You're a Time Agent!

When it comes to time-loops settings and gameplay, Tabitha always delivers. This time taking a more silly approach to the genre, with you playing as a "dumbass time agent" that ends their missions in the stupidest of ways (essentially winging it). The goal here is to get through a guarded door. Simple, right?

WRONG!
Who Thought trying to get through a measly door with just one guard would be so difficult!

With each passage are given a couple of options, each branching into other set of choice, until you either manage to enter the building or reach a dead end. The game also lets you reset the loop from the start. Resetting will sometimes add new options (when you uncover information).
There are 3 ways to properly end the game, with 4 achievements to get.

Each path is pretty silly, tricking the guard by confusing him, or distracting him. There are tons of funny one-liners and hilarious exchanges (I laughed so hard at the (Spoiler - click to show)UNO-Reverse No, I'm your therapist option). The third ending was so stupidly funny!

I had a bit of an issue with how the learned knowledge was displayed on the page (with the oldest bit disappearing from the page), but changing the colours of the links, to display which path had been taken or which led to a dead end, was really helpful when starting a new loop!

One of the reasons that I don't often play choice games is that it rarely feels like the choices available are about directly controlling the character that you're playing. The options often clearly have significance in terms of impact on the unwinding plot, but it can feel more like the old CYOA books than interactive fiction.

You're a Time Agent! neatly avoids that by having the choices matter on an almost second-to-second basis. As a "time agent" of unspecified provenance, you are tasked with infiltrating a facility of unspecified importance. Your obstacle is a door guard, and the puzzle is essentially one of social engineering aided by the supernatural ability to retain information from alternate futures.

Author Tabitha O'Connell overtly undermines the "hey, wow - time powers!" aspect of the game with an introduction which promises that gameplay will consist of "f*cking around" in time. Still, even though the scenario doesn't have much scale, it's surprisingly compelling. As the player-stand-in protagonist tries various gambits, minute bits of information will be pried loose from the stony-faced guard, and these begin to create new options to try.

As manonamora notes, the choice links are conveniently color-coded to indicate when they have been "played out." This is a wonderful nod to the player experience that heads off the most likely source of frustration for the format of the gameplay. Various branches of the timeline offer silly "achievements" that are tallied and listed once success has been achieved.

What's most fascinating to me about this work is the way that it manages to turn the scenario into a fairly mundane experience that feels like "just another day at the office" for the titular time agent. That's not criticism -- that's praise for the author's skill; it would be very easy to make this premise either too silly or too boring to recommend, but instead it's a bite-sized mini-adventure that engages without resorting to the most typical styles of glamor. As one repeatedly rewinds to try again, the guard, initially presented a stock villain, begins to soften and become a person as various peeks behind the professional mask are obtained. (Spoiler - click to show)In one branch he even gives you $50 for dry cleaning, motivated by sympathy for a stranger on the street. He, too, is having just another day at the office.

I've only gotten one ending (so far!), but I'd definitely recommend this "amuse-cerveau" as an enjoyable short experience.