Bad Beer

Adapted from an IFCOMP24 Review

Talk about a masterclass in establishing stakes. The beer has GONE BAD. FIX IT, STAT!!! My GOD game, say less, I’m on it! Ethan Hunt, I CHOOSE TO ACCEPT THIS MISSION!!!

This is a parser game, set in an Old World pub and your mission could not be more vital. It could be more… responsive? or challenging? though. There is some rudimentary early exploration, talking to NPCs, comfortably deep scenery implementation, all of which smooth enough but not so long on clues and leads to pursue. Until you encounter an NPC that can help. If I did anything to spur this development, I am at a loss to describe what it was. It rather felt like HE found ME.

Thanks to this helpful NPC you learn some more, then are ushered to the source of the contamination and presented with one puzzle to try and resolve the issue. Ok, step back everyone. Yeah, we spun our wheels for a while but now Impossible Mission Force is on the job. Cue some disguises and stunts (and that PEERLESS theme song) and let’s wrangle this into shape! NOW the Beer Hero can kick into gear and… wait, its done? And I failed to solve the puzzle? (Spoiler - click to show)But the beer is saved ANYWAY??? Let me go back and try again. Hah! This time I did solve it! (Spoiler - click to show)And yeah, side mission victory, but beer’s fate is unchanged?!? Maybe IMF was a bit overkill on this one? Feels like the mystery was very capably solving itself?

It really felt like the story was playing out, just steaming right along, and not only did it not need me to advance it, it kind of didn’t care what I did between beats. It was odd to feel this outside-looking-in in INTERACTIVE fiction. Which is a wild takeaway, on reflection. There are plenty of choice-select IF that are really short stories whose main interaction is turning pages. (I’ve got to figure out a better way to say that because it always sounds like I’m talking down and I don’t mean to be.) BB was not objectively less interactive or player-focused than those works. Might I be holding Parser IF to a different standard? Might Parser IF, by explicitly making the player the protag and ceding control on every single move, might that imply an unspoken promise of a deeper interactivity, even if that is only “suss out how to use weird thing A in location B?” What if this was more of a short story-like IF, where my one job was to hit return to keep going? Maybe it was toying with my expectations to deliver something else entirely? Maybe it was SHAMING me that I was so into a trivial puzzle problem, when making a small but real difference was a possibility for me. All that is conceivable I suppose, but even the difference I could make was pretty muted, in terms of dramatic impact. Maybe it was a comment on the shallowness of NEEDING high levels of difficulty and dramatic resolution when true, meaningful accomplishment should be enough?

That I can be shallow cannot be a shock to anyone at this point. I’m not sure I need a game to thematically highlight that. Look, it was a very well-crafted, modest parser where story-wise I just didn’t matter much. Yeah, I’m disappointed I couldn’t really be the Beer Hero of my fantasies but it did enough right to keep the sparks going. Granted, the biggest spark was the unfulfilled promise of BEING a Beer Hero, but there were still plenty of sparks to be had.

Turns out it was my self-importance that was destined to self-destruct in five seconds.

Played: 9/8/24
Playtime: 30m, 1 fail, 1 succeed
Artistic/Technical ratings: Sparks of Joy/Mostly Seamless)
Would Play Again?: No, experience feels complete

Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless