Macrocosm

Macrocosm is one of the games where you just wish for several things. First, you wish it would've gotten more attention. It has terrific graphics and sounds. Mr. Donaldson has poured an immense amount of work it in (he said 4 years somewhere) and responses have been less than luckluster. I couldn't find a single review, and, matter of fact, I only looked at it because someone said they felt this game deserves some attention.
*sigh*
That said, I feel a bit bad for saying Macrocosm is not the "ground breaking work of IF" it's labeled as at the homepage. I'm a huge fan of graphics in IF, and the sound adds to it, too, but the game itself well...
That's my second wish. I wish people would look at typical newbie faults. (I can say that, because I didn't either.)
You are a nameless crewman working on a spaceship and then it's attacked and you take an espace pod and land on an alien pla - Hey, come back here!
It has some flaws that are pointed out in almost every Newbie advice document on IF I've read : The whole attack and space battle is nicely done text-,graphics and soundwise. But it's an interactive cutsecene. The interaction is that you press "z" a lot.
Once you've landed on the planet, you're in a desert which is some sort of maze. I really lost interest at this point. I guess I could've taken a look at the walkthrough, but what's the point? I think I got a really good look at what the game is like.

So, my bottom line: The graphics and sounds really make this game special, and with the right kind of setting, plot, pacing and characters behind it, this could be a sight to behold. As it is, it's a generic game that's nice to look at and listen to.