Passing Familiarity

"Passing Familiarity" starts out with a convenient amnesia plot device -- you come to your senses having drunk a bottle of the waters of Lethe and have no idea who you are or why you would have done such a thing. The writing is solid and has a slightly Victorian flavor. The characters are believable if somewhat melodramatic in parts of the revealed story.

There are several possible endings, which I normally like but which in this case just makes the game slightly frustrating. It is extremely easy to win the game without having learned much of your past, and that ending is so positive that it doesn't give much justification for playing again unless you really like puzzles for their own sake. The puzzles themselves are reasonably well-implemented. It's a bit of a scavenger hunt to find both your memories and various components you need, but a well-done one if you like that sort of thing. There is at least one obvious bug: (Spoiler - click to show) a spell you can cast to reveal memories formed in different rooms can be cast multiple times, revealing the same memory but giving you another 2 points each time.

The file currently here on IFDB includes a complete walkthrough for each ending, but there is almost no in-game help other than a rather long-winded description of your inventory constraints and a tip that there is more than one ending. This game is one for which an in-game hint system would have provided both assistance and teasers for other things the player might want to try out even after finding the obvious exit.