Ratings and Reviews by ChanceOfFire

A world ravaged by apocalypse. The salt wrack. As a researcher, your objective is to reach the center of the cataclysm and discover what you can.

The writing and descriptions are strong, conveying the different views of the salt wrack and the many perils as you try to reach the center and return. Geography, unusual lifeforms, cold and storms all stand in your way. This game is difficult, and it took me three attempts before I could reach the center and return to tell the tale. Even then, it was a clear pyrrhic victory, given the many horrors and losses along the way.

There are also plenty of choices to make, although I don't think I've figured out the most optimal set at this point. You will also need to manage your rations, but this isn't communicated very well, and the quantity remained at plentiful for a good long time before suddenly decreasing rapidly. I 'beat' the game on the third attempt by focusing on speed, unless I felt it was at the expense of safety, and had also run out of rations by the time I reached the end.

Additionally , there doesn't seem to be a save or undo feature. This game is forced ironman, which also adds to the difficulty and interestingly, the vibe.

Be warned, this is a horror story, showing the bleakness and hopelessness of navigating an apocalyptic landscape. If something like this causes distress, there is nothing wrong in seeking stories elsewhere. Still, if this is your thing, there is strong writing and atmosphere to be found here.

With strong and amusing writing, an interesting cast of characters, along with plenty of charm and whimsical humor, A Rock's Tale was certainly fun to play.

Well, you're a rock. Along the way, plenty of people will stop by. You can choose to say nothing, like a real rock would, or engage in some funny conversation. Lots of these people have all sorts of different problems, and along the way, you'll find out that some of these problems are interconnected as you try to solve them.

Still, all that glitters is not gold. There will also be times where you might presume a connection and try to solve someone's problems, only to realize that you misunderstood the situation and everything is now backfiring spectacularly. Plus, some folks here just seem irredeemably lazy when you try to get them to help another.

There are no complex stat systems here. What really stood out for me was the dialogue and writing.

There are twenty endings, and I unlocked about six before I started writing this review. Nevertheless, the game was really fun to read. Even if you don't finish it, there is also plenty of fun in a partial playthrough.

Ah yes, the second mystery game from the writer (in terms of what I've played so far). I have mixed feelings about this one. As with the Solitary Resident, the writing is engaging and leaves you wanting to find out what happened. From a gameplay perspective, I like the way this game is constructed, with the ability to investigate different sections to uncover clues slowly. I managed to find all clues on my first attempt, and having an organized menu of clues found does help from a presentation standpoint.

There are plenty of clues, little puzzles, red herrings which you can get out of the way with some investigation and so on.

That said, even at the end, I was unable to figure out who the murderer was, and had to brute force it. When I did, and had the mystery revealed to me, it just left more questions than answers. A lot of it didn't quite make sense, even after reading over the final reveal a few times and trying to make it make sense.

Plenty of spoilers from here. You have been warned.

Questions:

Anyway, I enjoyed finding the clues and slowly unraveling the case, even if I had difficulty making sense of the final reveal.

With directional choices as well as an ultra-simple inventory system and puzzles along the way, Dead Sea reminds me of a parser game, but one which has been built in a choice based format.

You will need to complete puzzle after puzzle to complete the game. None of it was overly difficult, and I never found myself stuck, although some of the puzzles might be a little tedious, especially as you may have to pick up item A and item B, before heading to location C to trade those for a critical item to advance the story. It struck (in my opinion) a good balance between challenge and fun, but with that said, I'm a casual gamer, so ymmv.

The story and writing is on the lighter side. The setting seems to be some medieval setting with some modern and sci-fi items, all within a dreamlike storyscape. It was fairly entertaining, although nothing particularly stood out in this department. Sometimes, I was unsure why I had to do x or y, other than to move the story/game forward, but if you're just here for the puzzles, I suppose it's not too big a deal.

It was a fairly entertaining short experience.

In this tale, you play as Dr. Watson, working together with our Detective Holmes to solve a mystery. While this is a choice based IF, it is more of a linear story than a mystery game. You get to make a few choices here and there, but the game largely guides you towards solving the mystery.

Watson is brought in to investigate a murder, but is quietly incapacitated during the investigation. However, during this time, his consciousness is transferred into various animals and people, allowing him to carefully puppet them and use them to nudge Holmes towards solving the mystery. It is not quite explained how Watson stumbles upon this unusual power, and while you get a few choices here, the game largely puts you on the straight path to exposing the murderer.

This is a better read if you want to read a mystery rather than actively try to solve one. Not saying it's a bad thing, of course. That said, there is one other thing I'll address.

