Ratings and Reviews by forgepoet

The thing about games (stories? Hypertext fiction? Poetry?) like this is that whenever I reach what seems to be a wall, I'm never sure if I've experienced the full game, if the author is trying to convey some message about frustration or death or something else profound, or if I'm just dumb and not finding the next thing to click on.

This game epitomizes that feeling. After clicking on everything I can and reading the resulting slightly-to-fairly gross, bizarre (but presumably with some much deeper meaning I'm not catching) snippets of text, I'm locked in a loop that doesn't seem to have an exit, with a score of 800,000 and with no apparent way to continue. (Spoiler - click to show)And the only way to progress through the loop -- just so I can respawn at the beginning of the loop again -- requires several actions and then sitting through a poem, which appears line by line, with a brief but excruciating timed delay between each line.

At this point, I have very little interest in continuing; I feel vaguely sorry for the amorphous protagonist, but (slight) (Spoiler - click to show)I'm pretty sure nothing I help him do in the game is going to improve his life outside it, and he's so passive it'd be hard to imagine him improving it for himself. And the dreary, unrelentingly unkind atmosphere suggests this is the kind of game where "winning" will be Pyrrhic, if not worse than losing.

As a game, I found the biggest flaw to be how difficult it was to know what to do when (or even if there was a "right" or "best" or even "productive" thing to do). As a story, I found it surprisingly compelling, in the same way that a kid feels about poking a dead thing with a stick. But the appeal wears off pretty quickly.

Within the framework of a quickly made and meant to be quickly played game, this works very well and is quite pleasant. The tone is consistent and appropriate to the setting and main character, and the adult elements are played for (fairly gentle and worth a giggle) humor. Events unfold logically and with few hitches; I can't recall a single issue of guess the verb or a point where I was stuck for more than a minute or two.

This is a perfect example of silly that actually is silly, not lazy and stupid. Not what I would call "unforgettable" (two days later the details are escaping me) but worth playing.

Might just be that I'm a sim addict (I am), but I wish there were more IF games like this. Not that ALL IF games were like this, just that there were a few more.

It's amazing how easily a few bits of information (name, gender, four stats) and a little responsibility can be converted to genuine (if very mild) affection. I genuinely wanted my charges to be attractive and well-disciplined so that they could get out of my orphanage before despair killed them. And to get paid in the process.

I found the interface simple to use and not overly tedious even in the tail end of the game once I discovered I could "x all" and "assign all". I enjoyed the random story events, and liked that I could dismiss ones that were unfulfillable. I wish there were more of them, or that they were more frequent ((Spoiler - click to show)and that the sewage one came up a lot less frequently, or not at all unless you have wards in every room. I had it happen on two different plays when I had no wards in two of the rooms and it took forever to clean up).

At some points (like when a ward I'd gotten almost perfect bolted) I found myself wishing for a bit more agency. And I would have liked a subplot that required spending money (maybe enriching myself or improving my station) to make the choice of where to spend my money more interesting than just "what order do I buy stuff" or "buy whatever will help solve my current issue".

After several play-throughs, I only found one bug; one of my wards met an untimely end yet was still active and present the next day.

Definitely a game worth playing as both an interesting experiment and a fun game, as long as you don't dwell too long on what the game is actually requiring you to do (or find it amusing).

So, it turns out I somehow downloaded both versions and played the wrong one! The updated version seems to have increased the number of random events and decreased the morale hits. Very nice.

Let me start off by saying that I somehow missed that this was not exactly the whodunit mystery I was looking for. And... I think I'm glad? Even though I'm still feeling a little disturbed two days later.

Compelling, I think, would be a good word to describe this game. Enough so that I kept playing, even though I really, really didn't want to once I started to suspect what was coming. Very effective. Even if I had to read certain parts with my eyes closed. No guess the verb issues and vivid (too vivid, gulp) descriptions.

I ran into a few places I got stuck. (Spoiler - click to show)I didn't realize the window in the bathroom could be opened. And the gasoline evaporating after three turns almost forced me to reload, but fortunately I had just enough "undos". The walkthrough for the original Mystery House gave enough pointers for me to get through.

Overall, it successfully tells a creepy short story while allowing the player to gradually discover the scope of that story through his own actions and the actions of those around him.

This was an amazing game. Professional in all respects, fascinating mechanics, gentle, well-described world hiding unexpectedly sharp teeth. I wanted to fall in love with it, and I did, for what turned out to be the first half or so.

The issue, for me, is that the characters were as gently and obliquely described as the world. I could sense there was a lot more to them bubbling under the surface, but I couldn't seem to unlock much of it. So I was left with a sense that the game would really be happier if we just stayed good friends and I didn't pry too much, and this left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied.

I may have rushed through too quickly; I'm used to IF that takes a few hours to complete, and this probably should have been enjoyed over a week. And maybe I'm spoiled by the easy narrative rewards of less demanding pieces. And maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind to enjoy exploring all of the nuances of the system and fiddling with everything in pursuit of success.

Minor spoiler (general feelings on ending): (Spoiler - click to show)I found the ending to be disappointing, enough so that I assumed I'd gotten a mediocre ending until I checked the source and discovered I'd gotten the best one (and some of the reasons why the author made this choice). I wasn't entirely shocked that the ending left me with mixed feelings, since I've played a few other games by this author and have come to the conclusion that our definitions of "happy" are considerably different!

Major spoiler: (Spoiler - click to show)I wanted Alexandra to be separated and to see them interact with each other face to face after spending so much time so intimately connected and going through so much. Leaving them joined just felt incomplete.

I would definitely suggest using Gargoyle if possible, since on WinGluxe, "go to" and "find" became incredibly sluggish as the game progressed.