The Granite Book

Baf's Guide

A decidedly strange game that runs mostly on atmosphere. It's often creepy, with a first-person-plural player character (or set of characters?) and an environment suggestive of (maybe) some kind of ancient religion. Exactly what all the peculiar imagery means is a bit less clear. At times the writing is quite evocative, but there are also points where it seems to go over the top. The gameplay is likewise mixed, with one action in particular that is unnecessarily finicky about exact phrasing and behavior. In the end, though, it's the strange imagery that sticks in one's memory.

-- Emily Short

SPAG
This is another work where the author seems to have a clear idea what it's about, but it's not coming across very clearly. The game exists in its own universe, bending even parser messages to conform to its distinctive voice. It is all symbolic, like a dream; also like a dream, its symbols are difficult to reckon. There is enough consistency to the story and its imagery to seem thoroughly thought out, but it remains opaque to my comprehension all the same. I can see that there is an active mind behind it, but I cannot fathom what the mind intended to communicate to me.
-- J. Robinson Wheeler
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

At no time during this game did I have any clear conception of what was supposed to be going on. At various points, I thought that the PC might be a king, a transient, a guy on a date, a psychopath, a spirit, or a troll. Perhaps he's the itinerant ghost of an insane troll king, looking for love. I really have no idea... I can imagine solving the game without the hints, if I was lucky enough to guess at the right interpretation of its descriptions, but I can't imagine understanding it. I can't exactly say that's a defect in the game -- who knows, maybe I'm just not bright enough to get it? But I can authoritatively say that I didn't enjoy it.
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