Everybody Dies

Gameplay lasted about an hour, and I'v enjoyed every minute of it. I had already played Everybody Dies when it first came out, around 10 years ago, and for all these years it has haunted me as one of those memorable works of IF which I regreted myself for not having reviewed it.

I consider this game a masterpiece — I though it was one when I first played it, and I confirm it today. It's hard to review it without giving away anything that would spoil the pleasure of discovering by yourself what makes Everybody Dies stand out in respect to many other works of IF; but I'll try nonetheless.

First of all, it's very well written. The author manages to sketch a slice of life in a very vivid manner, bringing quickly to life characters and their surroundings, and he does so without excessive verbosity — dialogues and details are so skilfully brushed on the story canvas that the player has no choice but to sink into the narration with pleauserful abbandonment.

In this work, both the interactive and the fiction aspects of IF are highly honoured. Puzzles, characters and plot are so tightly knit together that in no single moment you're going to loose sight of the overall story. The story pace is amazing, and there are plenty of twists and turns that keep it relentlessly alive, till the very end.

As a bonus, add to that the pleasant illustrations which mark the various milestones of the adventure, adding atmosphere to an already rich environment.

The story also brushes with some contemporary social issues, leveraging the medium to subtly reflect them upon the player and the story from different angles. After completing the game, I couldn't escape a feeling that there was a wholistic flavour to the experience, where everything was connected to everything else in multiple ways ...

Can't say more without spoiling the story! Just dive into it.