Planet of the Infinite Minds

Baf's Guide

Highly peculiar game that's heavy on the abstract math and physics. You're spun through a variety of cosmic absurdities to no obvious purpose--the author appears to be experimenting with the capability of IF to render concrete and interesting various concepts. In other words, your mileage will most certainly vary. The game itself is quite difficult if you're not on the author's wavelength; absurdism and in-jokes are plentiful. Still, the intentions are good, and those with a taste for abstract science may well enjoy this.

-- Duncan Stevens

SPAG

Er. Um. It's... odd, there's no denying that. It's generally bug-and-typo free, but it's resoundingly... odd. It's what I'd imagine a Rybread Celsius game to be like if it was done, well, right. Some great puzzles, although there's rather a lot of guess-the-author's-mind - I had to use hints several times - we're back to the oddness again; indeed, parts of it kept reminding me of Nord and Bert. Indeed, like N&B, it's at times laugh-out-loud funny - the problems relating to the end of the universe spring to mind.
-- Matthew Clemson
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SPAG

Sort of a cross between 1950s sf, a physics major's worst nightmares (I'm betting the author is or was a physics major), and a comedy (well, it DID say 'farce'), the basic plot is... nearly incomprehensible, yet, strangely appealing, much like the sideshow freaks at a circus. Watching it unfold is somewhat akin to watching that guy in the sideshow who does terrible things to his own body: you wince, but you watch anyhow because it's fascinating, and you wonder how it's done.
-- Tina Sikorski
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SynTax
I managed to finish the game without solving any of the puzzles or scoring any points at all! Oh well, back to the drawing board. I restarted and this time followed the gypsy to be drawn into the game.
-- Dorothy Millard
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

Not that POTIM is a bad game -- far from it. Its concretization of philosophical concepts makes for some pretty thought-provoking IF, and there are also one or two puzzles that I thought were quite clever and original. However, there is also a slew of strange, random things that seem to serve no purpose to the story. Some of them have the feel of in-jokes, like the references to "MacFlecknoe" that pepper the game text. That sort of thing may have been fun for the author, but it does nothing for me. Other things, well, I just don't have an explanation for, unless they somehow all get explained in the endgame.

In addition, there are a few bugs here and there, as well as some grammar problems, especially the dreaded its/it's error (see my review of Masque of the Last Faeries). In the end, it may just be another case of a game underserved by the need to play it in two hours.