Housekey, Part I

by Ariƫn Holthuizen

2008
Inform 7

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Review

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Simple, But Better Than Some, December 29, 2010
by AmberShards (The Gothic South)

It's true that this game is spartan and that default responses will greet most of your actions, but as I've played some truly bad games lately, I find the whisper of a plot and the lack of dying in six turns refreshing.

Housekey, Part I features three rooms of minimal implementation. Most items can be examined (the table, the bed, the rubbish), and the plot is linear and hand-holding. If you follow the game's clues, you can get the house key and get out in less than ten turns. The ending is quite the cliffhanger, which makes you wonder why there was no part 2. Part 2 was definitely planned, so what happened?

That said, there are some oddities. First, the title. At least in American English, house key is two words. The note is (Spoiler - click to show)in some language that I didn't recognize (German? Swiss?). The score and turn counters are combined, which is initially deceptive.

Is it worth playing? There's not enough there to justify the effort, but it's not bad.

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