You

Note: This review was written during IFComp 2024, and originally posted in the authors' section of the intfiction forum on 15 Sep 2024.

This is a short Twine piece where you have to figure out what’s going on. And the word “weird” in the genre is highly appropriate. Which drew me in. I like weird things!

On the downside the opening portion is very linear. Lots of clicking to move on to the next text, with no choices at all.

Also the visual emphasis using colour of every “you” in the screen text, e.g. “you” and in “yours” etc. starts to become exasperating after a while. And distracting from reading the text. Because the writing is pretty good, and atmospheric.

However after this opening portion the game opens up, with a world you can explore, and objects and creatures that you can interact with. And I was a lot happier as a player. With light puzzles, working towards an ultimate end point.

It is a very very odd gaming experience. In a good way though. Reminiscent of both Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and their stranger moments. But also of the Dreamlands stories of Lovecraft, and the strange creatures encountered there.

In some ways it feels like a Twine game that might more traditionally be done as a parser game. There are object manipulations and interactions with the physical world that feel more like the parser form than Twine based. However it does work, and this is what the author chose to use.

The ending felt a little anticlimactic, but I liked that it had space to tell its ending. I went back to replay making a few different choices, although the endings were largely similar.

I think I’d like to have had a bit more of the world and its inhabitants to explore. Because the writing was imaginative and strong. But I did enjoy what I played through.