Ratings and 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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The Lost Artist: Prologue, by Alejandro Ruiz del Sol and Martina Oyhenard
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A surreal prologue jumping between protagonists, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

I didn't actually understand this game, so I'll try to summarize it. It's a twine goal filled with surreal, non-sequitur type descriptions.

An artist named Leben is stuck in a dead end job due to losing inspiration. They hire a detective to find it, using a raven to communicate that message.

Hmm, there was also a part at the beginning about a heist. I'm going to go replay that part...

Yeah, replaying it didn't show anything. There's indication of meta-narrative travel, so maybe the different stories will unite at some point.

Honestly, I've really got no clue here. I wasn't able to construct a mental model of the game's structure, intent, or world. I will try to do better in the future.

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A Death in Hyperspace, by Stewart C Baker, Phoebe Barton, James Beamon, Kate Heartfield, Isabel J Kim, Sara Messenger, Naca Rat, Natalia Theodoridou, M. Darusha Wehm, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Time murder mystery set in space, with the ship as the sleuth, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

This game's list of author's includes every published Choice of Games author who has been nominated for a Nebula Award, which is pretty neat.

This is a real-timed murder mystery. You are a sentient AI running a ship, named Pearl (both the AI and the ship, who are one). You have blacked out for 10 minutes during a jump into hyperspace, only to discover that your captain is dead.

You are ready to investigate, but there is an issue: hyperspace can cause hallucinations of distorted realities. Without some kind of consensus of the beings on the ship, reality could be stuck forever; with consensus, it could be permanently altered (or at least resolve into one or more paths).

Gameplay consists of moving from room to room, interviewing suspects and picking up pieces of evidence. Almost everyone gets the same set of questions.

You have a murderboard where you can adjust your suspicion of others between Low, Medium, and High. Once you adjust it to high or accuse someone, the game ends and you get an ending.

Here's what I liked and what I struggled with:

**Likes**
-The variety in characters was nice. That's probably the best part of having this many authors. While all characters had different backstories, I liked Primus's story (my first ending), and Ceri's was completely bizarre (does she (Spoiler - click to show)exist in the same reality as anyone else? is she (Spoiler - click to show)real???)
-The interface was smooth, and I found few bugs (only one I can remember is a stray close-bracket at the bottom of one ending)
-The game is relatively short and easy to replay

**Things I struggled with**
-Having the same conversation options with everyone was really hampering, especially as they weren't 'really' choices, in a way. The game said not to anger anyone, but your choices or 'do thing' or 'do thing in a rude way'. It feels like playing a game where the options are 'sword that does 5 damage to enemies' or 'sword that does 5 damage to players'. So it really felt like I had one choice at a time when talking to characters, and those choices were all the same, making them feel less individualistic. Maybe that's the way the writing was done? (sending out a spreadsheet with a list of the same murder-related questions to everyone and asking them to create a character and their responses to those questions), but I think it would have been neater to have questions tailored to those individual characters, especially when they had obviously interesting or suspicious behavior you can't follow up on.
-I'm not sure why we can set Low, Mid, or High suspicion levels, since you can only up a level when you get more evidence and the murderboard already tells you how much evidence you have.
-The nature of the endings means that (Spoiler - click to show)there's not necessarily a cannon (outside of one special ending). I teach a class called Theory of Knowledge, and we do murder mysteries each year that students right, then discuss means of obtaining knowledge, perspective, and ethics. We just performed this year's mysteries today, actually! But the first time we did this, one student wrote a table top murder game where the murderer was chosen by dice roll, but nothing changed about the evidence. The other students were outraged by this (despite liking the rest of the mystery) because it took away agency and made the knowledge obtained earlier unreliable and useless That's kind of how I felt about the alternate endings.
-The timer didn't work well for me. At first I felt rushed to hurry, but I got enough evidence for an ending in 10 minutes, so I felt bad for not giving the game as much attention as it asked for.

Overall, this game was fun. I noticed the download was just a redirect; I hope some version of it is stored in the IFarchive, because it would be nice to preserve it for future generations (and also because IFComp is about making games that are freely available forever); and there's nothing preventing it from being downloadable from the site it's hosted on, I was able to save a local copy and run it just fine.

