Reviews by E.K.

This is a cute little game that works very well as an introduction to parser IF. You play a wannabe PC who must escape danger through the use of a range of basic verbs. The writing is fluid and lends a sense of urgency to your endeavours, and the NPCs are largely references to classic games (I noted Captain Verdeterre's Plunder, Zork and Galatea). Although it is designed for the beginner to get used to the sorts of actions and thought processes required by parser games, I'd also recommend it to the seasoned IF player as an enjoyable mini romp, although your possible actions are clearly signposted and there's no real challenge to be found.

I almost gave up on this game before hitting the change-point. While there is a contextual justification for having an extremely linear introduction, I would say it is fairly flimsy. Without an indication that the level of interactivity will change the player is left without any real motivation to continue past their first attempts at doing something, anything, aside from UP or CAMP. Even the apparently lovely views are beyond our reach.

However, once I made it past this initial disappointment, the game endeared itself to me greatly. I don't want to give away too much so I'll put my thoughts behind a spoiler tag.

(Spoiler - click to show)The pinball game provides a great backdrop for what could otherwise be a philosophical infodump, and the overall feel of philosophy talk while shooting targets lightens the mood. I liked the voice of the Master, and found the game became strangely relaxing as I was playing, just directing the ball and thinking. The minigame sections were a nice touch, though I found myself wishing for greater interactivity and also better synonym implementation (eg I had to look at 'apple' not 'fruit', and objects mentioned in the highway description could not be given greater scrutiny).

Overall, this turned out much better than the beginning had led me to believe, and with a bit of expansion and more player motivation it could be a really nice little exploration of its theme.

I was initially intrigued by this steampunk travel-mystery. While the premise and (very well done) graphics are a little close to '80 Days' for comfort, there's still a lot of room for creating a story of one's own in a familiar world. However, this game is simply too flawed to be properly enjoyable, particularly the English version. The introduction is very exposition heavy, and the translation is very poor. For instance, at one point it says (Spoiler - click to show)"events that caused the death of your friend and merely killed you" when it means "nearly" killed you and at another (Spoiler - click to show)"people are the most numerous race" when it means humans (personhood is a whole different philosophical ballgame). There are also many subject/object/verb disagreements littered throughout the game.

I could forgive the poor translation if the gameplay were made more compelling. Like 80 Days, it has random encounters, and some of the possible storylines seem like they are well-plotted and would be absorbing if followed. But at almost every stop the player has to choose to run or hide with a random result - this would be much better paced if used more sparingly. There is an interesting mechanic where you can learn how to make useful items for your journey, but the inventory limit is so constrained that it simply doesn't allow for collecting the materials required. Where 80 Days' limit is similarly frustrating at times, it is based on trade, rather than crafting - a game with a crafting mechanic should give you space for obtaining materials. It is this latter issue that made me stop playing entirely, as it offered me a playstyle I liked and then put massive barriers up that prevented me from playing that way.

Cryptographic intern? I want that as my summer job!

This is a good example of a game that succeeds in being both educational and entertaining. A large part of the game involves reading through a potted history of cryptography, featuring various cipher techniques, encryption/decryption methods, and tools to help you crack the codes that you’re given in your role as an intern for the AGIL private investigations company. Basically, the game is one long cryptography lesson.

Fortunately, the mystery that the cryptography lesson is based around is a compelling one. A cryptographer has gone missing, leaving no trace but coded messages to his distraught wife. It’s your job to decode those messages, and in doing so you unfold a story with many twists and turns, that keeps you hooked in until the end.

The game is made up of 14 sections, each of which is presented as a task from your employers, with their correspondence and related chapters in a parallel cryptography manual. For the most part, each section increases the complexity of the encryption method, from simple substitution ciphers to binary/hexadecimal. It would be impossible even for the greatest mathematical mind to decode the later stages without computer help, and therefore the tools provided are essential. They are, additionally, well-programmed and have a simple, functional UI. However, they also reduce the ‘game’ aspect quite significantly. The vast majority of your code-breaking is simply choosing the correct mode and inputting strings in the right field (and this information is given freely in the correspondence).

