Reviews by MathBrush

This is an Ink game that takes a couple of hours to play. It's set in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, where a powerful vampire asks you to help cover up a murder.

Along the way, you meet a lot of different groups of interest, a talented artists, several unusual and uncanny vampires, and a whole lot of trouble.

I'm a fan of the choice of games line of Vampire: The Masquerade titles. This one is smaller in scope than those, but has its own satisfying storyline.

I played as a Malkavian (sp?) and enjoyed numerous opportunities to use my abilities. That's usually my favorite part of these games, having a chance to flex supernatural powers.

I did encounter one bug, which I'll pass on to the authors, and I got confused at one point when the game wanted me to go back to places I had already 'completed' because it had added new material but didn't tell me that (so I thought it was bugged, asking me to complete something I already had).

The two parts of this game that shined out the most to me were the descriptions and the multitude of options.
-The descriptions, especially of the art, the occult shop, and the Malkavian visions, was really vibrant, like the textual equivalent of a Van Gogh painting with adjectives and senses slathered thickly on the canvas.
-The game gave me huge freedom near the end, including selling something really important to several different groups and whether to fight or run. I backed the anarchists all the way and ran.

But I think the large amount of groups was also a weakness, because each one was thinly developed. To really flesh out each group would make this game enormous (which is one reason Vampire: the Masquerade--Night Road is so big). By fleshing out, I mean that most of my interactions with any given faction were limited to one area, asking a few questions, and offering them something. Perhaps I'm being too greedy in asking for the factions to have more character, more interactions or side stories, etc., or perhaps I missed some content.

Overall, though, I think this was a successful game. It might be slightly less accessible to those who aren't fans of VtM but it does a good job of explaining core concepts.

Alltarach is a well-polished Twine game that tells the tale of a young woman whose only close family member, a brother, has left their island home to travel to the mainland of Ireland.

This young woman has to travel to chase after him and find out why he left. Along the way, she meets a variety of pagan and Christian Irish folk and a number of mythological figures.

The story feels like a modern translation of the Odyssey or Iliad, where gods can appear to mortals but some see them as just people while others get a hint of the truth. It also (for obvious reasons) reminded me in a good way of a book of Irish legends I read in college; I really enjoyed the myths about Cuchulain (sp?) and was excited to see him reappear here.

The game features numerous words from the Irish language and has a handy pronunciation/translation mouseover for each. I've learned many languages in my life, but the first I ever tried to learn was Irish; I bought books for it, but unfortunately I remember nothing (except little tidbits that I've butchered like 'Is mise Sean o Brian' or 'Ta me i mo chonai i uimhir tri sraid bhor, arasan a do'). So it was fun to see that here.

The story had a lot of humanity. It felt gritty/grimy, like it would have a grey filter if filmed for TV. The art contributed to the overall feel. A world of grim beauty undercut by humor.

I didn't like the prolifity of the F-word, featured frequently on many pages. It may very well be historically accurate and fits the personalities of the characters, yet I didn't like it personally. Everyone has their own taste; to me its like raw red onions are to Scott Conant.

Overall, great production, fun game, nice art.

This game is the first three chapters of a potentially longer game. Still, it is very hefty as is, and took a couple of hours to play for me.

The worldbuilding is strong here, which makes sense as it is set in the same world as a previous game (although it stood alone, for me). There are several kingdoms in conflict with each other, and you are employed by one of them due to your royal blood.

However, fate brings you into contact with the Kitherin (sp?), a mystical group that connect magically with mythical animals.

Most of the game so far revolves around meeting the other Kitherin and engaging in training with them.

It was interesting playing this game after recently touring a Daoist temple, with multiple shrines to different Gods, as well as the Summer Palace near Beijing, with its symbolic mystical animals. I felt like the setting in this game would be very much in place there, especially with the Phoenix and Dragon connections.

This is a Heart's Choice game, so the emphasis is on romance. I don't want explicit sex scenes in a game, but the characters were lovable, so I was glad to be able to fine tune my choices (cuddling, nothing sexual). I spent the most time with Rae, and found a lot of content with her, and I declined content with others, and saw less, which sounds like it should be normal but a lot of games get that wrong (constantly pressuring you to interact with people you don't like).

There is a lot of detail here and it can be kind of hard to keep track of which ridiculously attractive temple-goer is which; it helps that they contrast in experience/age and in jobs (like rune-maker), so mentioning those things helps me keep track.

I don't feel like the opening really meshes well with the rest. I had a bird companion and was excited to be close to it, so when I found out I could bound with animals, I thought, 'I can bond with my bird!' but actually you bound and become close with another animal you just met. Similarly, the intro part feels much more low-fantasy while the rest feels high-fantasy. I like the latter part more, and in fact started the game a couple of times and put it down before pushing through the intro to what I think of as 'the good parts'.

