puzzles depend on examining things twice (once to see something interesting, then again to see what you need). The in-game help system was well-done, and the images and writing were imaginative.

Recommended for puzzle fiends and those interested in philosophy.

This short IFcomp 2015 game is, I think, the author's first game, though they are planning on future games. You play a king who has to face the day and his people, and needs to find his King and crown.

This game is notable in that the hidden content massively outnumbers the actual puzzles. The game can be beaten in less than 10 turns. However, the ending is very different, depending on your actions. There are magic words, background stories to find in the scenery, and a hidden part of a novel, as well as a ton of customized error messages and such.

Overall, I would like to see the author make a longer game with similar attention to detail. It would be difficult, but having that much hidden stuff, coupled with more puzzles and a longer plot arc, would make for a great and memorable game.

This is an IFComp 2015 game. You get hired to type for a disabled alien in a future where aliens are common.

The game has a short series of moral choices, some of which you can backtrack on, and few of which are clearcut. Although this was not clear to me at first, I later realized that the different endings are, in fact, very different, sometimes in ways not clearly connected to the choices you make.

Overall, it's not a very long game, and it has some interesting replay content. Recommended to those who find the blurb interesting, as I did.

Crossroads is an IFComp 2015 Twine game about choices and a witch. Unlike most IF games which have paths that temporarily branch then converge, Crossroads branches and stays branched. Some paths visit your past, some involve only mild fantasy, some involve sci fi, some let you type material in, etc.

All of the branches have the common theme of desperation. Well, I think they all do; I doubt anyone besides the author has found all of the branches.

Each branch is fairly short. This game becomes better and better the more you play it.

This IfComp 2015 game is mid-length, and is full of reversed compound nouns (so, for instance, you are Alec Smart, seeking out the Complex Messiah).

The big inspiration here is the Phantom Tollbooth. As in that book, the clever jokes are the focus, with story being out to the sidelines. Also like the book, you wander about the world, undertaking different quests and talking to interesting characters.

Much of the game is social commentary, specifically on 'smart people'; those who are socially awkward, those who are pretentious, those who are idolized, etc.

I beta tested this game, and it was interesting to see how much work the author put into revisions; many things in the game are vastly different from before, fortunately, the author allows you to tour sections of the game that were removed, which is a very nice bonus.


Recommended for fans of the Phantom Tollbooth, or those interested in games that comment on real-life issues.

This IFComp 2015 game is written using inklewriter. It contains a fairly large amount of text for an interactive fiction game, but it stops at the most interesting point of the story. To me, it felt like the first two chapters of a long novel.

The story is about time travel, and is complicated and intricate. It is clear that the author is excellent at worldbuilding; I read through this game twice, about two weeks apart, and the second time I appreciated the story much more. I was excited to read more, and I hope the author continues the story.

There are a couple of typos, but I think the author may be fixing them, as I remember there being more the first time I read it.

So this story is more of non-interactive fiction, but it is not bad for a sci-fi short story.