The Atomic Heart

Atomic heart is a good game at heart, but with an annoying number of missing synonyms, unclear descriptions, and a lot of tedious commands. It prominently features a cable and socket system which reminds me of Jack Witham's later Final Exam.

You play a nanny robot protecting a boy. After a brief introductory segment, you enter a larger and dangerous world. With a fragile companion, you explore a landscape fraught with danger and cables.

A key object in the opening area gave me no indication of what I was able to do with it. One room had no description except for "This is Gary's room", or something like that.

If these flaws were patched up, this game would be pretty sweet. But as it is, it's an exercise in frustration.

The main character's nature makes the parser as game construct a useful representation of reality. Very cool! However, the game is poorly implemented and to this day, has not had obvious and glaring bugs fixed. Yes, the trainers are not shoes, even though Mrs. Go tells you to get the shoes. You still can't do anything with various objects, even though you refer to them exactly as the parser demands. It's frustrating beyond reason. I've read that even the walkthrough doesn't work, so I have no idea how you're supposed to finish the game.