Essentially, I would have liked to have seen more freedom in the game, or more personal puzzle-solving. For example, if the end mystery required you to go back and discover un-signposted codes within your own correspondence, that would be putting what you had learnt into practice. Or for some bonus content, on solving each section you could get some extra puzzles unrelated to the storyline but using the encryption type you had to solve in that part. Obviously this would be a *lot* more work for the developer, but these suggestions should be taken as an indication that I enjoyed myself greatly during the game, and would have liked even more.

One minor quibble that I had was that there were grammar and spelling issues throughout. These weren’t too problematic, but for a game that involves linguistics (even if it is more on the mathematical side), I felt that more proof-reading and attention to detail would have been beneficial.

*Hint: ATBASH

You Were Made for Loneliness is a rather poignant sci-fi tale. Like most twine works, it is a hyperlink story with minimal true interactivity. There is only really one choice that makes any difference to the story, but there is an interesting interlude in the form of hyperlink poetry, which works very well. The lack of choice certainly fits with the primary story arc and the nature of your character, but it is unsatisfying from a game perspective: provided the reader does not mind this, they will be rewarded.

The story is presented as one overarching narrative that branches off into vignettes of memories. It is, perhaps, a trifle overlong for the story it tells, possibly a consequence of multiple authors each contributing sections. And it is difficult to care about every perspective, every character, but for the most part they are all well-written and have a consistent air of melancholy. Trying to determine what connections there are, what repetitions in voice, or where they are simply glimpses into separate worlds solely connected by love and futility is also fairly compelling.

Overall, recommended for fans of twine, and those who don't mind an emphasis on the fiction over the interactive.

You've been abandoned by your tour group in an Old West ghost town, and you must wait until morning before the next bus comes to pick you up. At the very least you must find a good place to sleep, and at best? Well, adventure awaits...

Inspired by Scott Adams' 1981 game Ghost Town, Gaucho has many similar locations and old-style puzzles, but expanded and modernised from the simplistic days of two-word parser yore, and all the better for it.

There were a couple of things that initially seemed off-putting about this game to me. Firstly, the disclaimer in the description on this site is way too firmly stated. While some may distinguish between 'text adventures' and 'interactive fiction' it seems that the writers are immediately putting up an inverted snobbery against the latter when they really don't need to - the game is fun on its own terms and is a welcome addition to IF. The warning that it is made for a specific group is also somewhat overstated - Gaucho certainly contains references outsiders may not get, but it doesn't impinge on gameplay, and most of its humour is broad enough to be accessible (and also succeed in being funny).

Secondly, the opening paragraph is as long as a cowboy's lariat extending to rope an errant steer. Over-long backstory exposition in pre-game text is something a lot of games fall prey to, and in this case even a bit of basic editing would have been helpful - cut it into more paragraphs, pare it down to essentials. Fortunately this tendency towards lengthiness only reappears a couple of times in the game, and most descriptions are functional or funny rather than flowery. There are a few typos along the way, but nothing that really impinges on game quality.

In the end, I'm glad I ignored these quibbles and dived in, because this game was fun. I have a habit that may or may not be peculiar to me: that is, when I load up a new IF game I will always jump and dance and sing and check myself out (in-game, that is) - the implementation levels give you a reasonable idea about the care that goes into a game. And here there are a good number of responses to trying silly things, and it makes me respect the writers a lot more. You want to try dancing with a horse? You go for it. You want to light everything you see on fire? They're ready for you. Lick a flagpole? Well, you can try.

The story unfolds at a reasonable pace as you explore and pick up the items you might need. The puzzles are fair, logical, and not too tough. It seems impossible to put the game in an unwinnable state (though don't quote me on that), although it is very possible to finish the game in a satisfactory manner without picking up all of the points or finding all the cowboy gear. Overall it makes for a fun, old-school game suitable for beginners and veterans alike.

You are about to die. There isn't anything you can do to change that. Or, just maybe, you might get a second chance.