I think this will be a fun game when finished. For now, a slightly lower score due to its incomplete state.

This is an interesting game, entered into the Text Adventure Literacy Jam. It explores a small village and hotel in rural Japan, and includes a variety of Japanese monsters.

The emphasis here is definitely on introducing aspects of Japan to outsiders; I see the author has, on the itch page, credited others with help on being accurate, which is nice. The game goes into loving detail over the names of different mats, cabinets, etc. and includes a notepad with interesting terms and an encyclopedia/dictionary to look them up in.

My favorite part was the ending reveal, which I didn't see coming at all but seemed clear in retrospect.

The game does suffer a bit in implementation. Many objects are referred to by names that you cannot use for them (like 'friend' for your friend) and you can only CONSULT BOOK ABOUT _____ instead of LOOK UP _____ IN BOOK (which I could have sworn was Inform's default behavior anyway). A few interactions weren't clear to me (at one point I had no money, but once I did it didn't show up in inventory and I could buy tons of different things).

Overall, the enthusiasm of the author in presenting Japan feels like a big positive. My only drawbacks were some of the above-mentioned implementation issues, and a moderate lack of variation in the narrator's emotional tone, but they were enough to limit my overall enjoyment.

This game was entered in the Text Adventure literacy jam. It includes a brief tutorial where you take a nap, encounter a violent earthquake and are led to another world lying underneath yours!

The gameplay revolves around exploring the fantasy world, picking up items, often magical, and using them, frequently through the use of riddles.

The game makes heavy use of AI art to provide location images. It provides vivid and detailed images, but due to lack of consistent themes it made it difficult to really imagine the way things were.

I found the gameplay both polished and unpolished. On the one hand, several puzzles were well-clued and suggested the commands to be used. On the other hand, some simple things were difficult to do (to go to sleep, I couldn't SLEEP or ENTER BED but had to LIE DOWN ON BED, for instance). A frequent issue I encountered was that the solution to one problem was often very far away from the problem itself, which meant that a lot of the game involved just grabbing everything and hoping it would eventually be useful. You may say, 'but all games are like that! Zork! Adventureland!' and that is true, so if you liked the gameplay in those games you may like this style. I played about 1/3 on my own and used a walkthrough for the rest.

Somehow the story and setting felt like it was consistent in each scene but not consistent altogether. There is an overarching story with recurring characters, but outside of that a lot is random. The world is accessed through a ravine in your world, so it's like a 'portal' story. But then you go through another portal, so it's like an isekai within an isekai, but the second portal journy isn't really remarked on. You go from unused stairways to a city and from descending a dungeon area to being outdoors. Things like a pirate are included, but why? Plot points are repeated, like your cat running off and you rescuing her. Nevertheless, each component was fun.

Overall, it was interesting, and felt a lot like a playthrough of AI dungeon, except it's a single story, not a collection of them. So the best part of the game for me was the sense that everything would be new and unexpected in each new area, but I missed a sense of cohesiveness and purpose.

I was talking to someone about Quest games, and searched for the top rated Quest games of all time. It brought this up as number 1, a game by two-time IFComp winner Steph Cherrywell! I had seen it before, but never got around to playing it.

I strongly recommend downloading Quest to play this. Online, it gets slower and slower and eventually halts altogether. Offline, it worked great.

In this game, you play as a magical student coming back to your academy after a break. This is a small-scale school; less Harry Potter, more like X-Men school sized.

You have a spellbook with you, but it's blank! You can encounter up to five different spells.

Gameplay revolves around rescuing your friends (and maybe some not friends) who've been struck by various magical curses. I remembered Jenny Yoshida from Brain Guzzler's from beyond, and then Mary Jane, before looking it up and realizing that the two games share much of the same cast (though they are set in different universes). Each student comes with a well-drawn profile picture.

The puzzles were tricky for me. All were well-clued, and generally revolved around finding uses for each item or spell you find. But a lot of error messages aren't helpful if you almost get the right answer but not quite. The hardest part for me was (Spoiler - click to show)carving the jack o lantern(Spoiler - click to show). I tried (Spoiler - click to show)CUT PUMPKIN, CUT PUMPKIN WITH KNIFE, CARVE PUMPKIN, etc. So struggling with the parser adds to the difficulty. I ended up consulting a walkthrough several times.

The writing and setting is very charming, making this game overall very fun to play, despite my struggles. I'm glad the author went on to make hit after hit.

This French game is designed to run on an Amstrad CPC emulator. It comes with pixel art.

This was tough; I often struggle with old-school games, and playing in French wasn't helping! I did find 2 out of 5 endings, and feel satisfied with that.

