The Antediluvian Weapon

Disclosure: I am biased in this game’s favor because I managed to finish it on my own (though, fuller disclosure, without the good ending). It sure does feel nice to not resort to a walkthrough!

Surely it helped that this game was part of the Text Adventure Literacy Jam, so it’s extra approachable—not that that means it’s easy in the puzzle department, just that it felt very smooth. The map and puzzle flow are both fairly small, which also keeps things manageable. Including a tutorial is a big part of TALJ, and this one was fantastic: clear, concise, and easily distinguished from the gameplay (since it used a different font). But beyond all that, the puzzles themselves were obviously crafted with care. For example, (Spoiler - click to show)at the point where you can go north to find a gnome or south to find an undine, the game gently urges you to walk past both of them in turn and experience failure; after you’ve observed their behavior and figured out how to sidestep each of them, things get more complicated, but now you have what you need to work out a successful course of action. All along the way, the puzzle design is very effective at leading the player to the solution without pointing right at it, creating a satisfying moment of insight.

Also, zapping things out of existence momentarily was just plain fun as a central mechanic. I enjoyed messing around with the weapon, and the part at the end where (Spoiler - click to show)you have to zap yourself to avoid an explosion was a great culmination of the premise. I wish I hadn’t already played around enough to try it earlier in the game, because it would’ve been an A+ aha moment.

I also appreciated the narrative choices in this game. We’re thrown into the middle of a story, playing only a small role in what seems to be a larger fantasy political drama. There’s no need for a detailed backstory in the intro. We have our role to play, and it feels like the right size for the task ahead. But that’s not all we get: throughout the game are places and objects that provide environmental storytelling, frescos expanding the world, and moments where the game offers us glimpses of a point of view (one small example: “[>x straw] It gestures at comfort without providing any. Which is worse than just having nothing at all”). Just like the puzzle design, the subtle storytelling stands back and lets players work things out for themselves.

Overall it’s a harmonious effect, with only a couple moments when things felt noticeably calculated. For example, (Spoiler - click to show)when my mapping sylph started narrating pertinent information about the undine’s actions in a different room, I was surprised that it had that power, and I wondered if it was added to reduce confusion for the player. I think it felt especially conspicuous because the power only came up once. But among all the careful design, I’m not about to ask the game to be messier, so this is truly an observation more than a complaint.

The other thing I wasn’t expecting was (Spoiler - click to show)the logic when it came to disappearing things inside other things. I couldn’t imagine how to save Manzio because it didn’t feel intuitive to me that the bag’s contents would stay inside it while invisible. It’s entirely possible this is set up in the game and I just missed it. But either way, it’s an optional discovery, so using the hints for that part was good enough for me.

And then comes that satisfying ending. Even though we’ve already seen (Spoiler - click to show)three of the depicted elementals, it was exciting to encounter the salamander and feel that suspense and then the moment of insight I already mentioned. And then we exit in the middle of a larger story, just like we entered. Sweet harmony.