Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

Tell Me About Yourself is a short Twine conversation between you and your interlocutor Coda. Seemingly a stranger, Coda asks about yourself, often with limited options to choose from or strangely formatted question. There are three endings, two of them branching out close to the start, while the other is down a longer path.

It all seems quaint, I guess, at first, with the kind of questions you’d ask someone you don’t know, but it turns weird. You learn little about Coda, and can ask little about them (when you do, their answers are strange…). And when he calls out by a different name, the whole tone shifts and the game abruptly end.
I’m just very confused…

The Case of the Solitary Resident is a murder(ish) mystery game made in Twine where you get to play the detective, tasked to solve the mystery. Receiving the case, in you go to the location to investigate, and find... a dead body. Ensue a search for clues by interacting with different elements around the apartment, and interviewing different suspects. When you are good to go (and found enough clues that the game lets you do so - I found 15 out of 16), you can move to accusing the correct suspect and explain how it all happened (got the cause right away, it was the last detail that just didn't come right away).

I love a good murder mystery, especially the impossible kinds where it isn't clear who did it. I think I found what had happened pretty early one, though I couldn't have answered the final question without going through the game (and even then, it got technical).

The investigating is what makes the game shine here, with your little commentary and (sometimes false) observations of what is there. Snooping around people's stuff to learn more about who they are and how they got here is always very fun (aside from, you know... the dead body in the living room). Collecting samples around the place was neat, it even lets you cut a piece of cheese for testing!

All the clues you find during your run is neatly tucked inside a case file, which updates as you find those clues or get notifications of sample analysis being done (that first one made me giggle). And you can even review the interviews of the suspects or ask them more questions as you find more clues.

I struggled a bit with finding the last necessary clue: I thought I would be able to visit locations or go back to the precinct to do some research about them rather than (Spoiler - click to show)finding their number in the victim's phone. It didn't make much sense when the information is given through text or by one of the suspect, to then go through the victim's phone about it...

I also found the interview bits a bit lacking, especially compared to the investigating part. You get to pick topics to ask the suspects but not specific questions (it would have been fun to maybe be more antagonistic than just one-tone). You also can't really confront the suspects on their answers ((Spoiler - click to show)I know no one is at fault in this particular case, but sometimes people forget they've done or said things, or remember wrong). A bit more background on the other characters or more optional questions would have been nice to make the case feel a bit more... real? A bit more fluff, if you will.

One minor thing: the stock image to represent the Police department has a sign saying Polizei (German for Police), but it seems like the case is happening in Australia? The mention of dollars threw me off at first, then I connected the dots when talking to the son to where we were. Also, no Australian accents?

All and all, it was a pretty fun game.

Alltarach is a pretty large Twine game centred around Irish folklore and set in the early Middle Ages. Through a character study of your young protagonist Bríd, we get a taste of what might have been 6th century Ireland, its culture and customs. Between grieving lost parents, worrying about the disappearance of her brother, and navigating new land, we are taken in a coming-of-age adventure, where crude realities and disillusion slowly replace naiveté and childishness, as you uncover secrets and confront your beliefs.

The presentation of the game is really neat, with beautiful illustrations, reminiscent of children's books, incredible enticing prose and very helpful tooltips to translate/put into context local terms. As an interactive novel, it is a very interesting piece (and SURPRISINGLY LONG!).

But between the long pages filled with paragraphs, I felt like something was missing. Though it is interactive (you have plenty to ask and explore), it didn't always feel like my action truly mattered at the end, choices being there for the sake of helping the player getting a clearer picture of who the character is, rather than having true consequences on the story.
Even the final choice was not my (as Bríd) doing at all! But of another, who's characterisation is even more muddled and confusing than the main character. That was a bit frustrating.

And yet, I liked it. It had an unusual setting, really good pacing, and interesting takes. It's just missing that little something that would make it incredible.
Had this been a book, I'd have devoured it in one sitting.

beach is a short Twine conversation between two individuals on the beach, which was initiated by one of the two following an incident (implied to be suicide). You are asked to share your feelings, which sends you down towards one of three paths, of diverging length.

