No More

No More is a short, narrative-heavy Inform game that largely uses the EXAMINE command to advance a story about (Spoiler - click to show) a werewolf's transformation. Its sentences do not go to waste. Everything is either providing important background or else advancing the action.

As the story begins, the protagonist, a young woman, is forced by her clerical father into a horse-drawn carriage. Her sisters cry. The father handles her roughly; this is obviously an abusive situation. (Spoiler - click to show)In the carriage, the protagonist examines her setting: herself, father, a tantalizing window. After a few moments, the young woman draws open a curtain, letting moonlight in, transforming into a werewolf!

A lot has been written regarding monstrous entities and the way they can represent or reflect a person's status of an outsider or marginalized person. The father perceives the daughter as monstrous, and, rather than change, (Spoiler - click to show)she embraces her inner monster. This sort of immediate reversal is ideal for a short story; it's punchy and resists dilution. That isn't to say that there aren't shortcomings to this No More's implementation. A player with bad luck might miss a cue for examining something, which can stall the narrative.

If I had a nickel for every time I read a review lamenting the lack of interaction in a game, I would be writing this review on a newer laptop. Why don't I ever see anyone complain about the lack of fiction in our games? What is at the back of this inconsistency? Please don't mistake me; games without an emphasis on narrative have their place. But it often seems that there is a double-standard when it comes to critical responses to works of interactive fiction without a narrative emphasis.

What really strikes about No More is its unapologetic presentation as a narrative-first parser game. Having tried to work in this space myself, it's my experience that linear narrative is a hard thing to do well in a parser game. No More's narrative focus is realized by using an Inform feature, scenes, to manage the way the game's world appears as the story progresses. It's a very effective programming tactic, and we as players experience this narrative strategy as a developing understanding of the protagonist's circumstances. While the approach might have shortcomings, it is a novel and productive approach to solving a challenge in parser design.

I also want to acknowledge the use of story mode here to offer an accessible option for player's who struggle with parser gameplay or, alternately, just want to read the story. A story mode allows to read an author-curated transcript by pressing the "enter" key. This activity is different from reading a printed transcript, and I feel it comes closer to the played experience. Since No More is, after all, a story, I found the availability of this feature appealing. Story modes are not common, and only a few parser games offer them at this time, but I think the value proposition is very clear.

A short snack (heh) that is certainly worth the modest investment of time it requires.