The thing I'll probably remember longest is Ceri, as she's still a mystery to me.

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Unreal People, by Viwoo
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Unfinished game about possessing things and people, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: about 1 hour

(Warning: This review might contain spoilers. Click to show the full review.)This Twine game was much more substantial than I expected and much less.

You play as a spirit summoned by a woman called Baba, a fortuneteller, as you are ripped from nonexistence into existence.

You have the power to hop from vessel to vessel, both non-living and living, and it gives you the opportunity to learn gossip.

And such gossip you learn! A cold princess loves a dashing, straightforward man who may hold a dark secret. A monk does not believe all she says she believes. And so on. You gather secrets like scores in games.

Eventually, you also gain the ability to make dialogue choices, allowing you to wreak havoc in others' lives.

In the end, before plot threads resolve, [spoiler]you become one with everything, and then nothing[/spoiler].

I would like to see the rest of the threads. I did recently teach a class on Hinduism for a few weeks as part of a World Religions course; I didn't know too much about Hinduism before (besides reading the Bhagavad Gita), but why don't I try to apply a superficial understanding of Hinduism to this game that may not actually be influenced by it at all?

We can see this game as a representation of the karmic cycle. Existence is suffering, and the endless cycle of new vessels and their attachments, both the good and the evil, and the happy and the bad, are not good. Only true detachment from everything allows us to exit the karmic cycle and escape the cycle of rebirth.

(My apologies for the limited understanding of Hinduism and the game).

Overall, I'm reminded of the game Riverside, which similarly starts out as a normal, promising game and then is abruptly derailed in a shocking, out of world fashion. You can peek at the walkthrough or reviews to see.

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Dust, by IkeC
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A Western game with plenty of conversation and tools, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: about 2 hours

Dust is about a man in the Wild West who comes to town looking for his wife when he comes across trouble. It involves a lot of conversation and the use of a lot of tools.

This game was entered in the German IF Gran Prix earlier this year, where I personally found it the best game of the competition. I enjoyed the characters and the western setting.

I love foreign translations and foreign things in general (maybe I’m a xenophile?) so it’s always hard to know when playing a game in another language if it is the language that attracts me or the game itself.

In this case it’s a little bit of both. One reason I liked it in German was its simplicity, with descriptive but mostly non-figurative language and the use of menus in conversation and some actions. While in German it was brilliant for someone with a weak vocabulary in another language, in English I could have enjoyed some more complexity in writing, and perhaps a slightly expanded map.

But there’s a lot here that I loved in the original and now in the translation. I like how you collect various tools and apply them, giving the game a physical feel. I like the social dynamics, with the non-violent but still substantial threat of the sheriff holding onto your papers while you investigate, and the tavernkeeper urging you to grab a cookie. I also enjoyed the townsfolk popping in and out, from mean grandmas to ball-playing kids.

I helped test this game a little by reading through the English transcript looking for any errors (of which I found very few).

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Forbidden Lore, by Alex Crossley
A complex library room filled with books and magic, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This TADS game had many delightful elements to it. You are in a library filled with, well, Forbidden Lore. It belongs to a powerful wizard, a family member, and is essentially a one-room game with enormous amounts of detail, including several NPCs.

Many things are richly implemented, including a large number of bookshelves, a desk, and special gadgets, as well as magic and conversation.

However, much of the game is not spelled out, almost to an extreme. You aren't told what to do. You aren't told how many of certain objects are present. You aren't told how to phrase certain important commands. You aren't told what certain devices are capable of. You aren't guided on what conversation topics work with which NPCs.

This non-spelling out can in some games increase the fun as you delve, but in this game it's so extreme that I think it goes too far. It'd be like introducing a player to chess but not explaining how the pieces move or that the goal is to threaten the king.

I liked the lore, the characters seemed fun, and the whole thing reminded me in a positive way of Andrew Plotkin's room in Cragne Manor.

