Ratings and Reviews by MathBrush

I knew what De Baron was like before I tried it, so its my own fault, but this game made me feel bad and uncomfortable. Many people equate this with greatness, which explains why books like The Kiterunner are so popular. But in both this game and the Kiterunner, I feel the author is simply going for shock value.

This game centers around a man in search of his daughter, who is held captive by an evil Baron. In travelling to the baron, you meet a linear succession of creatures and characters, with some exploration required. Everything is vastly symbolic, and includes long, philosophical conversations.

The baron has dark intentions for your daughter, and you yourself have some issues to work out.

I played this game, so I can't tell others not to; but I can say that I think that you can get your fix of philosophy and deepness in better ways.

Note that the author and others have provided an alternative viewpoint in the comments.

I avoided this game for some time, as I knew it had some disturbing content, but I was curious, so I went in and played through it. I feel, looking back, that I didn't really need to do so.

The gameplay is intricate, with six or more NPCs taking actions every turn. You play one of many possible regents to a young prince who must battle for supremacy. The game is mostly set in a blend of medieval, modern, and slightly futuristic technology.

Each enemy is deeply flawed. Some are motivated by greed, others by lust. The game deals with pedophilia, repeated rape, murder, alcoholism, misogyny, etc. These topics don't make a game bad, if they are handled well; but the game has a worldview that makes you squirm, where you are implicit in violence and death, and where human happiness is impossible.


Other people may not have the same reaction. Heck, I played it for quitea bit, before usinv a walkthrough to the end, making me hypocritical. But I can't recommend it in general.

This is a game that very acvurately portrays a horrible situation, and thus left me feeling uncomfortable. Its not the kind of game I enjoy playing.

You play the abbot of a monastery that has been afflicted with plague, and you have to take control of the situation while everyone goes crazier and crazier.

The game features many npcs and strong moral choices. You can choose to do truly horrible things, including (Spoiler - click to show)rape, murder, eating corpses,etc., and egen if you choose the best paths, people around you (Spoiler - click to show)crucify others, violently commit suicide, etc.

I'm not proud that I completed this game. I came back to it years later, like scratching a scab you know you shouldn't.

Up front, I will say that I stopped playing halfway through when I had to go through a sex scene to advance the plot for the third or fourth time. It was just too much.

In this game, you explorea large rectangular world with pirates, an arena, and a giant, as well as robots and rockets. You level up by defeating weak enemies. The game comes bundled with a mock RPG gamebook.

The game is pretty fun, but it just grates on me when every woman js hypersexualizes and sex is the only way forward, even if it is a parody. Other may disagree.

This game is about a warrior who destroys a baron, only to discover himself cursed. You wander around a castle while investigating hidden rooms, ancient texts, and complicated puzzles, as well as running into some NPC's. The atmosphere is anti-heroic.

The main attraction of the game is the nature of the curse, which messes with IF conventions.(Spoiler - click to show)As the game progresses, room descriptions and objects become less and less implemented, until each room is just a number with nothing in it.

In this game, you are repeatedly asked questions, and each questions has two answers you can click on.

The questions are philosophical (What does it mean for movement to be an illusion?, for instance). This is the whole game. The only ending I reached was one that told me I was asking the wrong questions, aftef I asked what enlightenment was.

This philosophical work works better as Twine than it would as static fiction, but it was not the type of thing I look for when finding games.

The date on this game is 2014, and as of 2015, it is just three pages of french vocabulary with one or two tests.

This game is not yet completed at all.

Entropy Cage is one of those games where I thought the app I had downloaded onto my old nook had glitched, because within seconds of starting, some numerical address said it needed to be reseeded. I thought the android app's random number generator was glitching.

Welcome to Entropy Cage. The game involves you, a robopsychologist who must diagnose issues with AI's that are supposed to be running the world.

The game gets more interesting the further you progress, and some reviewers have noted the game's ability to avoid common cliches. However, it gets monotonous at points, as you diagnose dozens of robot clients in rapid succession (each with a single click).

This game was well-received in the 2014 IFComp, coming in 14th out of 40 something in a competition that traditionally favors parser games (which require text input). I'd look forward to another game by this author.

Many people seem put off by the homey charm of this Christmas game, perhaps more interested in gore or adult content. But this ASCII-art using winter game is deep and well-polished, and on the longer end for an IFComp game. It won the comp for a good reason.

First, it is beautiful. Visually, the ASCII art and color scheme help the immersion (I loved the snowflakes in the status bar). And the descriptions and responses of the text are all well-crafted and contribute to the atmosphere significantly.

Second, the puzzles are ingenious, though some reasonable alternatives are not implemented. The majority of the game centers on magical creatures, and working with them. NPC interaction is present, though limited, as is usual in games of this time period.

The story starts out extraordinarily over sweetly, but I enjoyed it, and it soon became a magic-themed puzzle fest. This game drew me in, and I would love to see more games with a fun family atmosphere instead of gritty dystopias or gruesome underground labs.

Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy is co-written by Douglas Adams, and the strong prose shows this. The game is very imaginative and vibrant.

On the other hand, the puzzles are (I assume) by Steve Meretzky, who is one of my least favorite puzzle writers from Infocom. Sorcerer, though great, was my least favorite Enchanter game, and I get tired of Planetfall early on. So when I started this game, I was scared of any misstep sending me on a wild goose chase into an unsavable state.

So I just used a walkthrough and sailed through the game, enjoying the witty prose. I plan to go back and read more of the room descriptions and the actual guide. I often find that this approach works with very difficult or unfair games, because the second playthrough can be done without a walkthrough, allowing your memory to help you on some puzzles but still having fun with those you forgot.

The game has several puzzles that are frequently referenced in interactive fiction reviews and forums: the Babel-fish puzzle, and the tea. It may be worthwhile to play through with a walkthrough just to see these.

Note that Douglas Adams released this game for free when Activision went a long time without selling it. I don't know the current status of it, but he intended to freely distribute it at least once in the past. It is not available on Lost Treasures of Infocom for iPad, my usual go-to place for Infocom games.