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Review
I enjoyed this game very, very much. Partly because it defied my initial expectations by escalating to outrageous levels, and partly because it's so darned well implemented. It seemed to have a response for everything I tried. When I booted up the game, saw a "my apartment" type of thing, and saw the seemingly reasonably innocuous premise, I had no idea that this would be a game that would be working WITH me, and not struggling AGAINST me. Logical thought assisted me in solving the puzzles, and with such a strong implementation, every step of the way felt rewarding.
I played this by constantly optimizing my time; I would save, find something that caused progress, restore, go do that thing, and save again. I can't imagine playing a timed game any other way. Maybe if I hadn't played it like this I would have been extremely frustrated. As it is, obviously, the limit only ran out when I let it, to see what happens (in this way I saw all four endings in order).
The escalation of the whole situation was unbelievable, and I very much enjoyed the inherent humour; I much prefer the humour of a bizarre situation taken seriously than the constant barrage of jokes.
Looking at the reviews and ratings, this one doesn't seem to be a favourite. Well, it's a favourite of mine. In great part because, and I can't stress this enough, it was implemented solidly enough, and responsed reasonably enough, to my attempts, that it always felt like it wanted me to solve it. There are far too many sadistic games that delight in just being a brick wall to the player. Even Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy did it in a comedic way that invited you to laugh with it even as you swore through gritted teeth. The style of games that say "This is a puzzle and I'm not giving you any help at all, and I'll only respond to exactly what I want to you type, and if you try to experiment I'll give you blunt 'that doesn't work' one-liners" - and that last bit is, to me, the clincher; experimentation must be the key to puzzle-solving, and without feedback to build from, it's just bad, bad, bad - is a style I no longer have patience for. The hardest oldschool games I can think of, which I enjoyed, did reward experimentation with some little tidbit that would help me solve the puzzle later.
Bit of a rant; my point is that this condensed puzzler does it right. It's with me every step of the way. With the very egregious exception of forcing me to guess the verb to open a certain door - that's the reason I'm rating it 4 and not 5 - it gave me proper feedback every time I tried something, and took pains, sometimes, to direct my attention to the appropriate spot.
I had a great time playing and solving this game. And I enjoyed its endings - particularly the last one, which makes the most sense if you've seen all other three.
Parting thoughts - but man, I really felt sorry for the PC, having to live in that dump!
(Many reviews comment on bad implementation. I don't know what to tell you - I didn't have any of those issues, apart from the one I mentioned. My review reflects that)
