Kiss of Beth

As a bit of background: I discovered this game via Tabitha's "Games Seeking Reviews" poll. I'm grateful for this initiative!

"Kiss of Beth" is a short horror story in Twine. There are optional conversation nodes and at least one momentous choice. Navigation is easy, and the interface and prose work together effectively. The beginning is gently ominous, dramatizing a chat with an acquaintance who has come to take the protagonist's roommate, Beth, on a date. While I won't give anything away, I'll say that the pace at which details unfold is well-calibrated, and I was eager to discover the true nature of this encounter.

There is also an interesting meta-comment about "good" endings, which left me with a few satisfying thoughts to mull over afterward.

TL:DR:
A short, 15-minute twine experience with a nice bit of initially understated horror. More than worth the time.

+ The visual and auditory presentation is more interesting than it first appears, evoking specific vibes from classic adventure games.
+ A bite-sized snack; both endings can be explored in a short amount of time. It's like a good short story.
+ Satisfyingly unpleasant.

- No notes! This kind of short, focused Twine experience is my jam.

This game has you play the friend of the eponymous Beth, whose date has arrived. It’s your job to size this guy up. The game has music and graphics, starting with a black and white picture of the date that is slowly colored in, which was a really neat mechanic.

I was emotionally invested in the conversation. The date guy seemed kind of lame at first but I grew to respect him more. The ending I got when I chose to let him up surprised me quite a bit, but I ended up accepting it in the end.

There is some profanity in the game. Overall I was impressed by the presentation and the writing.

To start off with, that was a very impressive change in mood there. I was in no way expecting that - I was thinking along the style of a completely different type of horror. So - yeah.

I’m not sure where to begin. The beginning? Sounds reasonable. At the start, I already felt clued as to just what might be the ending with the colour palette. That was the first, subtle giveaway. In this game, visuals seemed much more influential on the outcome than many others I’ve played. I thought pictures were cool, giving me a good idea of who I was looking at, although I’m not sure it felt necessary after the first try. The gray-scale change was too sudden, going from full colour to completely gray then wavering through different variations on the gray-scale. It felt slightly too jarring to me.

As I played through, I felt more and more like the game stayed straight on track with my original expectations upon seeing the guy: he’s fairly normal, but he certainly is going to be a violent murderer and you’re gonna have to escape. The only thing that clashed was, of course, the colour palette, which felt to me like I was playing a more sinister and bit more bleak version of Sweetpea.

But oh, was I wrong.

Looking at other reviews, it seems like people had very similar thoughts playing through. The thing was very cleverly designed though, finally clicking all the seemingly wonky puzzle pieces together in a satisfying pattern that reveals something much scarier, if I’m thinking in game terms. And yet, it feels like I should have known that all along, and that’s what makes it even scarier - it adds to this sense of “just another person-eating ritual going on upstairs. Nothing to worry about.” And I think that works well.