The People's Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game

PGRTAG was one of the first games I played when I came back to text adventures and judged for IFComp 2010. It doesn't seem to break any theoretical ground or have grand arguments. It would be easy to disqualify as dashed off, and I suspected once I saw ten or so games like this, I wouldn't be so high on it.

But after testing and playing a lot of games, I still haven't found many that reached this level. In so many humor games, I see what they're trying to do, and I say good job, but this one's jokes are immersive. I was worried from the title that the game might be overdone, but it feels balanced right.

Though originally I figured, sure, I enjoyed it, but it's not going to last. I figured once I learned more and saw more, I'd be glad I played it and all, but I really need to learn from more sophisticated efforts.

It's several years later and I'm still coming back to it, though, while games that discuss structure are more over my head, or I don't feel as invited to learn from them, or I figured I got their lesson and I'd like to move on. This game does pretty much everything it wants to, right. It's a spontaneous affair, and it has those touches I wish I'd seen. The over the top narrative voice makes fun of, say, coffee shops and people who complain about them too much. The puzzle where Comrade Rosalia wants to share Communist Manifestos with the students but needs one for everyone is funny and sad bad-logic.

The end result for me is a very spontaneous game. You're invited to try silly stuff, and in fact the two paths through the game are very funny, and the alternate solutions let you use items differently. There's a best ending ((Spoiler - click to show)don't use the pawn shop) and a not-best, and they both make sense.

I think the community needs games like this, to keep us all grounded, or to remember that you don't have to be academic to sort old ideas into new stuff, or even to enter into Interesting Arguments (all arguments between NPCs in the game are suitably ludicrous.) I mean, when I read about reworkings of an old myth or whatever, I can't really mark that as superior to something like this, which pastes silly tropes and leaves you feeling, yes, it's okay to write silly stuff and want to.

On the downside, there's some guess the verb ((Spoiler - click to show)POINT device at X) and some annoying disambiguation among devices, where you have three "(long name)" device to choose from. But the game's short enough, it's not a huge deal.

Sadly, I haven't seen the author again. I hope they come back. Even a game half as good would be very welcome. When someone writes a game like this, it's easy to feel they can just dash off another. But it's not so easy to find that big-idea sweet spot and execute it. Still, as a blueprint for writing something very funny, it's hard to beat PGRTAG.

A very fresh parody adventure game. Writing is very brief but carries enough punch to make you laugh at every communist remark. The non-linear gameplay and the seemingly confusing positive outcomes of wrong decisions that waste important items can lead to several restarts but the game is short enough and puzzles are all very logical and obvious enough to not frustrate the player, although a morality dilemma that may or may not be taken seriously will lead to a sudden twist that marks the otherwise happy ending. The game is very well paced, with a free roaming puzzle solving and action-packed culmination that is a bit shallow and could have been more intense.

I think that I'm going to have to add this to my collection of "gateway games," with which to introduce new players to IF. It's a quick play, reasonably well-hinted, with built-in hints available that should minimize frustration. Almost all puzzles have multiple solutions and yet the same objects can be used to solve multiple puzzles, so there aren't a whole pile of red herrings left around. However, aside from just being, as described, a well-designed game that works, it's a barrel of fun to play, if you enjoy its dry wit. It's very well-written, and I think one of the only reasons it's not up for a best-writing XYZZY (other than that I didn't get around to putting in nominations, to be fair) this year is that its light-hearted writing is more fun than evocative, per se. The story is engaging, and many of the responses brought a smile to my face. It's also very rare that I'll play a game multiple times, but I'm keen on trying to play through this one again looking for an alternate ending. Overall, I recommend this one quite a bit.