Reflections

It’s clear that Reflections by Tristin Grizel Dean is intended for a younger audience and, whilst young at heart, I’m not sure that counts and it didn’t feel fair to provide an “adult” review for this game. So, instead, I asked my youngest child to play the game and give me his thoughts.

I'm not going to give too much away about the story except that it is a likeable modern fairytale with some humour that made my son laugh and a quest arc that brings the game to a satisfying end.

Reflections is well presented with simple, fairytale-like graphics that my son really liked. The game includes an on-screen map that helps to visualise where to go next and the bottom two-thirds of the screen is taken up by the text of the game. As an introduction to interactive fiction this layout worked well and the addition of a tutorial mode was really helpful.

The parser understands simple two word commands but seems quite restrictive at times with limited synonyms that occasionally felt more like “hunt the verb” rather than “solve the puzzle”. The dirt piles puzzle was one example where both my son and I felt that the game could have been more forgiving. However, this was a minor impediment that did not prevent progress for long.

The only real advice I gave my son on embarking on this adventure was to “try everything”. However, slightly disappointingly, when my son tried to eat the envelope at the start of the game there wasn’t a humorous response. I feel that this game could have been even more engaging with a wider range of responses for non-core actions that rewarded the player for trying different things.

The puzzles seemed appropriate for a younger reader as was the length of the game. My son enjoyed the game and would happily play more of this style of game so it’s clear that this game has been successful in encouraging it’s intended audience to play interactive fiction.