SUDDEN DEATH

I originally played this game in early August 2024, just prior to writing my first IF project. I was recently reminded of this work and decided to check out its IFDB page. I was both surprised and disappointed to learn that it somehow had no reviews yet. How dare they? Doesn’t SUDDEN DEATH deserve some reviews? Goodness. So, I decided to re-read it today and write up these comments.

SUDDEN DEATH is not a choice-based narrative. Instead, it is a tightly choreographed kinetic linear narrative, amplified by color and motion and sound and pop-up windows and expressive character portrait sprites. It is a rich 45-60 minutes of reading time, making the most of its audiovisual medium.

The story follows the dramatic downfall of a delightfully queer football team in 2040s Australia. In this future, the football league has a “Performance Enhancement Committee” who sets the rules for the authorized amount of doping. Though, “naturally,” the teams push the limits and do their best to get away with covering up excessive illicit juicing that gives themselves an edge over the other teams.

Saying that this is “about a football team” is accurate, but does not adequately capture the vibe of what this project focuses on. Sports is the vehicle through which the authors have crafted a meta-narrative about narrative-weaving itself. Sorry if that sounds a bit overly convoluted. What I really mean is, the characters—especially Mitch and the coach, Shiv—are concerned with their legacies and are in the process of manufacturing their own legendary histories. There’s a fascination with spectatorship—the fans and viewers of the games, the readers of news articles about the team, the filming of a documentary about the team, and so on. A central irony of the piece revolves around how the heroics (and villainy) on the field depends upon the simultaneous (1) widespread breaking of the PED rules by the teams and (2) belief by the fans that their team in particular is not the ones doing so and are naturally gifted football phenoms. Another core tenet is the tension between luck and agency; we see how the randomness of something like a coin flip or the off-kilter bounce of a football interacts with the psychology and choices of the characters in a push-and-pull that creates meaning.

There is a fascinating pastiche effect with a pileup of framing devices. As previously mentioned, the protagonist, Mitch, is narrating this tale while being interviewed for a documentary in the future. The reader sees contemporaneous news articles as well as the (frequently amusing) comments sections. There are text message chains, widgets analyzing the state of play during the football game, screenplay-style narration, and retro-style windows that pop up and can be exed out. The reader is occluded from directly seeing the moment of the downfall, and must build their own interpretation based on how everyone talks about it.

Despite taking place in the future, nostalgia is the primary aesthetic mode here. I mentioned the retro windows, but another element is the beautiful backdrops during the memory sections of the narrative. These are public domain/CCL images posterized to three shades, and layered with sunset-toned gradients that creates a particular atmosphere that is hard to describe but is nevertheless recognizably nostalgic, especially alongside the filtered-sounding music in certain moments. The mood during the football game itself is intense, where the choreography of sound and visuals is at its most rhythmic. The simulation of the rush that the players and fans are feeling at the game is quite effective.

SUDDEN DEATH is intense and nostalgic and dramatic, and yes, hot too. Mitch and Jordy is a disgustingly delightful ship. I stan these dysfunctional horny kings. (I do kind of love that the only thing that can apparently get me interested in sports is, “Well, what if they are not-just-subtextually super gay about it?”)

And did I mention how funny it is, too? I didn’t? Well, here’s a snippet:

Lucky: ‘Wait, PEDs? Doping? That’s what the Juice is?’
Jordan: ‘Don’t say “doping”, mate, it’s undignified.’
Lucky [the cutest sad face sprite you’ve ever seen in your life]: ‘So I’m not a generational talent? I’m not a football genius?’
Jordan: ‘Of course not. None of us are.’

Poor, sweet Lucky.

Anyway, I recommend this to people who (1) are not overly invested in reader agency as the primary “interactive” mode of interactive fiction and (2) have read and considered the content warnings. You’ll encounter profanity, drugs, and gay sex. Goodness gracious!

But if that sounds like a fun time, and anything in this review sounds intriguing, maybe check it out?