Ratings and Reviews by SarahTheEntwife

In A Day for Fresh Sushi, instead of trying to cobble together a whole game under the time limit, Short has written one perfectly constructed little scene. It's a few steps away from a one-move game; if you get even slightly lucky you'll win right away, but want to come back to see what happens when you try other things. As other reviews have said, the fish's commentary is hilarious and is really what makes the game. Most of this game is silly with touches of playful romance, but there are deeper elements suggesting a more complex backstory. (Hint: (Spoiler - click to show)look at the painting.)

Babel gets high marks from me in every way -- the story is compelling, the prose is beautiful, and the puzzles are well woven into the stoy. You are thrown almost violently into the world of the Babel Project station from the first sentence; while it's only a short-to-mid-length game, the sensory details will linger disconcertingly in the back of your mind for days afterward. It may be cliched, but the amnesia/flashback device is played here masterfully.

Every detail and every puzzle in this game is there for a reason; the player isn't made to jump through hoops just for the sake of mental exercise. Why are the keys to routine parts of the station so hard to obtain? By the end of the game you will know and it will make sense. The writing also gives an overwhelming sense of urgency while not, as far as I could tell, actually having a time-limit coded into the game (other than in one puzzle, which you can do over if you mess up). This makes it very playable for relatively new players apt to go over and over things like me.

No character in this game is morally unambiguous. They are human, fallible, and very believable. Some scenes do stray just over the line into melodramatic or preachy, and the romantic subplot seemed a bit unnecessary to me. But that's only a tiny quibble in what is otherwise a seamless and chilling story.

Words Get Twisted, etc. is very pretty but neither a game nor really a story, hence the lack of star rating. It is a set of 9 whimsical little concrete poems in different styles. All nine will take you less than 5 minutes to read through, so if you're feeling in a poetical mood it's well worth a look :-)

As a game, this is well-executed by not particularly interesting. It's not very interactive and the environment can be a bit confusing. After reading the "About" file, it made a great deal more sense. Most of the plot captures the writer's intention beautifully, but my big one-star-worthy problem was in the ending. Idealistically, sure, it's really sweet. But if someone actually did anything like that it would be self-defeating and creepy.

(Spoiler - click to show)In order to fully win the game you need to hug the other shy person at the meeting. Given that she isn't named or otherwise described in familiar terms, you don't seem to know her. I also have some social anxiety issues, not even nearly as bad as depicted in the game, and if someone I didn't know walked up and hugged me, instead of being all happy and comforted, I would panic and never attend the meeting again. It's slightly less creepy if we assume "you" are female, but how about making the winning conditions something a little less harassing, like greeting her with a smile, or even shaking her hand? I know this is probably me reading more into it than is actually there, but seriously, don't touch the anxious people unless they've explicitly said it's ok. *twitch*

Overall, this game is excellent. The storytelling mechanic is effective and original...it's far more subtle than a hackneyed chose-your-own-adventure story; you simply affect which points are emphasized and give commentary to the tale. The choice of a real-world epic and collaboration by the author with a storyteller give a very authentic feel to the telling. It's about 10-15 minutes long (though I read fast!) -- short enough to play as a quick break, but long enough to get a good feel for the setting and establish some rapport with the story and characters.

I did, however, have some quibbles with the setup and mechanics. It isn't clear when you select the tools of your trade and the identity of your lover that this will affect your character; a few words of explanation would have cleared it up entirely. I do like the gender-neutrality of your character and choice of gender in your lover. Sometimes turning the story or audience to your side was effectively challenging, but other times it was just cryptic and frustrating. It isn't always clear when you pick a word what exactly you are going to have to say about it, and there were many moments of "Wait, that wasn't what I wanted my character to say at all!", and only repeated playthroughs will help that. In some playthroughs I was scolded for not participating despite having commented on many words; again, just a little more introduction or assistance would give you a better motivation to participate more rather than just sitting in silent agreement when other characters make comments you like and there isn't anything obvious you want to comment on.