The Day I shot ...

I'll give credit where credit is due: it can't be easy to make a game in a limited time frame, and that's exactly what was done here in a speed IF competition. However, the first thing that struck me was the spelling and grammar. Reading text that consistently mixes up homonyms (to/too, it's/its) can really take one out of the game, and even under pressure I can't excuse flubbing simple English. I can forgive the fact that because of speed, examining certain items mentioned in the room description returns an error message stating that item isn't here; however, doing so makes it easier to separate the red herrings from the items you need to use. The puzzles are of satisfactory quality, but some suffer from interface issues. For example, a certain item can't be used unless it's on the ground and NOT in your inventory. Also, at one point I thought I was trapped, with no direction working, and words like "exit" and its synonyms also failing. I eventually got out (the same way I got in) but it was needlessly frustrating.

All in all, the game has the look and feel of a rush job - which it was. I suppose I've been spoiled by games with more polish. I think it would be enjoyable if Taleslinger decided to go back and turn it into a finished-feel game. But hey, try it for yourself. It's worth it to see what people can do in two days.

This game was written for a Speed-IF competition, i.e., in a very limited amount of time, yet manages to have several puzzles and a coherent, if somewhat strange, story. But although the objectives of the puzzles are very clear, their solutions are not. The game usually left me feeling clueless about how to achieve the objectives, and finding the objects (and even locations) needed frequently happened by accident. I was stuck a few times, but found the ClubFloyd transcript very useful.

I played the first part of the original competition release, and then finished the second release of the game. The second release has a few more implemented objects (i.e., ‘examine [object]’ is more likely to give a response), but the game still feels extremely underimplemented, with lots of unimplemented verbs and nouns, and plenty of stock responses (even for ‘examine me’). Both versions have their share of grammar mistakes.

Although this is not a good game, it is not all bad. It does have three real puzzles, which is more than one would expect from a Speed-IF. And the game is quite humorous, with much of the humour coming from the absurdity of the various situations. You will probably find it more entertaining reading a transcript from a successful playthrough than trying to solve the puzzles yourself, though.