Out

I really wanted to like this game. The other reviews were so glowing that I thought I'd just missed something, but after a couple playthroughs I just think it doesn't click with me.

My problems with are that it really isn't a game, or a story, or interactive. It can be "solved" by (Spoiler - click to show) typing the key verb once and then typing "g" over and over again . There really isn't a story per se either. And while you can do a few things other than following the main path, you can't do much and it generally isn't rewarding. It is almost more a mediation on an idea that IF.

I did, however, very much appreciate the author's dedication to getting the names of the last several "rooms" right and in the correct sequence rather than calling them something more generic.

Out is a puzzleless parser game that can be completed in less than two minutes, though it is worth stopping to explore the sights on your journey. The implication of the title and the blurb is what it seems to be, but although labeled as a slice-of-life it is actually much more. For such a short IF it is very deep and thoughtful and it surprised me in a good way.

This is a one-way exploration adventure through a world that the player can examine for a good amount of time. With the topic of the game being one of my greatest interests it had an easy time to entertain me.
With this additional topic knowledge it became a fun puzzle to examine all the non-obviously-described objects, although the game doesn't have any real puzzle that would block the player from actual game progression.

One of the few negative points I can come up with is that I couldn't find some objects that I expected to be implemented but weren't. Like (Spoiler - click to show)Saturn's rings (I expected them after finding Jupiter's Great Red Spot), small planets like Ceres and Vesta, because Makemake was in the game for some reason, and then there was no asteroid belt, Saturn's biggest moon Titan, and so on. You can spent some time with this little game to find and not find these objects. Most of these objects weren't mentioned by the game text in any way so I was happily surprised finding some of them, and was only shortly disappointed not finding them.

This game meets my criteria for five stars:

Polish: I found no bugs, and everything ran smoothly. The game logic was sound.

Descriptiveness: I learned new things. I was intrigued by the game in ways that bled into real life.

Interactivity: This game explores parser space in a way that (Spoiler - click to show)Take, The North-North Passage, and Lime Ergot did. These games take the player-parser interaction and do 'variations on a theme' like composers.

Emotion: I felt a warm glow.

Play again: Sure!

Sobol's been reviewing games for at least 5 years, it's high time he post one of his own. This is a lovely game.