Noirbilis

Although I enjoyed this quite a bit, this piece either ends ambiguously or is unfinished and has no ending, and it's almost pure linear; despite several play-throughs, I always ended up at the same place, mostly the same way.

But I enjoyed it. The writing had a nice rhythm to it and it was incredibly confident. This is clearly a work based on some other property, with which I am unfamiliar, and there were dozens of concepts I didn't understand, but without info-dumps and pages of backstory, I was able to figure out who I was and what was happening.

It's a noir-ish story that seems to take place in a supernatural reality. The little flourishes--you can act "mysteriously" for example--are a real treat. How did I get myself untied from the knots? Well, it's a mystery. I particularly appreciated the way the piece admitted it was cheating, but felt in-world and character.

The confidence mixed with the quality of writing made me especially sad that the ending was so unclear: if it does end, I'd recommend having some "Thanks for playing" page, just to make it clear, but I think the finale is very anti-climatic and doesn't read like an ending.

I would happily give this more stars for the confidence, narrative voice, and well-written paragraphs, but it needs to tie up the ending into something that feels like a proper ending, even if it's a "To be continued" page. I'd also recommend polishing the UI/look; this would benefit greatly from a little attention to the color scheme & maybe even illustrations if possible.

It was a bit on the short side, and ended quite abruptly, and seemed quite linear, making it more a short story than a game. That said, the writing was decent and amusing. Seems like the decent start to a game, but could use much more content and a couple different story branches.