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Number of Ratings: 12
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1-12 of 12 - Ann Hugo (Canada), December 30, 2022
- Brad Buchanan (Seattle, Washington), November 13, 2022
- Edo, September 28, 2022
- Kinetic Mouse Car, August 4, 2022
- tekket (Česká Lípa, Czech Republic), April 21, 2022
- EJ, December 6, 2021
3 of
3 people found the following review helpful:
Bare-bones but spooky, December 2, 2021(This is a lightly-edited version of a review posted to the IntFict forums during the 2021 IFComp. My son Henry was born right before the Comp, meaning I was fairly sleep-deprived and loopy while I played and reviewed many of the games, so in addition to a highlight and lowlight, the review includes an explanation of how new fatherhood has led me to betray the hard work the author put into their piece)
It’s a testament to the current state of visual design in IF that in this Comp, a Twine game that uses the default formatting (black background, white text, blue links, that recognizable font) really stands out. This isn’t a critique, though, both because I’ve got no leg to stand on (one reason I like making Inform games is because the idea of having to make aesthetic decisions gives me hives), but because the unfriendly vibe of plain-vanilla Twine creates a fittingly stark, oppressive mood for this ghost story set at the world’s worst nursing home (predictably, it’s in Florida).
The story hits the beats you’d expect given that setup, but again, that’s not necessarily a negative. The Waiting Room doesn’t waste much time establishing the protagonist (a newly-hired nurse) or their motivations, focusing more on creating a foreboding atmosphere from the jump, and while the scares start early and rarely stray beyond what’s expected, nonetheless they’re executed well. Some of the story strains credulity – the number of moldering corpses secreted around the place makes one wonder how much the last state inspector got bribed – and it’s hard to imagine many players being tempted by some of the alternate paths on offer, many of which come down to whether you want to cover up for a fellow nurse’s potentially fatal negligence or instead behave like a minimally moral human being. But for a quick horror piece like this, that’s very much secondary to the chills on offer. Since I definitely had hair standing up on the back of my neck at least once, I’m counting The Waiting Room a success.
Highlight: there’s one particular scare (Spoiler - click to show)(the one hinging on Paulie’s echolalia) that I’ll definitely remember the next couple of times I’m trying to get to sleep.
Lowlight: the protagonist is so thinly sketched, I was pretty sure we were headed for a “you were a ghost all along” twist – but nope, it’s on the level.
How I failed the author: I played this one alone at midnight, with most of the lights off – I was keeping an eye on a napping Henry while my wife slept in the other room. For once, rather than failing the author, I think my circumstances meant I played the game exactly the way it should be!
- Karl Ove Hufthammer (Bergen, Norway), November 15, 2021
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
Nursing Home Mystery, October 31, 2021This was a well-paced horror mystery that was easy to progress through thanks to its choice-based format. There are some creepy moments to keep things tense, and a few descriptions of some nasty stuff. I enjoyed playing through it several times, trying out different character alignments. I think the player's enjoyment may depend on how much of a challenge one wants. This game does not spend any time requiring you to do any trial and error, but leads you on a fairly direct path through the story. As someone who was trying to play a lot of games in limited time, I appreciated the economy. It doesn't feel right to say this game was light, breezy fun, but it is pretty compact and easily digestible, particularly for fans who enjoy horror elements.
- OverThinking, October 25, 2021
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
A creepy but somewhat unpolished hospital horror story, October 19, 2021I recently mentioned in another review how I'm a big fan of genre fiction. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about: a classic haunting story set in a hospital.
It's in standard Twine format (blue on black) and generally simple Twine branch-and-bottleneck, with some state tracking.
You play as a new CNA working at a nursing home where a dark secret stalks th halls.
I found the game genuinely frightening, playing late at night. The author makes good use of tropes; there's nothing really new here, it's just down well.
There is some use of text animation (including some flashing text). I feel like there were typos strewn throughout the text, mainly with quotation mark errors.
I'm giving this game 4 stars, due to its lack of polish but overall enjoyability. This is due to my personal enjoyment of this style of horror; for the general public, I'd say it's likely a 3-star game.
4 of
4 people found the following review helpful:
A place you don't want to come home to at night, October 17, 2021This is an exploration horror game that takes place in and around a haunted nursing home, with a central mystery that needs to be solved before very bad things happen.
I like that the piece proceeds at a brisk pace and is easy to follow, and I appreciate the sense of setting, geography and movement. There are some intriguingly creepy room and object descriptions, and I also enjoyed working through the light amount of puzzle solving needed to understand the mystery.
On the other hand, the ending that I found felt rather rushed, and overall I wish there was a more gradual buildup and a mix of some slower scenes/moments for the horror story to breathe and take on a more nuanced shape. I also wish I had gotten a better sense of who the protagonist and the final bad guy are, what motives them, etc.
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