Some more uncomfortable to read than others, with your interlocutor trying to make your feel guilty for your past actions, shaming you if you do not feel that, as if you had been the cause (or at least catalyst) for the incident - while, in reality, they admit that no matter what you would have done, it was always going to end up this way. It is pretty manipulative, trying to put you at fault, asking of you to never forget them.
It’s telling that the word sorry is only utter by you, and not them.

The Disappearance of Kevin from Finance is a short mystery game in Twine, where your colleague, the titular Kevin from Finance, is reported as missing. The shocking news make waves among the company, as many realise no one truly knew much about the man, aside from his love of mystery books and his lacklustre ability of staying connected.

Through emails, chat logs, phone calls and even face-to-face conversation, you are given the opportunity to investigate the strange disappearance of your mysterious colleague. Throughout the exchanges, you get hints to what is going on, though you will need to reach the end to realise what was truly going on…

This was a lot of fun to see the mystery unfold. And the true moral of the story is truly corporate incompetence…

Imago is a short but very branched out poetic “rogue-like” monologue, reflecting on the masts that one wears and the image we preset to other. You address a crowd, maybe a fictional one, aiming to entertain, confess or maybe philosophise. Depending on your choices, and a bit of RNG, you will end up reaching one of…

THIRTY SIX ENDINGS. Yeah, 36 different endings. Lots of going back and forth between the choices and hoping the game sends you to a new section, to find them all. With the richness of the text (one playthrough is short, but you need to digest the prose) and because of the randomness, I stopped at about 15 or so of them.

Roman Holiday is a strange creepy game, one I don’t know what to make of. A group of friend are one some sort of road trip, lost (sort of), stopping at a store in the middle of nowhere and of the the night. Ensue strange happenings.

It sort of reminded me of those paranormal movies, with its VCR/TV visual/audio quality, or that 80-90s low-render graphics for the characters. A lot of the game is spent looking at cut-scenes of conversations between the different characters, with a bit of moving around, and some branching conversation (with at least one NPC, afiak).

In any case, it’s creepy, you don’t really know what’s happening, and things don’t quite make sense - I still don’t know what happened, I ran into a To Be Continued screen.

I Knew A Guy is a prototype short entry, formatted as a linear short story to raise awareness about suicide and myths around it. In it, an unnamed PC recounts their final moment spent with a person who would later take their own life, and their guilt around not seeing the signs or not helping them as much as they could have. Along with the text, a daunting track plays (which, if you go backward on your navigator becomes even more creepy and unsettling).

IF can be a great medium to explore difficult themes and spread awareness on this topic. And I wonder where this prototype will end up looking, because I think it does have a good starting format for what it’s attempting to do.

Do you think we’re soulmates in every universe? is a cute slice-of-life small visual novel where you take a walk with your partner, when they as you the titular question. You have a couple of choices throughout the discussion, communicating your (lack of) doubts about the matter or your opinion on the need even for this kind discussion. And, in between, you can imagine different scenario about you and your partner meeting and maybe falling in love.

It’s pretty sweet, though my opinion on the question is more on the realistic side (soulmates are not really a thing, and the probability of finding the same person again is just sooo small…), rather than the maybe childish/cheesy “of course we’ll always be soulmate through time and space”. I also found the partner being a bit too insecure in some of the paths. It’s still nice for a short game.
I would have preferred though, to have less descriptive elements…

Who are you talking to? is a work in progress piece where you are confronted by a strange creature, in an unknown place, unable to leave. You can talk to the creature, asking them questions, and go over some of your most recent memories. Being an unfinished piece, there are timed where the game ends abruptly, forcing you to rewind and pick a different path to reach the end. There are at least 8 endings, though I’ve only managed to reach one.

From the tone of your interlocutor, my reading of the game (so far) is that you (Spoiler - click to show)died and are talking to some otherworldly being (maybe a God?), assessing your nature and action back when you were alive (though it seems your fate is sealed). You have the option of showing remorse towards your actions or doubling down. That or aliens.