Insight

My favourite of all my games. I've been interested in the idea of "interactive flashbacks" ever since writing My Angel. There were some complaints that conversation was clunky: the system was never really meant to handle complex strings, only to pick up on keywords a little better and might have been better off going unadvertised. But as to its being horribly unfair first time round, that's probably quite true.

This adventure is great fun: plot progression has a good pace and rarely stalls. The setting is intriguing and well crafted. A good number of puzzles, some quite hard to solve. But the real puzzle is coming to grips with the plot.

It's difficoult to review this game without spoiling its enjoyment. So, I'll rather stick to some general hindsight considerations about what makes it really innovative.

The game uses flashback in a way which reminds of Borges Garden of forking paths: the player has to go (must) through a series of choices that will divert plot until a dead end ... an restart from scratch and seek an alternative plot path.

Each replay benefits from the previous game experience, which is the key to step in the alternative paths. Yet, a point comes were a last path joins all the previous loose plot threads and leads to the winning situation.

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!"

So, not just flashback as mere information retrieval: flashback as a time-space gate. If you've seen Donnie Darko movie, you'll know what I'm speaking about.

I warn you: the final path is not in plain sight as it might seem. The author doesn't make it easy at all: subtle techniques are implemented to make you believe that you got into a dead end.

Just a little hint: Jon Ingold leaves no bugs behind him! So, if you think you've stepped into a game bug: think again! Exploit whatever the game offers you.

I really hope that Jon Ingold will be exploiting this narrative technique in future games, it could make really thik plots.

In this game, you play a sort of police officer in space. You interrogate a murder suspect, then investigate their house. Using the knowledge from each trip, you restart and try again with new 'insight'. Each trip is fairly short.

The mechanic was fun, but the game is difficult. I strongly recommend it for puzzler fans, and just recommend it for everyone else. Has a club floyd transcript.

You start off interviewing a suspect. You must prove he murdered his wife. Question him, then explore his home for clues. Can you solve the tale?

The puzzles were good, straightforward and not impossible.

My only complaint is that it's not inherently obvious that you won't get through the game without restarting. I hunted down a walkthrough only to realize that you had to leave without knowing the full story.

I enjoyed the twist at the end. I won't spoil it, but it's well done.

Great game!