Beet the Devil

by Carolyn VanEseltine profile

2011

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(2)
4 star:
(16)
3 star:
(13)
2 star:
(3)
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Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 34
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A snappy but linear excursion, February 12, 2022
by cgasquid (west of house)

Beet the Devil primarily shines in its writing. nearly every sentence is bursting with the PC's personality, from his individual judgments of the goings-on around him to his phlegmatic reaction to very extraordinary events.

that said, Beet the Devil is essentially a long, linear corridor, with the useful items front-loaded in the first few locations. you never have more than one puzzle to work on, and most of the solutions involve using vegetables for purposes they were clearly not intended for.

a small amount of lateral thinking is needed in some places, though if you WAIT at a location for a few turns you can usually get some kind of indication of how to proceed. the final single-turn puzzle is so obvious yet so difficult to think of that it's probably a masterpiece (on par with Madventure's).

on the negative side, the implementation is a bit shallow. TALK TO would have been nice, given the extraordinary number of puzzle NPCs, and many reasonable solutions to problems didn't work because the parser had trouble with prepositional phrases. as noted, the game is linear, so if you're stuck on a puzzle you're going to stay stuck. the few places that it seems the game is about to open up, it turns out only one exit is usable. you can get hints from the PRAY command, but they only tell you which object to use, not how.

overall, the writing is worth the half-hour of your time it'll probably take to make it through. i'd love to see something more elaborate from the author.

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- kierlani, February 5, 2022

- Edo, December 10, 2021

- sunmono, August 19, 2021

- Zape, September 4, 2020

- xochie, November 22, 2017

- Wanderlust, August 3, 2017

- Sobol (Russia), June 4, 2017

- IFforL2 (Chiayi, Taiwan), January 17, 2017

- E. W. B., March 24, 2016

- Teaspoon, February 29, 2016

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
An amusing, vegetable-based trip to Hell, February 3, 2016

In this game, you a farmer whose crops are destroyed by the devil. With a trusty puppy and an armful of veggies, you descend into hell to retrieve your bird dog.

Most puzzles have food or vegetable-related solutions. Many of them were clear, but some (including an early puzzle) seemed obscure to me. However, trying every vegetable can help.

The writing is great, and the game overall has high quality. There is a bit of adult content with a succubus, but nothing crazy.

Recommended for everyone.

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- E.K., September 24, 2015

- Khalisar (Italy), July 24, 2015

- DAzebras, November 28, 2013

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Beet the Devil, October 13, 2013
by streever (America)

I enjoyed this game: at times the verbs/descriptions didn't give me everything I needed to solve a puzzle, but the hint system worked well. There is still some mild wonkiness when you--perhaps--are over-thinking a simple puzzle involving heat, for instance, and the solution doesn't work.

Despite those small inconveniences, the game is quite good, and works very well. I really appreciated that many of the puzzles were suggested by earlier events in the game--clever cluing on some of them.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Puzzle-based allegory, October 12, 2013
by verityvirtue (London)
Related reviews: sanguine

Smoke and divots and scorching and stinky brimstone – there’s only one thing this could mean.

There has been demons in your garden.


So begins this tale of a God-fearing parish worker whose dog has disappeared. Armed with a motley crew of, uh, vegetables and one puppy, he ventures deep into the depths of Hell. He has to battle various trials and tribulations to get his dog back.

While the premise of the game is rather linear, the puzzles are all fairly straightforward and stand alone. In case you don’t get it, location-based walkthroughs are also available. Some of the puzzles require a small amount of lateral thinking and most will make you smile and go, “Oh, right!”. Although it is possible to die in the middle of the game, abundant contextual hints are provided and it is always possible to undo the mistake. Special mention should go to the endgame, which I thought was (fridge?) brilliance: it was quite a "Why didn't I think of that?!" moment (for me, at least).

There is also some characterisation near the endgame, which provides some background to an otherwise colourless PC and pathos to an otherwise light game. Suitable for those who are just looking for a fun diversion, or who are bad with puzzles.

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- DJ (Olalla, Washington), May 10, 2013

- Galena, February 2, 2013

- PNervous, July 16, 2012

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
My favorite game from the 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition, May 20, 2012

This by far was the favorite game I played from the 17th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition.

The game is fairly large to complete especially to do so without hints and walkthroughs in the 2 hours allotted judging window. Perhaps this hurt the score somewhat with judges who may have been pressed for time? I took my time with the game and played it well over 2 hours and had the most satisfying experience.

Some of the puzzles were challenging, but well clued and I never remained stuck very long. Frustrated a couple of times, but upon coming back to the game, got through those areas -- isn't that the most satisfying type anyway?

The Dog who follows you around was simply delightful and essential to the completion of the game.

The game was well written, with excellent grammar and very highly polished.

I really enjoyed the outlook and tone of the game. A kind of cynical atmosphere, where hope yet remains alive.

I recommend playing this game at its own pace.

I think that this is an overlooked gem.

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- Audiart (Davis, CA), February 27, 2012

- Karl Ove Hufthammer (Bergen, Norway), January 27, 2012

- EJ, January 6, 2012

- trojo (Huntsville, Alabama, USA), December 7, 2011


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