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Review
Master of Horses, March 3, 2015There's a sense in which some creators of Twine games understand how prose works in a visceral way and are able to wield it like a scalpel, which is a tool that is normally used to very precise effect, but can easily be co-opted for wholesale, bloodsoaked mayhem. Horse Master is an exemplar of this. There's sense of metaphor-without-being-metaphor that sidles up to its subject matter by both directly addressing it, but distracting the reader. Its primary purpose is to evoke an emotional response, which it does very effectively by inserting disturbing twists in a very recognizable mirror universe. And it's very deliberate in how it presents choice and progression to the reader, using repetition and restriction to dial up the creeping sense of doom. This is a terse, expertly drawn piece of work. The best game about sports (and other things) ever made.
Comments on this review
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I suppose your comment, namekuseijin, works on one level, by pointing out that reviews, though often written with an objective-sounding voice as this one is, are necessarily at least somewhat subjective. And I should probably have qualified "creators of Twine games" with "many" or "some", but that seems a minor quibble. There are actual objective observations in my review -- the game's use of not-quite-metaphor, structure and prose to achieve its effect -- which I note you devote no space to in your comment. And I'm not sure what your IF preferences have to do with my review at all. It might be more effective to marshal evidence for or against my assertions and use this evidence to support your case. Otherwise you're simply saying, in effect, that you didn't like the game -- a point you already made in your own review.