Most of the art in the game appears to be AI. Strangely placed doorknobs, unusual buttons on clothes, strange shadows and so on. The game's description clearly declared the use of AI, and IFcomp doesn't prohibit it, so I can't really penalize it here. Another thing I'll also say is that the technology has been improving, and it has been harder and harder for me to pick out the little AI tell-tale signs these days. Still, while pictures generally could be used to add flavor to a game, I don't think it's absolutely necessary, and it can be immersion breaking when my eyes spot some out of place art because the machines haven't quite gotten it right.

Anyway, these are my thoughts as a whole.

Assigning a star rating to this game was tough. As others have pointed out, this game is very very incomplete. The description mentioned that an update should be out on the first of september, but about four weeks later, this game still resembles a construction site.

I had a pretty hard time reaching the end of the seven day work period in the game, as there were a good number of dead ends when I tried interacting with the horses. By that, I mean just reaching a point where there were no options to proceed. There were also plenty of times where I saw a "Coming soon, sorry" message, along with other strange and buggy messages.

Even when I did find a set of options which took me to the end, the whole thing was still bugged out. A horse which I killed earlier participated in the race with seemingly no problems. At that point, I wondered if it was even worth the bother.

That said, the concept is pretty interesting, and the writing, while rough in some spots, was entertaining and humorous. Talking with horses, trying to push their buttons all while fulfilling your goal - that had the makings of a great game. If this game was complete, it could have been fantastic, but as of now, it's largely a construction site.

Giving this three stars was a tough choice. It is simply way too unfinished to be an IFcomp entry. That said, before calling up the nearby glue factory, I'll probably also add that this game could be really good in a completed state.

This is a pretty linear entry, with a couple of small choices with some impact on the following text, although this story is largely a linear tale with a message.

Applying for my driver's license at the MVA, getting my SSN, filling up the forms, that felt like one big headache sometimes. Still, that's easy mode. I can imagine that it's way way tougher if you're trying to apply for SNAP, and suddenly realize that you are missing your photo ID and paperwork because someone stole your stuff the day before. Everything needs to be in order, and even then, you'll be dealing with broken machines and overworked staff at times.

This game shows you all these struggles through the POV of an alien who is doing some research on humankind. You make a few choices (minor impacts), take notes, while looking at how the system is difficult on people in different ways. At the end, you have an interesting conversation with one of the species you are studying before the game closes with a message.

Minus some typos here and there, the writing was solid for the most part, and I felt it was a thoughtful read.

When I first read the description, I was expecting a game where you are given a fixed amount of money and then have to make choices on the right things to buy. The game also tries to string you along by giving you that impression with the first few choices. Still, it does not take long to notice that something is amiss.

Halfway though the game, the reveal occurs, and really hits you as to the true reason why you’re doing grocery shopping this very day and browsing all the largely bare shelves. It was a fairly interesting twist. You get a few choices in the game, around buying stuff, but as far as I can tell, it doesn’t have a huge impact on the game.

Well… it’s a short read with an interesting twist. Sorta like the Super Duper Mart in Fallout 3 without a bunch of raiders trying to kill you.

Despite the game’s description, this story is largely linear. You travel to an island with a companion, dealing with some challenges on your way, ultimately culminating in a final showdown with a few choices including seizing power, perhaps by betrayal.

Choices in the game affect your stats, listed at the bottom of the screen. Having lower stat scores may impact your access to certain choices later, but this is not very elegantly communicated, with a red line of text where the choice should be indicating the unavailable choice and which of your stats fell short. You have a choice to fight your companion at the end, and I think your stats affect the outcome, but the endings as a whole felt pretty short and anticlimactic.

Some parts of the game also didn’t make too much sense. For example, at one part, you encounter an unstable bridge, and can locate unstable parts of it by shooting at them with a pistol to find out. This doesn’t strike me as very realistic or practical. Yes, that helps you get across the bridge safely.

The overall story felt somewhat mediocre. The stat system was ok, I guess, but some of the choices around them weren’t good from a writing standpoint. It’s a short read if you want to take a look. The undo button is handy, I suppose.

Note: This is a review of an Introcomp entry, and therefore, I will not leave any star ratings.

This was actually pretty fun. With simple but charming art, sweet music which adds to the vibe, as well as an interesting story, I think this was worth the additional effort for a download. This introductory game also ends on a cliffhanger, right when things get exciting. I'm certainly eager to see what lies beyond the portal.

There was a slight bit of choices and branching in the introductory segment, along with bad endings if you chicken out instead of taking that leap forward. There was also a character approval system, and a dice roll system, and it would be great if all these mechanics get expanded for the rest of the story. Text rollback is another plus, and if you want to cheat, you can always use it to roll the dice again if the numbers didn't work for you the first time.

All it all, it's a very sweet entry. I'm keen to see what happens next. The little gameplay mechanics mentioned earlier were also nice to have, and hopefully have a place in the completed version too.