Lost Pig

by Admiral Jota profile

Fantasy, Humor
2007

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(269)
4 star:
(181)
3 star:
(32)
2 star:
(1)
1 star:
(2)
Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 486
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- finferflu (Manchester, UK), September 26, 2009

- DJ (Olalla, Washington), September 24, 2009

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
Practically perfect, September 21, 2009

I can't really add much to what has been said about this game already, except to say that I simply found it virtually perfect. The writing is absolutely beautiful, consistently funny, and often surprisingly moving. That is partly because Grunk, as a character, has such integrity and believability. Although presented as incredibly dense, the way he describes locations and objects, often incorporating quite shrewd observations along the way, suggests that he's not all that stupid at all. That gives him depth and emotional resonance. It must be said also that by having Grunk narrate the game in its entirety offers a neat approach to the problem of who the parser is supposed to be, and whether the narrator of the game is a different person from the PC. This game solves that problem by identifying the PC with the narrator, although at the cost of distancing the player from the PC (if Grunk is telling me what's going on, I'm clearly not Grunk, just in case I'd had any uncertainty on that score). There's no emotional distancing though, because Grunk is so engaging a personality.

The puzzles are nicely logical and the gnome NPC has a dry, educated wit that meshes perfectly with Grunk's rather more straightforward approach to life. There are a truly vast number of things you can ASK GNOME ABOUT, most of which have no bearing on the game itself, although some of course contain vital clues. It's a lot of fun to explore these topics, although this can result in the gnome seeming a bit like one of those information-dispenser sort of NPCs who are inexplicably willing to be grilled at length by over-curious PCs. But the gnome's sardonic wit and the fact that he's busily doing other things whilst satisfying Grunk's curiosity make him much more than a talking pedia.

The pig also has a lot of character, making this whole thing rather like one of those children's books that adults can also enjoy. I liked the author's attention to detail, which often brought out extra little elements of the characters (e.g. try taking your trousers off in front of the pig). I must admit that having apparently completed the game I was puzzled by how to gain the elusive last point and looked it up fully in the hints. I rather wished I hadn't, not only as it would have been more fun to work out by myself, but also because the behaviour required to get the last point is the sort of behaviour that I instinctively engage in when playing this sort of game anyway, but generally don't bother, because it seems not to matter. The fact that it mattered in this game says a great deal about it. This is a game with heart.

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- Sorrel, September 2, 2009

- Cuxxu (Albany, NY), August 26, 2009

- Jimbo, August 23, 2009

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A runaway success, July 27, 2009
by Dark-Star (Nebraska)

When I first spied this title listed on a favorite IF site, I was somewhat skeptical of the premise. An IF game where the protagonist is an oafish orc? And the objective is to recover a loose pig?!

A mere half-hour later, I had soundly proven myself wrong and hadn't been so glad for the fact in a long time. Grunk's simple-mindedness on the level of Dumb and Dumber provides nearly endless opportunities for hilarity; Lost Pig can be literally a laugh a minute. Old IF buffs as well as younger children may get the most enjoyment as the game generously rewards experimenting with zany behaviour. Sing, burp, yell, light your pants on fire and see what happens!

But that's not all - Admiral Jota isn't one to write a one-trick pony. Catching the little pile of porkchops is not at all an easy task, although it's debatable whether that's due to an amazingly clever pig or just that Grunk is such a dunce! Swine-snatching aside, the superbly detailed scenery and character interaction add immensely to the game's depth, as does the system of rewarding behavior. The only ways to lose are through foolishness or carelessness (such as (Spoiler - click to show) lighting the forest on fire to drive the pig from under a bush), and the 'best' ending is a reward that takes a good deal of effort to earn.

With an excellent balance in everything from humor to difficulty, Lost Pig is an enjoyable IF romp you'll be glad you took the time for.

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- Ben Cressey (Seattle, WA), July 16, 2009

- GDL (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), July 8, 2009

- Brian Conn (Eureka, California), June 19, 2009

- Sly Curado, June 8, 2009

- ReasonAnce (Poland), May 18, 2009

- Hipster Scumbag, May 4, 2009

- Dannii (Australia), April 28, 2009

5 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Casual IF should be a myth, but..., April 27, 2009
by Michael R. Bacon (New Mexico)

I asked some friends who are not even very computer-savvy to try "Lost Pig" and they became engrossed after a few minutes of user-interface confusion. I had always thought the confusion would be enough to put off the average user (and still do not believe in IF as a profitable venture), but each of them greatly enjoyed the game and wanted to continue playing longer than my laptop was available to them.

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- Halcyon, April 12, 2009

- four1475 (Manhattan, KS), April 10, 2009

- Rhian Moss (UK), April 3, 2009

- Mastodon, March 26, 2009

- Newbot, March 8, 2009

- Mortchek (United States), February 28, 2009

- googoogjoob, February 26, 2009

- MyTheory (Missouri), February 15, 2009

- Adam Biltcliffe (Cambridge, UK), December 28, 2008

- meatwhore, December 9, 2008


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