In a bizarre and unnerving limbo, the somewhat sleazy salesman Everett Rhodes is offering you that chance. "You made some mistakes, friend. Bad mistakes that have crippled your life. Today you can fix them. TODAY you have the opportunity to SET MATTERS STRAIGHT. Just shake my hand and everything will be YOURS to decide.”

The game (or Rhodes himself) puts you in several different characters' shoes, as you attempt to work out just where your life went wrong in order to put you in this position. It is highly probable that you will need to play through the game multiple times in order to reach a good ending - requiring not just a second chance, but a third, fourth or even fifth. However, each playthrough gives you a better sense of your characters and their relationships, and the satisfaction gained from doing a little better each time outweighs the minor annoyance at quickly re-solving a section you'd already completed.

There were some situations where I felt that the options available for solving the puzzles could have been expanded, or that the solution would not have been effective in real life, but full realism is impossible to achieve without sacrificing gameplay, and no solution was entirely counter-intuitive. There was also one particular glitch that I noticed towards the end-game, where a description from another part of the game appeared, but it did not affect the gameplay aside from breaking momentum a little.

A minor warning: many of the characters are unpleasant and hold contemptible views, and the author himself warns that the game contains bad language and violence. While Whyld certainly is not espousing these views himself, he gives minimal moral narrative in favour of reflecting a realistic form of character. And the characters are well drawn, as you get a good sense of their lives even as you spend little time with most of them.

Overall, this is a very well-written game with a compelling premise. Ultimately it is a game about free will conquering determinism. This is made more interesting when considering the relationship between player and player character, the latter of whom inherently lacks will at all. In a way, you the player are the enigmatic Rhodes, holding cards your character can't see, but equally it is Whyld who flashes you the smile as you struggle, nodding, and saying: "Just shake my hand and everything will be YOURS to decide.”

This is a great little one-room game for Ectocomp '13. You play noted composer Maurice Ravel - the title is a play on his 'Pavane for a Dead Princess' - fleeing from a zombified Claude Debussy. The conceit itself is excellent, and the writing is tight and witty.

The puzzles are straightforward and intuitive, though somewhat on the easy side. My only real complaint is that it is just too short. Although it could stand alone as it is as a five-minute diversion, I personally hope that the author takes the constraints of the Ectocomp as simply a beginning, and fleshes out (no pun intended) the game into a fuller story and world.

The phone rings. It's Felicia, calling to arrange your dinner date for tonight. But this is no ordinary dating sim, and it will be no ordinary date. Some sort of cosmic force/evil wizard/time-murderer/computer game designer wants your date to end in disaster.

Despite not really being a dating sim, I'd still describe this game as "cute". The writing is funny, with touches of surrealism and a few pop-culture references thrown in. The game seems bug-free, and the graphics are retro but effective. It's played in multiple small doses, though you will find playthroughs are interconnected, and each gives you more of a clue as to your aim, and how to achieve it. It's ultimately a form of Choose Your Own Adventure, but with enough branches to feel your choices matter each time. Well, sort of matter.

Talking too much about the game, however, runs the risk of ruining the experience, so I will put the rest of these thoughts into spoiler tags. (Spoiler - click to show)I played through the game several times, and found no good ending. I have a feeling that the only good ending is still bad for you, which made me find a surprising emotional and philosophical element to an otherwise straight-ahead funny game. Sometimes the best course of action is selflessness, and sometimes things are just not meant to be.

The author admits that their grammar may be poor, but that is an understatement. "If you are prejudice against homosexuals then leave now because your not wanted" - while I wholeheartedly appreciate the sentiment behind this sentence, the errors don't fill me with any great hope for the state of the rest of the game. I also don't quite understand why someone who seems so blasé about their standard of writing would want to work on a text adventure, but maybe that's just me.

