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Review
This game is what Infocom's "Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It" was trying to be, a clever puzzle-based game based on wordplay. The author added depth, political angst, and much more interesting characters and settings. It's an incredible achievement. (And there are different levels of difficulty! It's amazing!)
I, unfortunately, didn't enjoy playing the game even though I was impressed by its scope, depth, and technical prowess. The dark theme felt like it belonged in a separate game. But the main reason was that I was playing (over Zoom) with an eighth grade friend of mine (her first IF!) and when we came across the "double entendre" puzzle we were both extremely uncomfortable with the solution and we stopped playing altogether. (I finished it by myself months later.)
I suppose I should really be aiming that disappointment at IFDB for not having an "adult content" warning on games. It was hard to resist playing the highest rated game on IFDB that was based on wordplay. (It seemed innocent enough!)
Comments on this review
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I know what you mean! There are a lot of great games that have parts in them that made me feel uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. I think there's some discussion about this at the IFDB suggestion tracker, although it's been pretty slow recently:
https://github.com/iftechfoundation/ifdb-suggestion-tracker/issues
If you ever want some recommendations for cleaner games, let me know or post a poll (available on the front page).
I saw issue # 9 (https://github.com/iftechfoundation/ifdb-suggestion-tracker/issues/9) which seems to be more about the IFDB landing page having adult content. Is that the one you meant?
I think I'd prefer that the author self-disclose that there may be some adult content. It's a sticky thicket (or is it a wicket?) to try to define what that means.
It may be enough to just include our discomfort in our reviews.
I'm very glad you responded, by the way. Thank you!
