Being Andrew Plotkin

Quick recap: the protagonist of the movie/game finds a magic door that leads into John Malkovich'/Andrew Plotkin's mind. Shenanigans ensue.

For the most part, the game follows the plot of the movie quite closely. The biggest alterations are jokes and references to IF in general and Zarf's games in particular. Since I wasn't around in the era of sizzling and bubbling creativity on the intfiction newsgroups in the 90s, a lot of the references went over my head. I'm also not intimately familiar enough with Andrew Plotkin's work to recognize all the jokes and shout-outs.
However, having roamed the internet for IF-history sources, a lot of the game did ring a funny bell.

For a text-adventure about a PC who's a hobbyist text-adventure writer entering the mind of one of the most renowned text-adventure writers of the era, there's actually precious little actual text-adventuring to do.

Most of the game pushes you along the rails laid out by the movie, with frequent conversations where you can choose to say a silly thing or an even sillier thing. Only in the very last sequence before the epilogue does a puzzle show up. And it's a rather mediocre one at that. (One could call it a callback to the classic puzzles, if one were generously inclined...)

The writing and tempo are great though. Exciting scenes zip by at rollercoaster speed, the descriptions are detailed and evocative, the conversations are very funny indeed.

I enjoyed the ride.

This game was one of the Many Preinstalled text adventures that came when I downloaded Frotz on my iPad. The title seemed interesting so I decided: why not try it out?

I can't say I regret that decision really, I mean the experience was Pretty enjoyable. I enjoyed the dialogue options, that's not really something seen often in this medium, at least not to my knowledge. But I can't help but find the gameplay a little lackluster, you basically type what it tells you to type to advance the story, one of which I personally couldn't manage because I'm (Spoiler - click to show)Not very familiar to the way these games are coded since I use quest to make my games rather than inform. Point is, there really isn't any exploration, or puzzles, or challenges of any kind. So much so that you could probably sell this just as well, if not better, as a non-interactive fiction. A short story, a Zarf fanfic if you will.

I think I'd get a bit more enjoyment out of this game if I had watched the movie this game was based on, or played the game this game was based on,or knew a bit more about the IF community than I do at present. But despite my nitpicking, there We're Things that I enjoyed about this game, namely how the author described locations and such differently depending on the current PC, especially Zarf, I think they nailed his descriptive manner of writing fairly well. So if you're a fan of Zarf and his work, then check this game out. I'm probably just not the target demographic.

I have never seen Being John Malkovich, but this game is loosely based on it. In this game, you gain access to Andrew Plotkin (a.k.a. Zarf), author of games such as Shade, So Far, Spider and Web, and a million others. You play several characters, including Zarf and a couple of young lovebirds.

The game is relatively short, taking less than an hour. The humor is mostly absurd humor, with numerous references to Zarf's fiction. I had only played a few games at the time; it is probably worth it to work through a lot of Plotkin's games (like So Far and A Change in the Weather) before playing this game, or afterwards. Unfortunately, these games are extremely hard, so if you're not a puzzle fiend, consider a walkthrough.

Great writing, mostly good puzzles, and a fun setting. I recommend it for everyone.