Even with the lack of information, I still found a lot to do. I managed to find a goal and complete it, and once that was done I really had no clue what to do next. To complete that first goal, I had to look at the walkthrough twice and both times I found that I had the right idea but gotten a misleading response from the game. For instance, before achieving one major goal, I [spoiler]tried PUSH STATUE, but it was fixed in place. The real command was PUSH STATUE INTO CHASM.[/spoiler]

So this game is a hit and a miss for me. Great worldbuilding, fun ideas, but spotty implementation and player motivation. Would definitely play more by this author.

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The Triskelion Affair, by Al Cline (as Clyde Falsoon)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Brave a graveyard in search of an ancient weapon, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: about 2 hours

This is a longish parser game set in a time with horses, wagons, and captains but not electricity. In it, you play as a soldier who is ordered on a special mission involving the Triskelion, a powerful weapon.

The game is divided into two parts. First, there is a long linear opening sequence which the author has designated as 'training', and that's a good description, as it gets you used to basic verbs and actions. Then there is a longer exploration part in a graveyard.

The puzzles can be tricky at times but not too bad. I used the walkthrough a couple of times, but only one puzzle would, I think have been really hard without it (finding a certain key).

There are a lot of red herrings. I found numerous items that presaged more puzzles and adventures but which were ultimately useless. It did add to the worldbuilding, so that's a tradeoff.

Some of those items could be implemented a bit more. I had this exchange in one late part of the game:

What do you do? x cannister
The green cannister is three feet tall, six inches in diameter, and made of heavy metal. On the side of the cannister is a red warning label. The cannister has a turn-valve on its top but the handle is missing. The valve cannot be opened without the handle.

>
> What do you do? read label
> That is not something to read. Try examining it instead.
>
>
> What do you do? x it
> A bright red square with a picture of a yellow flame on it. Beneath that is the wording "Hazard: Extremely Flammable"
>
>
> What do you do? take it
> That's hardly portable.

Somethings can only be EXAMINEd while some can only be READ.

The '>' prompt has been changed to 'What do you do?', presumably to help new players, and I thought that was neat. Many error responses have been changed, most of which I liked. The one I didn't so much was the error for when you type something that's not there; the game says things like Seriously?? and You must be joking! which is mildly funny the first time, but wears thin over time.

The game did a good job with pacing the puzzles, as I didn't usually feel overwhelmed or not having anything to do. The exits bar at the top is key; many puzzles can be solved by exploring all exits.

I thought the ending was a little anticlimactic, but maybe there will be more Triskelion in the future; I'd like to see it.

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A Warm Reception, by Joshua Hetzel
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Search a castle to get stronger to fight a battle, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: about 1 hour

Seeing this game gave me trepidation. Marked 'an hour and a half', parser game, 'Old School', 'Excellent for new players and veterans of the genre', a classic-looking castle on the cover; it had all the markings of some custom-parser windows executable game that is huge and buggy and the author keeps insisting 'The game is easy' or 'You're playing wrong', as has happened in countless past IFComps.

Imagine my relief when:

* The first sentence made me laugh, and
* the game turned out to be fair, well-programmed, and have an adjustable play length.

In this game, you are a reporter assigned to cover a royal wedding. You arrive late (intentionally) to find everyone gone and the castle unusually hot.

This game lets you access the end from the beginning! At any point you can enter the final battle, with a random chance to win based on your overall score. So the game only really lasts as long as you want it.

Gameplay is pretty simple, mostly 'pick up item and use it here'. There are some more complex puzzles; there was one maze I solved halfway but gave up on just because I don't really like mazes. Once I saw the spoilery map, I realized that it wasn't even hard, but such is the fate of weak walkthrough users like myself. The only other hard puzzle was one that I had seen others talking about on here so I knew how to solve.

There were several unimplemented interactions and synonyms.

Overall, the interactions were satisfying and the writing funny. Something felt a bit 'light' about the game, both in puzzles and writing, but what is here seemed good. I do think I ran into a bug or unusual luck, because I was able to beat a luck-based game without rigging it the way the game suggested.

