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All Member Ratings

5 star:
(8)
4 star:
(10)
3 star:
(9)
2 star:
(0)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 27 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 4
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- Vulturous, March 27, 2025

- Ms. Woods, June 4, 2024

- civilstat (Maine, USA), January 30, 2024

- elysee, June 3, 2023

- Cerfeuil (Somewhere Near Computer), October 12, 2022

- Fie, January 18, 2022

- bradleyswissman (Virginia, US), October 14, 2020

- Edo, May 27, 2020 (last edited on August 17, 2023)

- kierlani, April 2, 2020

- Zape, November 30, 2019 (last edited on December 1, 2019)

- Stas, April 2, 2018

- nosferatu, January 31, 2018

- Ivanr, May 17, 2017 (last edited on May 19, 2017)

- lkdc, February 28, 2017 (last edited on March 1, 2017)

- Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle), May 16, 2016 (last edited on May 17, 2016)

- E.K., April 19, 2016

- Artie Kester (manchester, new hampshire, usa), April 18, 2016

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A short, interesting experiment on constraints, April 18, 2016
Related reviews: less than 15 minutes

In this game, you are in a room that seems incredibly detailed, with many NPCs. As you progress, there are interesting locations, exciting events, and complicated scenarios.

However, it is all for naught. The family curse has activated in you, so that any action besides GO NORTH will cause your death. Time and again, it seems like some other action is needed, but only GO NORTH is allowed.

This is amusing, and would not work nearly as well in a short story. This exact feeling of helplessness is unique to an interactive format, and it's a welcome effect.

Strongly recommended.

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- Brendan Patrick Hennessy (Toronto, Ontario), April 3, 2016 (last edited on April 4, 2016)

- Sobol (Russia), February 10, 2016 (last edited on November 18, 2019)

- Harris Powell-Smith, February 4, 2016

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A family curse brings you across space and time, January 30, 2016*
by verityvirtue (London)
Related reviews: phlegmatic

Time to completion: 20-30 minutes

The family curse has activated. If you do not go north, you will die.

The Northnorth Passage plays around with restricted actions, and this is what makes it so extraordinarily suited for the parser, because the parser gives the impression of freedom, yet you can only really do one thing. Obeying the parser, though, brings you through a series of self-contained scenes, colourful and detailed; Wilson's writing sparks with life, with the kind of evocativeness reminiscent of Sunless Sea.

Yet, in each scene, you must forever remain at arm's length. In this sense, it is similar to dynamic fiction, the term coined to describe linear games which nevertheless require the player's interaction and participation to reveal the story. The PC's travel north also seems to reflect the passing of time (the movement over swathes of space and time reminded me of Victor Ojuel's Pilgrimage).

There was a very, very clever move right at the end of the game - an invisible puzzle, if you'd like - which wrapped it up perfectly. If I were to mention a game with a similar move, it would be very spoilery, but there is one...

Originally published here: https://verityvirtue.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/the-northnorth-passage/

* This review was last edited on April 30, 2016
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- Teaspoon, January 29, 2016 (last edited on January 30, 2016)

- Andrew Schultz (Chicago), May 29, 2015

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), May 29, 2015


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