Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

This was a fairly basic adventure game, with a combat/inventory/market system. You fight "monsters", get coins, try to balance your health/hunger, and if you're lucky, get to the finish line (or you die). Coded in python, the game uses numbers as inputs rather than your typical parser commands.

Though the fights are randomly generated (in the name of the "monster", attacks felt, and rewards), it becomes repetitive quite quickly. After a dozen of fight, seeing the retro ASCII art bud swing its sword... eh.
I died before reaching the required 100 fights, but didn't feel the need nor want to try to beat the game.

Would be the nice base for a larger project though. The mechanic itself works fine.

M:REU is a large parser game, reminiscent of the old Infocom era, and very much a love letter to the original HHGG game and the HHGG lore. The story follows the event of the second book of the HHGG series, in which the protagonist makes their way towards Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe. It combines puzzles and exploration, and includes hints and a walkthrough.

It can't be completed in 2h. I did not reach the end.

When starting the game, I knew I would not be able to finish it within the 2h mark (I remember the beta call mentioning a 8h-long playthrough...), nor would I have been able to go through the different parts without losing/dying (its difficulty being cruel, one wrong move and you die). But I did not expect the quality of the game to be this impressive, considering this is the first game of this author and the fact that the game had been re-coded a few months prior to the comp.

Through my limited playthrough (I managed to get to the 4th location?), it is clear this was a labour of love for the old Infocom games, and the HHGG universe. The game manages to encapsulate the wittiness of the books so well, from the description of your actions, to the error messages, or the in-game hints. I gladly tried to die, just to see the funny messages, and the game calling me a noob for being a bad player (only saying the truth there...).

Some of the puzzles seem a bit obtuse, and require either knowledge of the story or some trial an error (thank you, walkthrough for the help). They are definitely not meant for first-time parser players. Even trying to understand the hints, or follow the walkthrough, it is pretty easy to make an error and see your progress blocked completely.

Close to the 2h-mark, I stumbled into the Milliways kitchen, tried (and failed) to wrangle with the cupboard and my inventory. At some point, the cupboard just refused to open, and the timer rang. I still tried to play a tiny bit more, undoing previous actions and redo the puzzle, but alas, I could not get it past (it was a bug, it turns out).

Honestly, from the little I played, it is really impressive, and could pass for an official game.
Maybe I'll restart it later and try to play it fully.

[Originally played on 2-Oct during the IFComp]

The Vambrace of Destiny is a dungeon crawler adventure, with limited commands and filled with puzzles. You must go through the different levels of the dungeon, fight monsters, discover treasures, and gather all the spells.

I did not reach the ending. The current review only account for what was played.

Until I reached the second level and was essentially stuck, banging my head against the wall because I could not solve the puzzles, TVoD was quite an enjoyable light parser (especially for a parser-adverse/noob like me). It has limited commands, which are essentially shortcuts; a visible map on the screen (at least in the play online version), which showed where you are and what rooms you discovered, and reasonable logical puzzles (even the one I got stuck on...), and hints (external document).

The logic of the game is relatively simple: explore the dungeon, find a monster but can't fight it, explore some more, find a spell, fight the monster with the spell, go to the next bit. As you advance further, the puzzles require extra steps to be solved, often with combinations of actions or "passing a turn". Even if some puzzles required retracing your steps to unlock further parts, they were quite enjoyable to solve!

I still spent enough time faffing about, pressing the wrong direction on the screen, or forgetting to press a certain command, or just not getting the puzzle, that the clock ran out before I could reach the end. Starting level 2, the puzzles leave the beginner level... I think I managed to visit 1/3 to 1/2 of the rooms of level 2 before I gave up.

Still, I had quite a bit of fun, and breaking through the blocks on the path, defeating the monsters, and finding the treasures, were pretty satisfying! Level 1 is a hoot!
I really appreciated the simple commands (the investigrab especially!) and how merciful the game was (you might not manage to solve a puzzle or finish the game, but you won't die).

I want to revisit this game down the line (aka when a walkthrough drop - the hints are not enough for a noob), because I really want to reach the end.

[Originally played on 1-Oct during the IFComp]

Into The Lion's Mouth is a relatively short game about being stuck in a very unfortunate situation, in the middle of the Savannah, surrounded(-ish) by lions. Lucky for you, you know the ins-and-outs of the region, being an animal refuge guard. You won't be found dead where you stand!

Mixing humour, wildlife facts, and meta commentary, ITLM is, as it calls itself, a lion taming simulator. Though you have multiple paths on how to solve your current situation, it is clear there is only one way to reach "the ending", as the game will nudge you back towards the correct paths. You won't really ever "die".

From the tone of the writing, or the animation and formatting of the text, it is clear the game is not meant to be taken completely seriously. You learn some neat fact, sure, but with a giggle here and there. I think that worked out nicely. Though, it was at times jarring to find embedded videos or pictures that seemed to only partly related, breaking immersion completely.

Not all paths were created equal in this game. Some are quite short (as being the obvious wrong answer), and some seem a bit to run into circle (until you go back to the correct path. I found the cub rescue path to be the strongest bit of the game, as it was quite sweet (who doesn't love petting animals), but the other paths does not really do the game justice.

[Originally played on 1-Oct during the IFComp]

Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head is quite a long entry mixing the heist genre with horror tropes, with a focus on puppetry, and a hint of a mystery. Your job is to recover different puppets hidden throughout an abandoned - about to get demolished - studio. However, the job is not as easy as it seems: monsters roam the corridors... and will steal what you carry.

From the (actual) start, PYHITPH reminded me of Five Nights at Freddie's, not just because of the puppets themselves, but also with the spooky buildings you need to explore at night, and the strange things that hunt you. You need to be strategic in where you go and when you get to it, or you'd cross path with the monsters (the Hints refers to the game as having a Pac-Man sort of gameplay). Adding onto it, you have to solve puzzles to get to certain puppets or bits of information.

I got frustrated losing the puppets pretty quickly (even if I tried to play it smart), so I ended up using the cheat mode quite early on to reach the endings. It is not an issue from the game itself, though. The mechanic and the puzzles pretty neat, I just couldn't handle it [timing puzzles are make-or-break-it]. Were it not for the spooky monsters and tracking their movements…

As well, not being a puppet person, I felt like I was missing context or references when I played the game. I could obviously be completely fiction*, but something about the writing made it pretty believable that something like this happened in real life?
*looking up names left me empty-handed, again...

[Originally played on 1-Oct during the IFComp]

For Eternity, Again and Again is a quite short entry, about love, unbending fate, and rebirth. The entry plays on the trope of immortal lover vs reincarnated mortal, set in a vague fantasy setting. I found all endings.

I thought the game was confusing. Even reading back on my previous choices, or going through the ones I had not picked yet, I found myself wondering what this game was about. I gathered that the story meant to show the struggles between lovers facing their doomed end, but the vagueness and unevenness of the writing didn't quite manage to hit the mark for me.

Having found all ending, I did note that the two paths were somewhat mirroring each other. I think you get to play both lovers, one for each path? If so, that's neat.

[Originally played during the IFComp on 1-Oct]

Help! I Can't Find My Glasses! is a relatively short game, whose premise revolves around the disappearance of your glasses during your nap at school (and maybe a bit more). It quite simple, with limited choices and paths to take - though it does have multiple endings (I found 3 of them).

The game felt at times a bit incomplete in its story, as obvious paths were disregarded ((Spoiler - click to show)Did the president really not have a play in this?) and the consequences of some choices unsatisfying ((Spoiler - click to show)like investigating the "joker" friend). During my first run, I managed to find my glasses ((Spoiler - click to show)by essentially giving up and going back to nap</spoiler) and won a funny achievement; while during others, I didn't manage to find them, as the game ended somewhat abruptly before I could uncover anything substantial. ((Spoiler - click to show)I still believe the president tried to mess with me).

I feel like the author had planned more for the player, with this entry only setting the stage for a grander adventure... maybe even more mysteries to solve! There were some intriguing aspects with each named character, which unfortunately were barely explored as you have limited interaction with them.
(I'm also still not sure whether the achievements were all attainable?)

Still, I quite enjoyed the goofiness of the setting, and how light-hearted it tried to stay. As it, it was very cute. I would enjoy playing an extended version of this game.

[Originally played on Oct-1]

Formatted as a kinetic micro play, this entry shows a snippet of a discussion between a priest and a confessor, both having had a shared history. With only a handful of passages, and a relatively short amount of words, the story gives just enough information to understand the dynamics between those two, but leaves enough out to make you wanting more. It is dramatic and painful - for the characters - with the beautiful writing focusing on the little things.

I left the game with so many questions about the characters and their relationships - incl. a chicken and egg one about the priest status and the potential forbidden lover trope. I hope the rest of the piece, from which this one is taken, will be published one day.

Through the framing of a told tale about a cowboy, his/her choices, and their consequences, the game mixes a western setting with some fantastical elements, bringing an interesting take on 'the Devil's Deal. Because of this framing, the game utilises different interfaces to demarcate the present and the told story (as you are both listening and playing through the tale).

As usual with this author, the imagery is quite vivid through the extensive prose, especially the descriptions surrounding nature and the start of the second part of the story. Though the choices are limited and the story fairly linear, the interactivity in this game (or lack thereof) is nonetheless pretty interesting, especially through the first part.

I particularly enjoyed the endings, revealing much more than the fate of John Cassidy King. Surprisingly, that extra reveal stayed longer in my mind, especially the one of the earliest ending.