However, I'm willing to cut the author some slack. This is obviously a young person, new to writing IF. The basic storyline has a good degree of potential - the heady days of teenage trysts and romance, as navigated by the player character, a 17-year old girl at high school. However, it is difficult to say how well this will be implemented if the game is finished. While the author fully prepared me for the fact that there would be dead ends in the game, I did not expect quite so many. It is simply impossible to know whether the characterisation will be nuanced or drawn in broad brushstrokes, whether the plot will hang together or fall apart, what the level of interactivity will be, whether there will be multiple branches of plotting… The introduction certainly hints that there will in the end be a choice of romantic partners to interact with, but currently there is only the option of a dalliance with your best friend. It could be equally feasible for the author to concentrate on this single romance, or to follow a 'dating sim'-like structure, or, well, to do pretty much anything he or she likes.

I'm rating the game on the standard that it has reached *now* rather than future promise, and I hope the author will take this review in the constructive spirit it is meant. I will be happy to replay and re-rate if the game is finished.

You play Elliott, a harried farmhand at Granny Grabby's farm. Her prized duck Mabel has swallowed the engagement ring you intended to surprise your girlfriend with this evening - you must get it back! With the help of your favourite pig Bessie, you will embark on an enjoyable load of puzzles and fetch-quests, that range from the simple to the slightly obtuse, but all full of this light, quirky humour.

The lightness does perhaps disguise that it is possible to put yourself in an unwinnable position without the game immediately telling you. However, these occasions seem rare, and with careful reading you should be able to avoid this (if the narrative voice seems iffy about your action, consider its necessity before continuing on). The inventory system is also rather inefficient - while the game will automatically shift items into a container when your hands are full, it then ceases to recognise you as 'having' these items, and you will have to take them again before attempting to use them. This is a minor quibble, however, and doesn't really get in the way of the fun.

In all, this is a great little comic puzzler, full of the joys of spring (and things).

In Dead Reckoning, you are Mark Duffy, returned to the village of Morrow to help your friend Edwin, who has been babbling about mysterious dangers. Initially sceptical, you soon find out that they are very real.

While I'm not sure that Dead Reckoning qualifies as cruel on the Zarfian scale, there are certainly multiple ways to bring death upon yourself here. Judicious use of save and undo will help you, and the game in some ways actually encourages you to try death-bringing moves to gather knowledge needed to better understand your aims and how to achieve them.

The writing is mostly pretty tight, and it's a well put-together world, but there are flaws. In one area, you must examine something, and then examine a further element of that description in order to find an object (Spoiler - click to show)(although I don't believe this object is essential to finding the best ending). In other areas, however, there are descriptions of objects that seem important, and yet are not implemented in the game-world.

I uncovered two small incidents of guess-the-verb, though only one I found infuriating:

1) (Spoiler - click to show)When trying to get into Edwin's house, you must make yourself known to him lest he attacks you. Yet when you try this, the parser demands a very precise wording:

> call
Command not understood. Try something else.

> shout
You’re a little reluctant to do that.

> call to edwin
“Edwin! It’s me!"

2) (Spoiler - click to show)And later, when trying to discuss topics with the priest:
> ask kadrin about shekel
Kadrin frowns. “I fear I do not understand what you are referring to.”

> talk to kadrin
“What do you wish to know?” asks Kadrin.

1: “Tell me about Shekel.”

Other than these few irritants, Dead Reckoning is an enjoyable horror with a tint of mystery, and for fans of the genre it is well worth a play-through or two (or more, if you're also a fan of dying, a lot).

A thoughtful and thought-provoking meditation on gender identities, identification and presentation. This is not a 'game', per se, nor really interactive, but more a hypertextual expression, and a very well-written one. The middling score given here reflects only on its linearity and short length, and I'd very much like to see more from this author.

A neat little meta-fictional game about the trials and tribulations of IF writer's block, featuring a guest appearance from the muse of epic poetry (hence the tortured pun in my review title). It's nicely packaged for a short game, and relatively well-paced, but suffers from a crucial guess-the-verb problem at the last moment.

(Spoiler - click to show)I tried 'writing' the game, I tried 'typing' the game, I even tried 'playing' the game, but didn't think to 'make' it or 'put' it until I'd banged my head against the wall too many times. A fault of my own imagination, perhaps, but a more modern version should certainly have circumvented this difficulty.