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The Shyler Project, by Naomi Norbez (call me Bez; e/he)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A voice-acted twine game about a mental health ai bot, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: 15-30 minutes

This is a short, 3-part Twine game that is dialogue between someone seeking mental health aid and an AI bot designed to help with mental health. It is connected to Yancy at the End of the World, where Shyler (the AI bot) also exists. It is fully voice acted. In the three dialogues, the two characters seek to understand each other.

There are many ways to understand the content and intent of this game. I've interpreted it as a kind of wish fulfillment/proxy therapy session where the reader can mentally take on the roles of one or two of the people and feel happiness by imagining them carrying out these actions.

With that interpretation, I'd say the game is largely successful. I imagine you, the reader in the role of Jaiden, who seeks aid. This puts you in a fragile position where others could take advantage of you. But instead, we find Shyler, who not only understands us but is relatable, feeling similar to us. Not only that, we find that we are able to help Shyler ourselves, reversing our roles and showing that we've progressed far in our mental health journey.

So in a way it reminds me of the 'mysteries' of ancient religions where you'd act out the lives of the Gods in a ritual. By playing the game, we can achieve the (healthy) fantasies of being a good friend, understanding someone, and helping them. The game even goes as far as <spoiler.curing the bot's mental illness entirely by rewiring it, which is a big power fantasy, the possibility of completely curing someone's brain.

Some parts of the game are universal, like loneliness and friendship. Other are tailored to a unique experience. The protagonists seem like they feel liberated by strong profanity, which wasn't something I related to. One also takes a kind of deconstructionist view of God of the type that I've seen be more popular among those who've left religions and are seeking their own meaning. As someone who adheres to an organized faith, I didn't feel as empowered by these statements as I believe the protagonist was.

Overall, the voice acting added a lot of charm. It's hard for me to focus on timed text and long voice acting wears on me, but this was a short game and the voice acting was charming (of course, I had to plan carefully when to listen to it due to it having frequent strong profanity and me not having headphones or a private space to listen).

Charming game, glad to play.

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198BREW, by H. M. Faust (aka DWaM)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Surreal game about getting coffee in a bizarre urban landscape, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: about 1 hour

This game might be described as "Weird Urban Fantasy". After a brief prologue, it starts off with a classic 'my apartment' game that models different rooms of a fairly mundane apartment before digging into some of the strangeness.

Gameplay consists of crossing a map and discovering unusual individuals, each of which is far from baseline reality. Unlike much of fantasy and sci fi, most of the people are normal, physically, but inside is something different. There are of course some exceptional cases.

While there are many different threads running through the game, they feel like they all have thematic similarities. One constant refrain is (Spoiler - click to show)fear of nothing happening, stuck in eternity balanced against (Spoiler - click to show)the fear of something changing or finally happening after so long.

Implementation is iffy. One really tough issue is that pronouns aren't set right for women so X HER doesn't work, and for both men and women you can't X MAN or X WOMAN, you have to instead type out the full name of the person you want to speak with. Many objects listed in the description can't be interacted with in-game and many that you can't interact with don't give responses. TAKE SHOWER uses Inform's default response of 'That's hardly portable'. So it could use some polishing up. I didn't see typos or bugs, though.

I liked the game. It gives me the same kind of feel as Deadline Enchanter, one of my favorite games. I also have some major phobias associated to some of the things in this game, but the way it handled them made me feel less tense rather than more, which is nice.

The opening of the game made no sense to me, but after replaying it all clicked, so I recommend trying that afterwards.

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House of Wolves, by Shruti Deo
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A life of boredom and suffering, October 16, 2024
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

This is a short, heartfelt Twine game about a remote student who feels isolation while also being forced to eat slabs of meat every day due to being a wolf.

It's a nice blend of anxious mundanity and stressful metaphor that reminds me a lot of Early Twine.

The story itself is pretty simple, a daily routine of boredom and suffering mixed with longing and hope for something better one day.

The writing is where it shines; I loved the explanation of encapsulation and abstraction (which I constantly have to remind students about for IB exams, since they often forget what it means) and how it ties neatly into the other themes of the story. So I think that's by far the best part of the game, how expressively and neatly it's written.

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