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Review
Update:
I was able to progress by downloading the file and playing it offline, but, ran into another game-breaking bug later in the game when directions gave me the same error as in the car. I do think this work has a lot of promise and an interesting premise, but I've removed my star rating for now until I can actually play through it.
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This game has an interesting premise and seems to create an appropriate tone, but completely falls apart in the first 2 minutes.
Leaving your house to start the story results in a bizarre situation: you have a car in the driveway, but no seemingly no ability to go anywhere. "Go to kitchen", compass directions, "get in car", "Drive car", all produce error messages. "Open door" seems to work--the story informs you that you're in the car, the engine is running, and Uncle Jacob's house is 30-minutes to the east--but that's it. You can keep typing "open door" or "x car", but nothing really happens.
It's a shame, because the author seems to have put a lot of work into this. I don't know if the version is bad, or if it's a placeholder for a forthcoming work, but I look forward to re-playing it when it's fixed.
As an aside, it could use a little copy editing; I'm not ruthless about typos but found several.
Comments on this review
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It definitely seems to be bugs with the game that are stopping people atm, not just using a browser. I downloaded the game, and didn't have the car game-stopping problem, but did have the same thing when you get to the garden.
Are you supposed to be able to go west there? because the game would not let me...
I think so, but no matter what I tried, it wouldn't let me out--I got totally stuck in the house. My best bet is that the author left an unimplemented area in the file which you can get to by accident using the go-to commands, and once you get there, standard directions don't work...
Thanks for playing, streever.
I'm sorry you found the range of commands lacking - I shall go and fix that up. However, it surprises me that when you're told Jacob's house is east of your own, you didn't think to type 'e' / 'east'.
I'm glad you like the premise and hope you shall return and give it another chance. Hopefully by the time you read this is should be fixed to the best of my ability.
I did type east, actually; it said "Nothing interesting is in that direction" (along with "E"!)
The range of commands are perfect; the problem was that they didn't work for me. I actually restarted the game twice to make sure it wasn't just that instance.
Could it be browser-related? I played it in Chrome (latest) on Windows.
I think it needs a little testing to make sure that things work: I'll gave you my playthrough.
x envelope
take envelope
open envelope
read letter
x keys
go ki
go ha
go li (examined furniture)
go ha
up (You don't need to do that)
open door
n
open car
e (There's nothing of interest that way)
(same for all directions)
On my 2nd playthrough same thing.
On my 3rd I ate the toast & drank the coffee, but it didn't seem to matter
Mmm, I can't imagine why or how it could be browser related, but I'm no expert on such matters. I'm on firefox and a quick test has confirmed that 'e' / 'east' (once inside the car) does indeed take you to Jacob's house.
did you follow my steps? I *did* get to Jacob's house (the 5th time I tried) but I am not sure what I did differently that time, and I was excited, and accidentally closed window :-( My 6th try got me stuck in the car again....
But your steps stop at the car ?? You didn't say anything about getting to Jacob's house.
Anyway, at best it still sounds buggy. Not sure what else I can do but hope the download behaves better for you.
Thank you for your patience - it's a shame others don't follow your suit.
