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About the StoryThe glitterings of Gold, Jewels, Tapestries, &c. belie the Corruption of he who 'til recently occupied this high Seat. A white Carpet, once flanked by Sycophants & Counsellors, now lies untravelled. It leads away from the Seat & towards the Sunrise. |
Awards
Nominee, Best Puzzles - 2001 XYZZY Awards
Ratings and Reviews
| Average Rating:  based on 16 ratingsNumber of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 3 Write a review |
Interesting/aggravating, January 13, 2015Your holy mission to kill the degenerate baron has been fulfilled. You're standing over his corpse when the game starts. His subjects have already fled the castle and there ought to be no further obstacles. But as it turns out, his subjects have fled because they know the worst is yet to come.
Saying anything else about this game's plot threatens to ruin the core mechanic, which gradually reveals itself as you attempt to explore the castle. It's clever, but it's also a tad irritating. As the game closes in around you, your options diminish. This means it's very easy to waste time at the beginning, examining objects and rooms and whatnot, before you even realize that you're wasting time. When you do realize what's happening, it's probably too late.
The outcome leaves me conflicted. It's necessary to go into the game without preconceptions in order to get the most from the experience. However, this means that it will also likely punish you a few times until you learn to economize your puzzle-solving. The "optimal" good ending is also not as rewarding as the "normal" good ending, as though, after you've solved everything, the game is in a hurry to tidy up.
Nevertheless, it's well worth playing for the writing, mood, light humor, and the overall concept. Just be prepared to undo or restart.
Interesting grim fantasy game with alalchemy and messing with IF conventions, February 3, 2016This game is about a warrior who destroys a baron, only to discover himself cursed. You wander around a castle while investigating hidden rooms, ancient texts, and complicated puzzles, as well as running into some NPC's. The atmosphere is anti-heroic.
The main attraction of the game is the nature of the curse, which messes with IF conventions.(Spoiler - click to show)As the game progresses, room descriptions and objects become less and less implemented, until each room is just a number with nothing in it.
An Interesting Experiment, March 17, 2016As a game, Degeneracy isn't much. The puzzle needed for a partial victory does't make much sense. It has a character with no apparent purpose. It requires some phrasing to manipulate its complex objects.
Its merit is in the quality of the gimmick's implementation. There isn't any point in playung the game, unless you're having trouble understanding the source.
2 Off-Site Reviews
Baf's Guide
A knight stands above his slain foe, his quest accomplished. But the dead man has planned a posthumous revenge. Short, strong sense of style, good puzzles, not buggy at all. The slow realization of what's going on is handled well, with a creepy twist as the time limit closes in.
-- Carl Muckenhoupt
SPAG
The puzzles aren't especially exciting--there are only a few of them, and reading the manuals you find is essentially all you need to do--but there's lots of fun to be had in the writing. Much of it is mock-Elizabethan or thereabouts--lots of Surprising Capitalizations, for one thing, often put to amusing purposes. [...]
As mentioned, there's a trick of sorts in the game, on which I won't elaborate here. It's not a total success; some players, I know, thought it was a bug, which it most certainly isn't. There are indications that something's afoot well before the trick happens, though they depend to some extent, I think, on whether the player's moving around--fewer, if any, of the clues would be apparent to a player who's staying in one room working on a puzzle.
-- Duncan Stevens
See the full review
Tags
Game Details
Current Version: 0.51
License: Freeware
Development System: Inform 6
Baf's Guide ID: 1330
| IFIDs: | ZCODE-1-010331-09D3 |
| ZCODE-1-010331-A8F7 |
Degeneracy on IFDB
Recommended Lists
Degeneracy appears in the following Recommended Lists:Forgotten Treasures of IFDB by MathBrush
These are games that are great, either in my opinion or in many others, but which have been forgotten. By forgotten, I mean it satisfies the following: 1. Not an IfComp or XYZZY Best Game winner, 2. Not in Best 50 Interactive Fiction...
Games with lessons for aspiring IF authors by Pinstripe
These are the games that, in my opinion, have the most to offer prospective authors of interactive fiction. As an experienced player but rookie author myself, I'll be relying on my own highly subjective criteria. Elements of IF these...
Polls
The following polls include votes for Degeneracy:More than it appears to be... by dacharya64
I'm looking for games that aren't exactly what they seem. Perhaps they come across as simple or romantic or anything really, the point is that things take a turn for the worse (or perhaps the better) and everything begins to change....
forgotten gems by Marius Müller
I'm looking for games that don't show up in the IF histories or recommended lists, for what reason whatsover. Old games that maybe weren't boundary-pushing or noteworthy, but still give you a fun play experience. If you ever thought...
Games Theoretically but not Practically Beatable on First Attempt by Floating Info
I'm looking for a very specific level of difficulty: a game where you theoretically could beat it on your first attempt, but you won't. At some point in the game you'll fail, but that point may vary from person to person, and when you...
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