You are asked by an oracle in your village to explore an old chapel and find a monk named Hermes. You must solve a series of puzzles to figure out how to save your land!

The biggest puzzles revolve around creating potions. I never found amanita mushrooms, one of the ingredients, so I likely missed the best ending. But I managed to brew two of the others.

I enjoy games that have two worlds, and this game does that. The pixel art is interesting. The only thing that was grating was the slow fake 'loading' the emulator does every screen. Yes, I remember playing games in the 90s where the PC would chug and slowly load each screen. It was nostalgic the first 50 times. But as the game goes on it certainly loses its charm!

Apparently there's a way to win the game in one move, which is interesting!

This is a long and complex Twine game with some interesting mechanics.

You come upon an abandoned place with a single resident. Together, you rebuild a mighty city, primarily by telling stories to attract new residents. This lets you build new buildings.

At night, you visit another city, one that is grand. But there is trouble...

The storytelling mechanics have you pick a genre, a format, and some sliders of emotions. You then get what seems like a randomized mini-review from one listener and then an overall critique based on your choices, as well as 15 money.

It was hard to find new genres at first, and money seems to never have any use, despite me building a bank and a marketplace (it said I needed to make an account, but never had a chance). So those parts seemed underdeveloped to me.

Overall, this is a rich story. It uses written French dialect, dropping several vowels, and has some circumlocutory tendencies. So I'm sure I missed a great deal of nuance. As far as I can tell:
(Spoiler - click to show)There was a large town dedicated to immortality through knowledge. They had a library that was a temple to a God, and one day that God and its sibling decided to destroy the city while its leader was out on a trip. They sent a dragon whose flame condemned the city to the dream world. Some of that flame lived on in the house of Luv, who tended it in their fireplace. Due to the flame's continued existence, the dream city was still falling apart, in due measure as the city grows. Luv represents something--maybe a reincarnation of the dream-city's leader, or maybe the dragon, or maybe a god, or something. Eventually you get the choice to extinguish the flame and return the city of old, or keep it).

It's one of the better games of the year I have played so far.

Whew! This game strained my poor Anglophone brain, as it is written in a fancy style of French and a cursive font. There is a very large amount of text as well, so I had to use all my forces to persevere!

But the story itself was interesting enough to carry on. It consists of letters written between two women, although I believe every letter is from the point of view of Isabella, a woman who became a doctor in Paris before being ejected and forced to return to the village of her home. Her lover, Olympia, is left behind. Isabella must face the disapproval and suspicions of the villagers, as well as Olympia's jealousies when the pale, anemic, and beautiful Alice moves in next door.

Gameplay is a bit curious; as at least one other person noted on the forums, it bears some resemblance to The First Draft of the Revolution, where you select different cycling variations before confirming and moving on.

However, there are very large chunks of text between choices (large for me, maybe not for native speaker). These large gaps, and my suspicion that the choices didn't change much of the game, led me to assign a mental score of 4.

However, I had early on, in a separate window, clicked through quickly to see how long the game would be, and received an ending with a clear choice (to (Spoiler - click to show)destroy your letters or not). I was surprised when, in my real playthrough, I never encountered that passage. I used saves and found 2 endings in my own playthrough, and they were quite interesting. So when it became clear that this was actually fairly complex, I upgraded to five stars.

This story is based on classic gamebooks and fantasy tropes. You play as a dwarf in a village of dwarves, and can choose which class to play, which affects your stats. I chose to be a miner with high perception.

This game is already quite large, requiring a couple hours of play, and it's largely unfinished, with only two of three cities available (and, beyond that, there would likely be even more in a full game). There are a lot of randomized checks and things.

The art is, I believe, AI art, as zooming in on some scenes revealed oddities like three legs. However, it is unobtrusive and aesthetically worked overall (not discussing here the ethics of AI). Edit: Nightcafe is listed in credits for artwork.

The one currently finished city has a ton of different districts. There is a map, but instead of being used for navigation, it just serves as a visual cue while you actually select from a list of districts adjacent to your current one.

As you walk around, mini-stories fire off, providing you with new encounters like whether to chase down a missing guardsman or not.

Two things I would have preferred to be different: the map takes a while to load, making movement slow. I would have preferred the map to be optimized to load more quickly. Second, every time I entered the front gate a thief stole my purse and fighting it would just kill me, even if I loaded and tried again. It was really frustrating not having any chance to keep my money on me. And I found it difficult to find ways to heal; I thought maybe resting at my quarters could work, but couldn't find any. I eventually healed as the story progressed.

Overall, I thought the mushroom-brain thing was an interesting storyline, and the political aspects gave the game some complexity.