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target.zip
Contains target.taf
Requires an ADRIFT version 4 interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links. (Compressed with ZIP. Free Unzip tools are available for most systems at www.info-zip.org.)

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Target

by Richard Otter profile

Espionage
2005

Web Site

(based on 3 ratings)
1 review

About the Story

Some people are happy working in an office, some become taxi cab drivers and some people will even teach. You are none of those; you are a 'lone-wolf gunmen who likes to maintain a low profile' or professional killer.

You are in your mid-40's with all the usual respectable trappings such as a nice house, good job, wife and two children. Considered to be a soft-spoken intellectual, in your spare time you have a passion for reading and your favourite pastime is cultivating shrubs and flowers.

You have always prided yourself on an ability to get the job done and to give value for money. In fact you have a very good reputation of getting the job done, no matter how complicated or difficult. Years of military training and discipline have honed the skills needed to execute a hit efficiently and dispassionately. So when the next piece of work comes in you quickly accept, especially when you have seen the fee.

A sheet of paper has just arrived with the target details; one poor soul is about to get taken out.


Game Details


Awards

1st Place - InsideADRIFT Summer Comp 2005

Editorial Reviews

Delron
Review Compilation
One of the most interesting features of this game is that a lot of it is randomised. The description and location of your target changes each game, so you have to check everyone carefully. This is a good technical achievement and even offers more replay value than usual, as each time you play the game, the solution will be different. I didn't discover any bugs whilst playing the game, which is always a plus point. However, it could have been better if the game was just a little longer. With the short gameplay time, I was left thinking was that it?
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Simple, variable assassination, August 13, 2011
by DB (Columbus, OH)

From the beginning, the game tries to help players along as much as possible, perhaps even too much. It's clear the author had some trouble setting up the game's primary NPC with a depth that both motivates and withstands continued player interrogation. The writing throughout remains functional, with a few sour spots.

The obvious star of the game here is the variability in the game's writing. While goals remain the same (in short, shoot somebody and make your best exit), the details of the event change with each play. This is interesting in the way that it resists the creation of a static, command-by-command walkthrough, ensuring the significance of the player's role as an interpreter in the story's action. Gameplay is otherwise straightforward. It has its puzzles, all solved fairly easily.

The less obvious star-- and, I think, the potentially more interesting one-- is the game's protagonist. Beneath the content of his actions on the job, the text frames the killer as a soft-spoken intellectual who maintains a family and loves gardening. This introduction gives some depth to this variably named 40-something professional killer, and the varying amounts of attention given to objects in the world also complement this character's mindset in a nice way. Remembrances of training, just snippets of quotes, bubble up to the surface of the killer's mind in the same way a song might get stuck in a person's head. The variable and replayable nature of the adventure suggests that the protagonist has worked for several gangland bosses, and that assassinations are, to him, a routine as straightforward as a game. Here the contradictions of playable space and linear narrative in the form of an IF ultimately serve the development of this likewise complex and contradictory character.

Admittedly, not everyone will be quite as pulled in by this one as I was, but for its compact size and play time you really can't go wrong giving Target a shot.

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