Reviews by MathBrush

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View this member's reviews by tag: 15-30 minutes 2-10 hours about 1 hour about 2 hours IF Comp 2015 Infocom less than 15 minutes more than 10 hours Spring Thing 2016
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REALLY, IF / REALLY, ALWAYS, by Dawn Sueoka
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting experiment with human-guided AI interaction, May 8, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is an interesting game. It's a conversation between ELIZA and some human-mediated input that is taken from a collection of computer-generated speech.

The conversations at first are pure nonsense, but later evolve into partial nonsense, with recurring themes of frustration, curiosity, and romance.

There are sexual references in one portion. The overall feel is one of experimental poetry, very appropriate for the Spring Thing competition.

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The 4th Break Up, by Papp RĂ³bert
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A short game using an rpg-maker that diagnoses your mental illness, May 8, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This interactive fiction game uses a unique engine: an RPG-maker.

There are no RPG elements, just dialog boxes. You have somewhere between 2-4 choices, and the game gives you a diagnosis of a mental illness.

There are some spelling mistakes, and the game is pretty short. But it's creative and uses images in an interesting way.

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Murder on the Big Nothing, by Tony Pisculli
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A clever parser take on memory and time with some unfinished corners, May 8, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game reminds me of last year's spring thing game Niney, where you gathered up 'roles' and distributed them to other characters.

This game isn't similar in form or content, but it's similar in creativity. Your motions affect time, and there are hidden stats affecting what you are able to do.

My main interest in playing this game was piecing together the backstory, which was fun.

There were some unifinished corners here and there; many of the standard responses (like X ME) are left with their standard forms. But I enjoyed this.

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The Imposter, by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A crisp and smooth small illustrated Windrift game, May 8, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is the first game to use Liza Daly's windrift system besides her own.

I found the writing in this game to be sharp and evocative; I loved it, and might nominate this for best writing of 2018 when that time comes around.

It's very short, and the interactivity is quite limited, but the visuals are placed very well, and the styling and writing come together in a really pleasing way.

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The Eyes That Look Back, by Leno
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A gripping short creepy story about identity , May 8, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

I found this short horror story compelling. You are someone, somewhere, intentionally vague, and you have a knack for finding faces on things.

The game is more than just that, of course, but I found it compelling, especially with the multimedia.

I don't want to say too much about it, because experiencing it all is the point. I wasn't satisfied with the conclusions of the piece though, even after experimentation. But that's something that's due to personal taste.

This has nothing to do with my rating or even something I think the author should do, but I wish the game had included a gallery of found faces. But I can satisfy that interest by my own searches. I like this game.

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The Public Tarot, by Marilyn Roxie
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A well-polished Tarot simulator, April 28, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game allows you to experience three different randomly generated tarot readings, complete with illustrations.

This is a polished game, and it incorporates information from a survey done about people's impressions of the cards. So it's almost like having a reading randomly selected from several dozen other people's readings.

It was impressed, but I saw it as an intellectual exercise without gut feeling.

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Remember Remember, by Chandler Cash
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
An illustrated surreal Twine game with earnest writing, April 28, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This game starts you in a dark room with several voices talking to you. There are eight doors, some locked, and others not. Your goal is to escape.

The different voices seem to represent parts of your psyche, and the short game is a game of self-discovery. It is illustrated with hand-made colored pencil drawings.

The writing is littered with typos, and the storyline is somewhat confusing. It was descriptive, though, and good at evoking emotion.

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MAR/TEAR, by Iliria Osum
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A poetic exploration of four women's deaths and the cause thereof, April 28, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is a fairly brief game written in free verse. It seems to draw on the writings of four famous women who died, mostly in controversial situations (including deaths that resonated in the trans and African-American communities).

The writing was interesting, but the free verse format made it hard for me to make an emotional connection to the writing. It was interesting looking up the four women in the story.

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twenty two-hundred, by Sean Navat Balanon
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A brief slice of life in an anime-inspired techno future, April 28, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This Twine game uses appropriate styling and occasional graphics to tell a slice-of-life story in a world where cybernetic enhancements are common.

You have encounters with two different friends whose lives are different than most people's, and explore some unusual technology.

It feels like a brief vignette of a larger world, either a fan fiction, a taste of the author's own universe, or an introduction to a longer game.

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The Case, by Axel Cushing
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A short, text-heavy twine game about a detective taking a case, April 27, 2018
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is a short Twine game that leans heavily on standard detective tropes. You, a hard bitten male detective, have a female client come in with an extensive backstory that you explore through various links. A lot is made of her appearance, but more in a deductive way than a seductive way.

The woman's story is about suspected adultery. The story uses standard Twine styling and has a heavy amount of text per choice, making it more like a story with distinct branch points and less like a mechanics-driven game or visual art piece.

Overall, I would have preferred some more deviations from the noir formula or some more compelling mechanics, but what's here is done well.

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