Reviews by Gyromancer
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Lovingly crafted Lovecraftian horror marred by some amateur design decisions, September 11, 2022Don’t be fooled by the gentle introduction, this game quickly ramps into gear. At it’s best it can be incredibly bleak, atmospheric, and eerie.
The biggest problem is probably Cathy, our NPC companion. As well implemented as she is, her cheerful, gung-ho attitude undermines the Lovecraftian vibe. It’s hard to be intimidated when you’ve got her by your side throwing out quips and gunning down monsters. Which is a shame because it’s a stark reversal of the hopelessness you face at the start of the game. Frankly this game is better when it’s being eerie than when it’s trying to be funny.
There’s also a few problems in gameplay. House is, for the most part, a traditional puzzle-based IF. But the puzzles are difficult, and the hints are cryptic, so there’s a lot of bumbling around, examining objects, and wondering what you’re supposed to do next.
Not that I have a problem with that. The problem is the time limit. Take too long figuring out what to do, and Michael will suffer a horrible death. Find out how to dodge that fate, and you’re still facing constant attack by monsters with only a finite amount of ammo to dispatch them with.
As thematically appropriate as this is, it means you’ll be dying a lot, restarting a lot, and replaying a lot until you figure out what you need to do. Even with the extra life the game hands you, it can be a bit of a slog.
There’s an impressive level of attention to detail and it’s one of the things I truly admire about the game. There’s a lot of well-crafted descriptions. Every object can be shewn to Cathy to get her thoughts (or at least her quips).
Almost every object has an alternate “garden version” (I won’t spoil that by explaining).
And for the morbid among us, there’s a ton of unique death scenes packed away here and there. The game even alters the scenes slightly if Cathy’s with you when you die.
It maybe could have done with another round of bug-testing, but I certainly can’t accuse the author of being lazy.
I wish I could justify giving it 4 stars. This game left a genuine impression on me. It’s flawed, it has an uneven tone, but when it strives to be horrific, or eerie, or bleak it often succeeds.
It’s not an easy game to stick with and finish, but as an experience in hopelessness it’s well worth playing.
Trolling with Toast, February 25, 2020This is probably one of those games that was more fun to code than it is to play.
You are in a kitchen with three plates; one blue, one white, and one green. Your goal is to transfer 8 slices of toast from the blue plate to the white, moving them one at a time and making sure that a larger slice never rests on top of a smaller one.
Yes, you've guessed it, it's the Tower of Hanoi. An 8-floor, text-parser version of the Tower of Hanoi. And yes, it is just as tedious as it sounds. It doesn't help that the toast slices are identical to one another, so it's almost impossible to play without careful note-taking.
It took me over an hour on my attempt and my only reward was the message: (Spoiler - click to show)"You have toast and also too much patience".
I have to respect the troll job, but if you value your sanity, you really, really shouldn't play this.
Not my favourite game about TOAST, February 25, 2020This is just a throwaway game made in 2 hours for the 2003 Speed-IF ToasterComp II.
Even so, it's pretty weak. There's only a single room, no NPCs, and just two items you can interact with. It's even worse in context, because it coincidentally takes advantage of the same Douglas Adams joke borrowed by Admiral Jota for A Monkey Stole Your Toast!. Another ToasterComp joke game, but one which struck me as more fully featured.
A few of the verbs have been overwritten to add a little bit more variety. But it's not enough to save this game from being completely disposable.
A silly joke game..., February 25, 2020...and that's all it's supposed to be.
There's nothing particularly spectacular about this game. It's just a simple chase through a surreal 5-room house. But it has some fun wordplay here and there. And it's a bit more fully implemented than might be expected for such a throwaway joke. (Spoiler - click to show)Just try taking the toast back into the Zone of No Toast.
Is it worth five minutes of your time? Probably not. But I don't regret playing it.
An evocative game bogged down by a flawed execution, February 24, 2020Wetlands is an unusual IF in that it requires you to bring your own motivation.
We begin play with a drawing of the fabled city that captured our character's imagination as a child, and then we're left completely to our own devices. Free to scurry about the swamp solving puzzles, stuffing our raincoat pockets full of pinecones, and perhaps wondering why we're going to all of this trouble to find a place that may not even exist.
The whole thing feels somewhat directionless, which is a shame because this game has a lot of things going for it. The descriptions are ornate without quite stumbling into purple prose. The environment is very lush and a lot of care has been put into making it feel alive. The characters are simple, but they work. They're colourful, and responsive, and a joy to interact with.
But the game doesn't quite deliver on its central premise. (Spoiler - click to show)We're offered a vision of this glittering crystal city but we never get a chance to go there. Not really, not properly. We don't get a chance to wander through the crystal streets and see them described in the same luxurious prose that makes the area at the top of the hill so pretty. We never get to investigate its mysteries for ourselves. Or talk to its inhabitants. And that's a shame, because that's our sole motivation for running around these wetlands in the first place.
The game sets up two civilisations in conflict with one another. But we're on the fringes of both. Stuck in the wetlands between the two. Unable to fully explore either.
They're beautiful wetlands, but unfortunately, they're not where we want to be.
Just Chillin', February 23, 2020A short and sweet game detailing a fictionalised trip to the Hubbard glacier, based on Emily Short's Disenchantment Bay example from Inform 7's docs.
The central puzzle is still the same but it has been fleshed out with all kinds of little environmental details to help bring the scene to life. Including some extra dialogue from the Captain. And a few general improvements to make the game easier to play.
I do wish that the characterisation had been taken further, and the dialogue a bit more polished before release, but I recognise the author was working under very limited time constraints. (Spoiler - click to show)And I did laugh at the Captain's silly joke about Titanic.
The real star of the show is actually the glacier itself. Which now feels much more vibrant than in the original piece. It's a constant presence as you move around the ship.
(Spoiler - click to show)There's also a fun new twist at the end which, while easily resolved, does add excitement to what is, essentially, a relaxed slice-of-life game.
All in all, a nice little 20-minute diversion.
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