Nights in Boulder

This is an interesting Twine work with an engaging premise, more what-happened than whodunnit. The best aspect is the plotting and pacing: much of the work pulls the reader along and creates a tense, suspenseful experience.

I think the weaker points though are the way the work skips backwards in time: it sometimes works, but other times frustrated me and killed the momentum.

Characterization sometimes felt a little flat. Typos and some over-used language contributed to this, but I felt somewhat disconnected from the character. Despite that, there were several scenes where characterization was strong: at one point in the work I tried to pick the more "noble" or "appropriate" path, and was pleasantly surprised by the protagonist refusing to follow the order. There were a few scenes like this throughout the piece that reinforced the character and I thought these improved the overall work. I didn't have a strong sense of place, but that may be an unfair assessment. I didn't get a sense of Boulder, the setting felt more like a generic urban setting.

Audio, video, and interface all score high and were satisfying.

I didn't find the plot entirely convincing, particularly in the second half, which I thought wasn't as strong as the first half. I think this is a good but uneven work, that could benefit from a little tightening up, but should appeal to fans of Memento-like themes and questions of memory and identity.

This was a fun game that got me out of my IF funk. The design was well done with the chapter and links, but the pictures were not full enough, so when I scrolled down I would find a huge black bar, but then my computer screen is freaking large, so that might not be the same for everyone. However, image wise, it served the story well. The passages and writing were also nicely placed in the middle, with adequate padding, making for an easy on the eyes read, except for some parts where there were picture backgrounds, the text were a bit hard to read since they had no shadows.

Story wise, it's kind of cliched, a bit over dramatic, but it was fun to read. I will admit that I got a little confused with the flashbacks but I partly blame that on myself. My mind wanders often when I read on my computer.

It's a mystery game about a man who loses his girlfriend suddenly, for no reason and doesn't understand why she hasn't returned. So he looks for clues, only to find the answers brought even more questions than before or they were completely defiant against his pleas.

The game is linear but the choices allow the player to interact with the story by choosing their own dialogue and it also has 2 or 3 "explore the room" scenes and journal entries that delve into the past of one of the characters. So there is plenty to look at, to skim through, that give off the rush and desperation to find a loved one.

Pros: nice interface
Cons: some bugs here and there, such as misspellings and picture backgrounds that aren't long enough and some might find the story kind of silly. And TW for mentions of abuses to one of the women in the game.

It was fairly well-written, and fairly interesting. That said, I tend to prefer less linear twine games.