Heavenly

I really like this game. It's a great mix of many of the alledged genres I love: text games, short games, easy games, and fun games. The commands can be a bit lengthy at times, especially if you're playing on a tablet like device, but the simplicity and succinctity of "Heavenly" make all those long commands pay off.

Over the last year, I have been a somewhat active participant in the realm of Interactive Fiction. It all started in my senior Algebra II class in high school. I was using a personal digital assistant, or P. D. A, when I found a list of games on it. Not knowing any better, I assumed they would have graphics and sound. However, when I noticed that these games were composed solely of text, not only was I interested in how powerful they were, but I followed their directions and typed commands like, "help," and, "about," so I could find out more. Soon, that very same day; instead of finding the algebraic equivalents of simple logarithms, I quite easily gathered the audacity to play my first Interactive Fiction game, or, as my PDA called it, "Text Adventure." It wasn't until later that I learned said genre's proper name. Ever since that day though, I've loved playing I. F, and have been seeking such titles as "Heavenly:" wholesome, clean, appropriate-for-all-ages games that I could enjoy without a fear of profanity. I hate that junk! And God had better know it!

I love short games: those ones you can pick up and beat in the same sitting. Therefore, once I realized how short "Heavenly" would be, by looking in its hint list, I fell in love with it! I love the feeling of being able to remember everything you have to do to beat a game, especially since I have a disorder that causes me to not be able to remember too much information after about fifteen minutes after it is relayed to me, unless it is under a certain amount of content. I was able to beat this game within an hour of total playtime, minus all the extra commands I typed in to see what would happen. (Spoiler - click to show)These include: Running around barefoot and feeling your feet tingle at the gentle touch of the fluffy clouds, going for a fly, pouring vials of niceness in pouder form over Earth, pouring niceness on yourself, taking vials of niceness from Gabriel (the Biblical figure who tries to keep you in Heaven by continuously attempting to teach you how to do nice things to the inhabitants of Earth, also known as, "The Real World," strangely enough) and spilling their contents willy nilly, attempting to run around naked (only to find that you can't manage to remove the robe you have on from your wings), asking Gabriel about niceness (so you can see him frown [just a little bit]), trying to steal the placard and tripod from the "Hall Of Adorable Niceness," and trying to walk away from Gabriel whilst he's trying to teach you a lesson on being nice.

I can never have enough easy games to play; I have autism, so when I get angry, I wish for something easy to play to calm down with. Because of the above paragraph, "Heavenly" is definitely an easy game. I highly recommend it, even to play on your hourlong busride to transition school each day; think about it: once you beat the game each morning, if you still have time before you get there, you can do something else, or play it again. It can be your school year long mission: "I shall attempt to finish a complete game of ""Heavenly"" before I get to school each and every morning." Yeah. I like that!

More than anything listed in the above three paragraphs, either alone or combined in any of the [six ways possible] (I think), I absolutely love fun games! I have to say, because of its simplicity, its various optional commands for amusement, its appropriate colourful dictionary of accepted words, and its mere existance as an Interactive Fiction game, "Heavenly" is definitely one of the [funnest], (Yes, it's a word in my country,) games I've played since I discovered IF! As I kind of said, I highly recommend it to not only experienced IF players, but also everyone! I give "Heavenly" a whole hearted five wild and crazy flying cherubs out of five!

I love the premise here- an angel who is bored with heaven taking niceness lessons from gabriel.

The game starts off slow, but that's the point: heaven is boring. Once you've explored it a bit, gabriel shows up and has you attempt to tempt some mortals to evil, while he overrides you by forcing them to be nice.

There were some frustrating lack of implementation:

>POLITICIAN, KILL THE LOBBYIST
>

No error message, just a new blank line, meaning it understands that I'm asking the politician to do something, just not one of the things it understands.

The premise and writing are very good, and a lot of other actions seem to be implemented, just the most important area of the game- the commanding of mortals, seems to be missing some key implementation which is frustrating in the puzzle solving. There are some standard error messages (Gabriel has better things to do.) but there are also plenty of error messages customized to an angel in heaven- very nice.

Still I'm giving it 4 stars, with that bit of fixing, I'd probably go up to 5. It's a simple and fun game with an interesting premise. The ending is very good also, no surprises, but it's nice how this game twists expectations.

This is the game that "The devil made me do it" should have been!

In this game, you are an angel bored to death with heaven you can move through three different rooms, which are well described, waiting for something to happen.

When something does happen, you don't have long to act. You only have a couple of turns before losing your chance forever.

I found this game to be less substantial than the other entries in the Jay is games casual gameplay competition, but with excellent writing and a good setting.