Ratings and Reviews by manonamora

I really, really, like pieces taking human experiences and flipping it on its head by viewing it from an outsider perspective (aliens/other). It's always a bit strange and uncomfortable, to look at this from a non-human POV, but it also makes you think about the things we take for granted. You know... the little every day things that are actually pretty awesome.

Here, a word - Hypertext (harr, harr) - takes over your body for a month to experience what it's like to be human, and recounts its experiences with you through the medium of Hypertext Kinetic IF (though it reaaallly wanted to make a parser instead). I liked the attention to details, like what's in your bed room, especially the closet and the bookcase, or the ways different bits connect together (the colours and images especially). In trying to explain the wonders (and less wondrous aspects) of human life, Hypertext engages in the debate of how best to communicate things with others, pulling its "hair" at the backward way that is text.

The entry is very strange, but also quite endearing, and I enjoyed the meta/philosophical discussion about the use of words, their meaning, and whether we should turn to other, maybe better, ways to communicate with others.
I could have done maybe without the whole physical relationship passage. That made me a bit uncomfortable.

It was a very good entry!

With a very handed dark approach, and many warnings at the start, this revenge story leads you to kill a god (or try to at least). Along the way, another follows you along, showing you other less destructive paths, if you wish it so - even if you are quite set on revenge for your misfortune, even losing your life for your cause.

The revelations at the end, depending on your choice, are quite interesting. Changing your mind before or halfway through the conversation with the god leads to some somewhat unexpected results.

But I thought the end came a bit too quick. You start at your lowest, have maybe one "trial" before you reach your final destination and make your choice. This made this final choice less impactful than it could have been, in my opinion.

The piece is fairly short, with a couple of hundred words at most, and it will make you hate yourself (maybe) when you reach the end. Entrenched in the very harsh environment that is religious conservative norms, the game explores what it feels to be denied the little joys of life and exploring your identity.

It is not just a tour-de-force to be able to hit those emotions with so little words, but the way the choices are formatted hits like a ton of brick. As you click and come back to the main page, choices appear and disappear from the list... until there is nothing left. Until you are denied everything.

Strangely, the harsh Harlowe interface and palette adds another layer of bleakness to the situation.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, because I had no strong frame of reference for either IPs, I know of both but never played either. But the demo truly wasn't something I could have expected!

At the time of this review, the project is still in a demo/prototype stage, with uncoded variables or statement in passages or its strange ending. From what is there however, the mash up between IPs seems to work (or at least, from a non-informed player), hinting at a probably unserious approach in the future.

The game starts off with a more generic ‘get ready to fight some baddies’ moment, coupled with a bit of character creator. You get to pick your sidekick (if any) and who would will end up fighting. It is very important, your CO drills into your head, and very serious...

... aaaaaaand the demo shifts to a homage to Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die (and you die not matter what you pick, like in PUPBD). Getting to that end was surprising at first, but coming back to it again and again felt like it was intentional (or lack of time? not being able to continue the main story?). It's very silly, and going from a set and serious story to this made me laugh a lot.
I am unsure whether this end would actually fit the story planned, but I kind of hope it stays in the game if it ever updates. As an Easter Egg of sort.

Thanks for the good laugh!

The Witch is a fairly difficult parser where you must save the snatched villagers, though how to do so or solve the puzzles along the way is not quite clear. There are limits in both the inventory and turn count. The entry does not include an in-game help or hint system, but an external transcript walkthrough is included. I reached a total of 60 points before stopping playing (using the walkthrough for help).

Knowing my (in)aptitude in playing parsers, I wasn't expecting to sweep through the puzzles and reach the end easy-peasy. I just hoped to be able to solve at least one puzzle all by myself. It became quickly apparent I wouldn't be able to do much by myself without the walkthrough either.

Aside from the blurb, the game gives you little indication of what you are supposed to do. You are essentially dropped in this world, left to your own devices. You can explore the world, pick some stuff up, interact with elements around you... and hope for the best. I found myself running around the world, and ended up stuck in some sort of tree that wouldn't let me leave*.
*was there a hint somewhere about the order of actions you should input?

Going through the rooms, I kept wondering if I missed some clue or if there was some context about the game or story I should have known about or found before getting to certain locations. It kind of felt you had to do quite a bit of guesswork... and that was a bit frustrating.

The game was not meant with beginners in mind. More experienced parsers will probably have a more enjoyable time than I did and probably find the puzzles ingenious.

Sitting at over 400k total words, One Knight Stand is quite a sizeable game, with extensive branching. It also is a demo (prologue + 1st chapter), meant to be part of a longer series. Characterised as a mashup between Among Us and Arthurian lore, the story will twist and turn at every corner. I found one Dead End.

The game is very much anchored in the ChoiceofGame style of interactive fiction, with its extensive, almost overwhelming, character creation, lengthy playthroughs, and variation galore. Replay value seems to be an important part of this entry, due to the many many choices available (some are even locked depending on previous choices).

While the amount of available content is impressive (400k for a single chapter is massive), the pace of the story is at times painfully slow. In part due to the extensive nature of the character creation. From requiring you to confirm every single character-building choice, to going into details about some trivial options (like the shade of your favourite colour has a dozen of option per hue), it often felt unnecessary and tiresome (be prepared for choice-fatigue here...).

The entry starts pretty intriguing, with a spooky nightmare set in an Arthurian setting, with a bone-chilling feeling that continues to follow you throughout the rest of the chapter (with creepy voices and creepy feelings)*. To balance it out, the prose strive to add humour when it can, from mentions of or punny winks about mainstream media (Knights of Our Lives, lol), to taking an almost sarcastic or parody approach to some situations**. The balance was not quite there, however, making me question whether the story was supposed to be primarily comedy or horror.
*I had a bit checked-out by the time the horror started to pick up.
** It's kinda funny a fast-food server can be part of a Polo club...

While I was not particularly fan of the pronoun switch between the main text (you) and the choice list (I), as it sometimes broke the flow of reading, [NOTE:this is the ChoiceofGame style] the formatting of the more horror-y beats (especially the ones with creepy sounds or anxious feelings) helped keeping things fresh.
Another thing I hope will be used further into the game was the phone element, specifically the texting side-"game". The options of sending back messages were pretty funny (yay for creepypasta).

For a ChoiceofGame style game, it has a pretty solid base and I suspect it could become quite popular with CoG fans. But I don't think it's my kind of game (I was almost relieved when I reached the end, even if it wasn't a "good" one).

I'm calling it now: you are the long lost child of the Phone Company CEO.

GameCeption is "a game within a game" action thriller, where the goal is for you and your friend to win the gaming competition, and win the much needed prize (money!). The game you must play, however, is really not what it seems...

I'll say it out of the gate: I liked this game. It was nicely paced*, with engaging gameplay and choice, and a pretty stylised UI (I'm a sucker for a sci-fi-esc interface). Even if I saw the twist coming from a mile away, I was still pretty entertained, and felt vindicated when proven right! I thought the game knocked it out of the park.
*timed text on replay was a taaaaad annoying, esp when trying to speed run the last part

I liked the differences between the two parts of the competition, both in terms of styling of the page and the text itself. As both parts sort of mirror each other, especially in terms of action, there is just enough distinctiveness between both parts to make it feel fresh. The "parser"-like actions with the links added to the game competition aspect.

While characterised as an action thriller, I think Survival, à-la Battle Royale, might fit the game even better, especially considering the gameplay when the competition starts. Though the interface of the game and the cover art would maybe give the expectation of a more sci-fi like entry.

For a game with multiple "losing" state, I appreciated "respawning" at the last major point, avoiding replaying the whole game to get back to the action.

Maybe a less positive point, it would be in the characterisation of the protagonists' relationship. It was maybe left a bit too vague for the question at the 'interview' to hit harder.

20 Exchange Place is hostage-situation high-stake game where you play a Sergeant trying to solve a sticky situation. The game offers multiple consequential choices, with many leading to a bad ending. I would rate this game Cruel on Zarf's difficulty's scale. I know it is possible to reach a "good" ending, but didn't manage even with my many attempts.

This game is... frustrating, especially as someone who wants to do good when playing game, and strive to reach at a minimum the least harmful ending as possible. I usually don't mind replaying, until I find a (somewhat) satisfying result. But here, I gave up after a good half-dozen try. And savescuming is difficult with Ink (only one slot, not possible to go back to a previous choice). Meaning you often need to go through the whole game again to change one thing.

20 Exchange Place is very much a "golden"/"only-one-true" path type of game, and if you stray from it, you will face harsh consequences. And while each failed state will get its own extensive variation, having to restart the whole thing every time (especially when you are pretty far along) is tedious at best.

The difficulty of the game is that you are pretty blind when choosing what to do next, as there are little to no indications in the text about the correct choice/approach, which is frustrating when the PC is supposed to be a veteran on the job (or are you just that stupid?). Even choices characterised as "safe" lead you down a bad path.
This is kinda the type of game where you need some sort of walkthrough...

While the prose does a good job at setting the scene, and pushing the high-stake envelope about the situation, I also found it awkward at times. This was made even more obvious with the missing punctuation in the dialogues, or the censoring of "bad" and "swear" words, which, considering the indicated genre and content warning, feels out of place.
Is hell a bad word? I think it was most in the context of swearing...

We All Fall Together is a short surrealist game about "taking the plunge" and facing things head on. Made in Texture, you click-n-drag actions towards specific block of words to affect the displayed text or move the story along. There is only one ending.

With its fantastical setting (you falling towards the eye of a storm, falling with others), WAFT proposes a very simple and silly game. Yet, intertwined the silliness, the game discusses a very human trait: the fear of just... doing things. Of diving head forwards into things. Of avoiding situations for fear it will end badly...

It was a fine small entry. Though I wished it had dived maybe a bit more into your fears.

The content warnings gives a head's up on the implied content of the game, but it still hit so hard. Takes your heart out, pulls its strings, and squish it into mush... and with just a few hundred words.

Found Objects is short and sweet (also not sweet at all, it stings a lot), using little words and many links to show the resolve of the character when faced with past addiction.

It really shows that you don't need more than a tiny snapshot to pull the heart strings. This was really good.