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Review
Adapted from an IFCOMP24 Review
A Javascript-coded HTML text-entry parser game. What won’t they think of next! The infinite flexibility of the motivated creator never ceases to impress me. This is a work with a clean HTML presentation with just enough graphical flourish to sell its cyberpunk theme, yet still stay out of the player’s way. It engages cyberpunk staples of body mods, hacking, future noir in a pretty straight forward way. It establishes the facts of the setup with minimal embellishment, leveraging our expectations to quickly get to the core puzzle execution. I would say the whole esthetic, from graphics to plot to character to puzzle play is pretty stripped down.
On the one hand this definitely minimizes friction, playing comfortably within our expectations at every turn. It was never really unclear (barring a notable exception or two) what needed doing next, or how to get it done. Like classic parsers, explore everything, take what you can, use it when needed. Its gameplay showpiece, the hacking mechanisms, were introduced and integrated very smoothly, quickly becoming reflexive commands nevermind their novelty. All this is to the game’s credit.
On the other hand ‘never breached expectations’ isn’t exactly a sought-after compliment in art. There is for sure room in all endeavors, IF included, for successful journeyman work. If anything their value is underrated. But it is hard to escape that they are inherently less impactful than transgressive, boundary-shattering works. Or even emotionally swelling melodrama that pulls our internal empathy levers. I was committed to the story, but emotionally detached due to the fairly vanilla characters and clean but unchallenging fetch-then-use plot beats. Sparks of Joy in its cleanliness and well-executed story beats, but lacking that emotional hook for true engagement.
Except, lets talk puzzle play. Part of the hacking conceit is that you solve encryption keys and AR token slotting (sometimes with AR security programs). These puzzles were pretty ok! The work did not tell you how to solve them, which provided some early trial and error head scratching before clicking into place. A word game in particular seemed to delight in subverting any Wordle-based preconceptions you might have before unlocking its gameplay, then proved legitimately as interesting as Wordle itself. Similarly, the AR based hacking let you discover the rules, then added a security element once you thought you had it mastered. I find it telling that the mini-games, simple and elegant as they were, stayed with me more than the story itself! Too often, I find mini-games the least enjoyable part of a work - drudge work I need to complete to get back to story. Here, they were thematically as clean as these things can be, while still respecting the ‘play’ in gameplay. Not only that, provided a legitimate charge of fun in the proceedings! My recommendation to future players would be to bypass the extra-turn body mod to keep mini-game play sharp. That, or limit yourself to ONLY real words as guesses.
As an overall rating, we have a legitimately Sparky, well executed story that both makes a strength of its reliance on tropes but also doesn’t really escape them. Integrates hacking gameplay and commands as smoothly as one could hope for. And is married to legitimately engaging mini-game play. All of it mostly seamless+.
Played: 9/7/24
Playtime: 1.25hr
Artistic/Technical ratings: Sparks of Joy/mostly seamless+, bonus point for engaging puzzle play
Would Play Again?: No, experience feels complete
Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless
