Ms. Lojka or: In Despair to Will to Be Oneself

Note: This piece of interactive fiction is not for everyone.

Ms. Lojka or: In Despair to Will to Be Oneself is an experience. It's an experience I recommend to those who are up for it. I don't know how much agency I had in directing the outcome of the story — I suspect that I had little to no agency, that this was linear, that the story was being told to me. This would normally be an issue for me, but it wasn't here. Here, the sounds wash over you and the art grabs you (and sometimes surprises you) and you feel a bit like you're in a David Lynch film, and you're never entirely certain if you want to be there... but you can't escape and you can't look away, so you just keep with it.

People are going to remark on the type-writer effect, and probably not in complimentary terms. But the type-writer effect is necessary. It's part of the experience on a couple of fronts, and it wouldn't have the same impact were it not present throughout. So just accept that and accept the author's pacing. Be open to the experience.

Because that's what this is. It's an experience. The art is fantastic and the audio is perfect and the voice is casual enough to feel comfortable with you — especially when it's making you uncomfortable. Even the way linked text is slowly revealed after you've had a moment to digest the words in front of you is artful.

Play this in a dark room, full screen, at night.

I would give this 4.5 stars if I could, but I can't, and 4 stars seems too low. So I'm giving it a 5. On a scale of 1-10 I would give it a 9, based on my interactive fiction rating methods.