"Assuming you haven’t lost your grip on reality, you are Isaiah Knott, a twenty-seven year old man from the Appalachian mountains". The question is, have you lost your grip on reality? Your partner thinks you have, and the whole town is sure your dad was crazy. And it's all down to those darn UFOs.

Alien Abduction? is not a huge game - one good Mastermind-like puzzle, some mechanical manipulation and a little lateral thinking will get you through. But the characterisation of you-as-Isaiah is very strong, the mystery and ambiguity are both compelling, and the NPCs are amusing, if not perhaps as interesting as your own motivations.

It's a game that could have been truly great given a little more implementation. There were way too many stock responses that inevitably become annoying for the diligent IF player. For me, if something is important enough to be described in scene-setting, it should be important enough to be at least recognised by the parser. I get very tired of exchanges such as this:

You are wearing your comfortable jeans, a thick flannel shirt, and hiking boots.
>x jeans
I don’t know the word “jeans”.

Still, I think its age means that Alien Abduction can be forgiven somewhat for this, and its conversation system is a little more fleshed out, in that it can deal with concepts as well as objects (though you still can't ask anyone about "UFOs", unfortunately).

Ingold's storytelling here weaves a magical world and an emotive story, with something of a twist. The central innovation here is that it is written in the style of a novel, with the player's inputs remaining outside of the first-person text. The slightly expressionist style gives a good sense of character, and we can feel strongly the protagonist's love for his partner, and their inner motivations and desires. However, the actual backstory felt somewhat muddled, and by the time the twist came it did not have the impact a more clear narrative might have.

Despite the fact that the author implemented multiple solutions to certain puzzles, and side puzzles that one need not complete, I also felt that I was mostly following a story on rails. The majority of the action proceeds via simply thinking about things, or even by typing 'look'. It did not really matter whether I puzzle-solved or not, and the few essential puzzles felt too simple to get past. Obviously, interactive fiction does not rely on puzzles, but it does rely on some sense of interactivity, and I felt this was somewhat weak - what I chose did not have any impact on what happened, particularly.

There was also one small niggle I had regarding the inventory system - although my inventory was never overly full nor even that important, I found it rather annoying to have to check my satchel separately from my general inventory.

Overall: great atmosphere, strong writing, excellent sense of romance, but narrative and gameplay were ultimately not as satisfying as they should have been.

As soon as I'm given the basic premise of Leadlight I feel at home. I'm a teenage girl at a spooky ballet school? This must be Dario Argento's Suspiria. While it is not, in fact, a recreation of Argento's masterpiece, this familiar setting is enough to be content that we're in for a gore-splattered ride, and Clarke does not disappoint.

There are several instant-death spots, which will cost you final points to undo, so it is wise to save often - these, however, are good for adding the suspense factor that horror films do so well: if I hear a noise and proceed, will it be turn out to be innocent or will it be certain doom? The writing is mostly functional, rather than particularly pretty, but it keeps one going, and I never felt stuck for motivation. The back-story is also intriguing, if very much in the canonical horror style, and including a system of scoring for secrets found was a good impetus to continue poking around.

My main gripes were with the retro-parser: small niggles such as having to type 'examine' instead of 'x', for instance, and some instructions were slightly less intuitive than modern parsers allow for. Implementation was generally decent, however. I also found it somewhat jarring that while using a retro platform and old-school parser, Clarke lays out a world with iPods and iMacs - it would have been more fitting to place the action in the 1980s or before.

Unfortunately, I got stuck (Spoiler - click to show)going into the leadlight door, where every action I tried got me killed. However, the time spent playing before running into this wall was most enjoyable, and the game deserves a strong score for its fun factor.

While the gameplay concept for this game is admirable - the ability to modify communication with NPCs through multiple verbs and adverbs - the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Experimental games tend to make me want to experiment, yet I would all too often be stuck in a rut of trying out different modes of speech with no success.

The prose is vivid and enjoyable, and the characters enjoyably drawn. The game is certainly worth a play-through despite its flaws.