Reviews by Molly
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I was a little reluctant to give this game a shot, especially since I'd heard nothing about before it showed up on the IFDB pages. But then my desire to give this a review got the better of me, so I took the plunge and downloaded it.
You play as some sort of investigator that's looking into the disappearance of an acrobat from the circus. And here is when we run into problems. The game suggests that you should show your badge and say hello to anyone you meet, but you aren't carrying anything at the start of the game. So how do you accomplish this feat?
Simple! You just ask (or tell, I presume as well) anybody in the game about anything at all, and not only will you show the person your unimplemented badge, but you'll meet-&-greet everybody in the room your badge, even animals. This tends to break the mimesis of the game, especially when the person does not give a reply.
More mimesis-breaking events can very easily be found throughout the game: people and objects often (or always?) can only be referred to by one name, which would be trouble enough, if it weren't for the fact that sometimes the proper name for an object or person isn't even given in their description; mislabeled room exits; characters that are described to be carrying things that turn out not to exist if you try to interact with them; objects that are listed twice, first in the general room description, then in their own seperate paragraph; etc.
I declined to give this game a starred review, mostly becase I played so little of it, but also because the game is simply not ready for any wide release in the state it's currently in. My advice to the author is to test the game again thoroughly, this time with a few friends on hand to assist with looking for bugs and things that would take a player out of the game, then squash the bugs found and redo anything the testers felt took them out of the game (get some help from r.a.i.f. if you need it), and then re-release the polished game. It's a great deal of trouble, but it's worth it to create a good game that works.
Short and Endearing, January 28, 2009A short, charming game by the creator of Snack Time! The writing shares the same style of wit and whimsy with the previous game. Sadly, I couldn't rate it as highly as I could have, due to getting stuck on some of the puzzles, but then I'm not much of a puzzle solver, and anyway there's an in-game hint system if you need help. Overall I'd say that if you liked Snack Time! you should definitely give this game a shot.
An interesting experiment in CYOA style IF, January 3, 2009In this game you play as a budding writer trying to think up ideas for a story. You use a CYOA style interface to choose between different story ideas. It's not among the best of Emily Short's work, but it makes for an amusing game.
A stunning example of multimedia IF, January 2, 2009In Everybody Dies, you play as three different people who've (Spoiler - click to show)died in some way, and the point of the game becomes the (Spoiler - click to show)prevention of their deaths. One of the best parts of Everybody Dies are the graphics, which in parts of the game serve as a visual metaphor to go along with the action. However, if that were the only thing to recommend about Everybody Dies the game would be stale indeed. The writing of the player characters is funny and vivid, and their differing perspectives give much flavor to the game. Well recommended.
Absolutely beautiful, without the use of pictures, December 27, 2008An absolutely gorgeously described game, based around the mythology of East Asia. It may be the most evocative IF ever.
Funny story wrapped up in a bad game, December 24, 2008The game has a warning at the beginning saying (roughly) that the game is undertested and any bugs should be ignored. "Well," I thought to myself as I played it, "that's not a good sign." But I ignored the warning and played on anyway, and sadly found that the warning was absolutely right.
What kind of bugs are in this game, you might ask? Well, trying to avoid spoilers, an npc can be described as dropping something that he already dropped and is lying on the floor, syntax bugs that make at least one puzzle almost unsolvable, guess the verb problems that severely hamper another, etc., etc., etc. What makes these problems even worse is that the game was very funny. Sure, its sense of humor may not appeal to everyone, but it certainly worked for me, outside of couple of misses.
Overall, I can't say my time playing this game was wasted, but I also can't recommend it in good faith. All I can say is wait for a version where the author fixes all the bugs.
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