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by David Welbourn

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Bureau of Strange Happenings

by Phil Riley profile

2024
Comedy investigation, science fiction
Inform 7

(based on 3 ratings)
1 review6 members have played this game. It's on 2 wishlists.

About the Story

What secrets are concealed in the depths of a crumbling strip mall in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.? How is one supposed to open a desk drawer when the key is locked inside? Are there really such things as lizard people? And what is the mysterious message on the thumb drive found in an ancient root cellar in upstate New York? Join Agent Larch Faraji as they unearth the answers to these questions and more!

BOSH includes:

* A fun help feature for beginners

* Extensive contextual hints

* A Zarfian Forgiveness rating of "merciful"

* Only one use of the word "reification", which most players won't even see, we swear.

Awards

Ratings and Reviews

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Average Rating: based on 3 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
X-Files-style low-budget bureaucracy with supernatural shenanigans, September 22, 2024
by MathBrush
Related reviews: 2-10 hours

**The Bureau of Strange Happenings** by Phil Riley

This is a long, polished parser game that took me around 4 hours even using copious hints.

You play as an agent with they/them pronouns in the Bureau of Strange Happenings, a government agency that has recently been defunded due to political shenanigans. You end up in a small town strip mall and, even worse, all your devices have to be turned in and replaced.

Unfortunately, your phone has been locked inside your new desk. Getting it out is, in many ways, the big puzzle of the game.

I was excited to see a game about supernatural happenings, but I was kind of bummed because for the first 30-50 minutes I was met with a series of mundane challenges and events--trying to get into a laundromat, using a pawn shop, etc.

Using hints to get past that, I realized that it went so long without supernatural shenanigans because it was the prologue for a much bigger game. I remember after a couple hours of play landing in a large suburban town with over a dozen locations and thinking, 'okay, I'm going to bed, I'll handle this in the morning'. There's a lot of content, and it's super-polished; I didn't encounter any bugs.

I do think the entrance point for the supernatural was perhaps too obscure; I had to find one of many rooms, and in that room which had many objects examine something that was only briefly mentioned, and then go to a specific location to use it. I don't think I would have ever figured it out without either using hints or careful examination (which, to be fair, is true for a lot of parser games).

I enjoyed the unusual directions in this game. I also enjoyed several slow realizations about what is going on; this game really includes a lot of 'delayed punchline' or Chekhov's gun moments.

The difficulty level is high, and I relied very heavily on hints. There is a large proliferation of keys, knicknacks, red herrings, books, and so on.

Story-wise, it's heavy on atmosphere and world-building over pure plot. The game makes use of (Spoiler - click to show)lizard people as the main enemy; while some have used this concept as anti-semitic conspiracy in the past, that doesn't seem to be the case at all in this game, which has a much more X-Files feel.

To me, the roughest part of the game was frequently not knowing what to do. The best parts of the game were the innovative directions and compass system and the big suburban puzzle.

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New walkthroughs for September 2024 by David Welbourn
On Monday, September 30, 2024, I published new walkthroughs for the games and stories listed below! Some of these were paid for by my wonderful patrons at Patreon. Please consider supporting me to make even more new walkthroughs for...

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This is version 8 of this page, edited by David Welbourn on 30 September 2024 at 5:42pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page