Reviews by MathBrush
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Fun to rhyme (most of the time), July 7, 2024This is the 8th entry in Andrew Schultz’s Pro-Rhyme Row series, which is truly astonishing; how there can be so many paired rhymes in the english language blows my mind.
I really enjoyed this one for the first half or so. There is a feast of remembrance among the gnomes, and you are chosen to prepare food for it. Most of the rhymes in the game deal with food or appliances of some kind.
There is a map with a central location and four branches. Each branch has objects in it which you must find a rhyming pair for (or for the room itself).
Compared to other games in the series, this game made it easy to identify what the puzzles were and had some fun responses.
Some of the words made me laugh. My juvenile response to ‘tree troop’ made me laugh (although it wasn’t recognized) and I had the wrong answer at first to getting out of the ‘stuck state’.
I did run into some bugs though, especially with some repeating text. It was enough to hamper my experience. I did see a call for testers before the competition so it’s at least partially my fault for not responding, but fortunately the bugs seem not too bad to fix.
Panic on the space station, July 5, 2024This is an ADRIFT game, which I played by downloading the ADRIFT 5 Runner (There are like 3 versions you can download, and google flagged 2 of them as viruses but the third was fine).
This game has a cinematic opening and first few areas. An international space laboratory has been able to cure numerous diseases, but a test virus got out and infected everyone on board! You are chosen to try to clear the contamination (which threatens to infect earth due to an automated shipment) or to die trying.
The initial exploration of the ship was suitably mysterious. After a time, I began to get stuck pretty early on. I consulted the hints, and would a few more times, and found that careful examination of everything was usually the key.
However, a few times I missed some puzzles I don't think I would have gotten because the game gave some negative feedback early on. For instance, I knew that many ADRIFT games have puzzles where you have to (Spoiler - click to show)X something, LOOK UNDER it, SEARCH it, or LOOK BEHIND it, so I spent the first twenty minutes of the game trying all of those things and (Spoiler - click to show)LOOK UNDER IT consistently said I can't do that or there's nothing there. It turns out that very late on in a timed sequence you have to (Spoiler - click to show)LOOK UNDER (or have already done so) to a scenery item. It just doesn't make much sense to me to have an action that the whole game has told me to be useless (and I was only trying anyway because of past ADRIFT experience) turn out to be super important in the end.
The story was pretty fun, especially the beginning and ending, but I was a little disappointed in the middle. The space station inhabitants are Chinese, and two rooms have Chinese names on them, but one was just Mao Zedong and the other was a title like 'fellow Scientist'; I was looking forward to some thoughtfully chosen bespoke Chinese names, but maybe that was just a weird expectation.
The best part to me was the initial exploration.
Love and drama on a BBS, June 27, 2024This is both the highest-rated and most-rated game on IFDB that currently doesn't have any reviews. I played it in preparation for the IF playoffs.
This game is a downloadable executable. It simulates the look of old windowed (not windows!) computers, like Amiga style. It gives you a couple of programs, at first just messages and a way to connect to BBS (bulletin board systems, and old style of forum), and then more over time.
A major facet of the game is typing in numbers to connect to Bulletin Boards, some of which are very convoluted. A common experience in the game is typing in the local number for long distance lines, typing in a long distance card number, finding your card number is expired, typing in a different local line, getting more card numbers, typing in the long distance line number, typing in the new card number, finding its also invalid, typing in the long distance line number, typing in a second new card number, then typing in the long distance number you want to enter.
This is repeated several times in the game and is mind-numbing, a major drawback for me.
Outside of that, it's a great game. You encounter the wild word of the early web, before the public knew much about it, before there was really any government oversight, and even before it was actually a 'web'.
You meet tons of people arguing about things they care about, like Star Trek TNG vs TOS, or hacking Sprint phone lines. But you also meet a woman named Emilia, who writes poems and wants to learn more about you.
Eventually drama ensues, and the game expands in scope and genre.
Like Emily Short in her Game Developer review, I found it very effective that we never see 'our' messages, only the replies to them. The power of imagination helps us build up a relationship.
There was a point early on where I felt genuine panic and an urge to try and move quickly as possible. Right after that is when the game's pacing plummeted. But the content was good enough that I wanted to keep going.
A satisfying glimpse into the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, June 23, 2024This 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.
Irish mythology in an illustrated adventure, June 21, 2024Alltarach 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.
The intro to a game full of magic, companions and mythical animals, June 12, 2024This 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.
Dark secrets on a ship in Google forms, May 26, 2024This review is for the Twine version. The original review is down below.
The Twine version of Kuolema was perhaps the biggest rewrite out of any New Game Plus game of Spring Thing, as it was completely ported to a new system and had a complex system of passwords, etc.
Surprisingly, it plays very similar to the original. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to find what was different about it gameplay-wise. Visually, there are added animations and timers which are used sparingly to great effect (although occasionally I switched to another tab to read something while waiting for it to finish).
The main gameplay things that I didn't remember from the first time around were the hints when getting text entry wrong, and also maybe there were more options for the ending? But I enjoyed playing all the way through. There also is a new story version which reduces the puzzles that I didn't try, which was also likely a major part of the rewrite.
Original version:
This was a nice, mostly-grounded thriller on a ship. A lot of games like this with a dark, abandoned ship at night devolve into Lovcraftian horror (which I love), but it was nice to have a change of pace this time.
This game is written in google forms and relies entirely on passwords and, occasionally, branching for state tracking. This means that if you right everything down, you can come back to the game much later and speed through everything. It reminded me a bit of playing NES/SNES games like Mike Tyson's Punchout and Willow; we had a wooden beam near our living room we'd write down passwords on.
Overall, the speed and responsiveness was pretty good; the system doesn't work all that bad, except when I tried to open the walkthrough in another tab and everything got reset. Fortunately I had my notes, so it was very easy to catch back up. I ended up opening the walkthrough in another tab.
I'd say that writing and storytelling is very strong for my likes, with crisp and clear imagery and a slow-burn thriller plotline. Some parts didn't make too much sense, mostly serving as excuses to find more passwords, but there were a lot of dramatic moments.
The final parts really felt like an action movie. I lost momentum at one point trying to figure out how to activate the next portion of the narrative, but overall it worked well.
Love to see experimentation work out.
A fantasy game exploring another world, with AI assistance, May 19, 2024This 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.
A game packed with outsider perspective on Japan, May 19, 2024This 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.
An expansive and engaging magical puzzler with images, April 8, 2024I 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.
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