Reviews by MathBrush

Galatea is set in an artificial intelligence exhibit. Galatea, a stone woman brought to life, has mistakenly (or purposefully) been placed here.

You are a journalist, interviewing her to determine how good her "artificial intelligence" is. The answers can lead to anger, romance, supernatural effects, and a host of other possibilities.

It is a fun game to play through a few times. The conversation system is just asking her about more and more things, but the variety is endless.

This game was groundbreaking when it was first released, although later innovations have improved on it (such as the major NPC in Blue Lacuna). This game remains an enjoyable classic, because it isn't just technically impressive, it's enjoyable.

Suveh Nux is a great game. It is a mid-length one-room fantasy game where you have to learn a magical language to escape a vault. You have to learn the grammer, the vocabulary, and some numbers.

One things that makes this game fun that I didn't appreciate when I first played IF is that EVERYTHING is implemented. Anything you think you could do with the spells, you can do. You can destroy everything in the room. There are 5 or more subpuzzles that you can completely miss without the author's note at the end.

I haven't gone back to revisit the game in years, because learning the language is much of the attraction, and it wouldn't be as hard this time. But I definitely recommend the game to everyone.

One eye open was an IFComp game much longer than two hours. In it, you play someone being tested for psychics powers.

Without giving away too much, this is a search-the-lab game similar to Babel, but with gruesome gore in the vein of the SCP foundation (like SCP-610, for instance). The horror has also been compared to the Poltergeist.

Somehow Vespers and Varicella disturbed me more than this game. In a way, the horror are not as scary because of the way that they are described, but they provide a coherent atmosphere. There are many endings, many Easter eggs.

There was no profanity, no sexual material. Not recommended for most people, due to the gore. I probably won't play it again because of it.

Tonight Dies the Moon has two games, one you play from the earth, and one from the moon.

The moon game is a purposely unfair farming simulator, where you try to grow crops and struggle in the mud. I don't know if I've reached an ending in Moon mode.

The earth game is an interesting mix of office work with satire about television and an arcade game with real implications.

I had mixed feelings about the game. It is technically exquisite, but I didn't really feel caught up in it. The writing isn't bad; I enjoyed the bits about TV. I just felt like I was looking at another world through a window, instead of really being there. Those who like Frog Fractions would like this game.

This speed IF came from a competition where participants where given 'blurbs' about their game, which they had to incorporate.

The game contains a few yes/no questions, and then the ending, where you can take various actions. This determines one of many endings.

The game has plenty of blood, some arrogant characters, and some crazy fantasy sections. As a real game, it's not much. As speed IF, it is well written and complex.

This game is intended for beginners, and seems almost like a demo of a new system, but only in the way that Galatea was the demo for a new system (I.e. It is still well-polished).

The new system is interesting. You can instantly return to any of the dozen or so locations by typing X [LOCATION]. You can talk to anyone, anywhere, or take any item, without traveling there first.

The plot itself is just vaguely sketched out. There are hints about who you are, some big hints about the red prince, very little history. The game is short.

Basically, you are an adventurer and scholar who is trying to stop the Red Prince who lives in a castle above a village.

Overall, though, it was a fun experience, and a nice change from Lovecraftian horror.

Trinity surprised me by being a fantasy game about nuclear weapons. I expected the game to have a sci-if feel like Jigsaw or Babel, but this game was very similar to the feel of Moriarty's other Infocom game, Wishbringer. In both games, you travel from an opening, normal world to a parallel world, where helpful animals, witches, cemeteries and grim birds await.

I loved exploring the main area of Trinity, and accessing several of the mini-areas. Brian is stunningly creative; I didn't realize until recently that he also wrote Loom, one of my favorite graphical games of all time. The sheer ingenuity of it all is wonderful.

I began running out of steam forward after visiting four of the sub areas. I went to a walkthrough, and discovered that I had forgotten to revisit some area with new equipment, and hadn't searched some scenery items that I didn't know we're searchable. This opened up two more mini areas, which I explored a little bit more before using a walkthrough the rest of the game.

The final area was a beast, although everything is fairly well hinted at. Or not... In any case, I loved this game. I can't help but enjoy this author's worldview.

This game gives me mixed feelings. On one hand, the constant hunger issue (or addiciion issue) is annoying, and the big puzzle is a "collect an enormous number of items and decipher the formula for a magic spell" puzzle, which I am terrible at.

This game is loosely based on The Raven, diverging into Lovecraft horror near the end.

On the other hand, I loved the beginning of the game, exploring, not knowing what is going on. But I lost interest about a third of the way through. I read through a transcript to see what kind of things were necessary for the rest of the game. It looked interesting, but hinges on a very difficult puzzle.

I recommend everyone at least start the game, and then see how far your interests take you.

Note: This review was written months in advance. A week before this review was published, another review came out saying that counterfeit monkey was overwhelming and was very negative about the author and game in general. While I was overwhelmed, I think this is an incredible game, and that the author is extremely talented.

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Counterfeit Monkey is a technical marvel of wordplay and implementation. The game is a large exploration game where you can alter almost any item by adding or removing letters, reversing letters, performing anagrams, etc.

This game has been rated highly by the majority of those who played it, and I must praise its puzzles, writing, implementation, and craftsmanship.

These very qualities led me to feel overwhelmed playing this game. I had a similar experience with Blue Lacuna. In both games, so much is implemented that I had a hard time thinking of what to do next. In both games, you have a certain sense of urgency, so you want to move forward, but both reward experimentation. So I have a feeling of being torn in two directions (much like the protagonist of this game).

I wonder if the reason I feel drawn to interactive fiction in general is its minimalist, constrained atmosphere. Games like Zork or Curses! where you are noone, and exploration is the only goal; games like Glass, where you can only steer a conversation; games like Rogue of The Multiverse that are split into several parts with clear goals. Even games like Ad Verbum, which mirror the puzzle parts of Counterfeit Monkey without the plot.

Most will not feel the same as me, but I love the minimalism and asceticism of classic games, and I don't know if I enjoy those games which have been built up into a rich, huge world.

Bigger Than You Think is what you get when a master of parser fiction writes a Twine game. The result is a Twine game with an interesting, complicated map; large inventory system; and interesting narrative. It's a sort of hybrid between traditional games and modern twine games.

Does it work? It's certainly fun to get started. For me, because I didn't draw a map, it felt more or less overwhelming; you are basically searching through a binary tree repeatedly until you have exhausted all options. After a few runs, I just used a walkthrough to see the end.

The repetitiveness comes from the fact that you have to repeatedly restart the game.

The inventory system is fun. It's more merciful than I had supposed; I used up a one-shot item in one run, and was worried that I had lost my chance. However, the item was still used at the critical moment; once it is used, it is always used.