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A mystery told entirely through the pages of an online encyclopedia.
Nominee, Best Use of Innovation - 2017 XYZZY Awards
20th Place - 23rd Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2017)
| Average Rating: based on 23 ratings Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 2 |
This well-done game presents a murder mystery/creepypasta through a series of faux Wikipedia pages.
By clicking on link after link, you slowly come to realize the scope and depth of a deep plot. Unlike a normal murder mystery, this one has creepy pasta vibes, similar to SCP or the Russian Sleep Experiment, except more grounded in reality.
I found it interesting and compelling, although I felt it was a bit pulpy, and occasionally became tedious finding the links. It's the kind of game I wish I would have thought of.
The reveal was a little too gory for me, but otherwise I thought the mystery worked well. I especially appreciate that my diligence in remembering certain details and going back to past pages to update and review my understanding was rewarded by the contents of the discussion pages, which served as helpful summaries that reinforced my understanding while furthering the plot. The pages themselves were written in a highly concise way, saying what was necessary without inundating the reader with supplementary information, and thereby promoting multiple re-readings to really capture the gist of the message. Such a feature contributed greatly to replayability, which was also facilitated by the very nature of the game as a set of wikipedia pages for the player to explore at his/her own pace. Given the complexity of the plot, and how well it was implemented, it's a shame that there were a few noticeable typos and inconsistencies throughout the game. Nonetheless, these errors didn't pose too much of an obstruction to gameplay, which was otherwise smooth and satisfying.
Narrativium
IFComp 2017 Review: Unit 322 (Disambiguation) by Jonny Muir
Using the Wikipedia format to present a creepypasta is a stroke of genius. I'm amazed nobody has thought of this before. It's so elegant, simple, and obvious in hindsight. The reason the SCP Foundation stories took off as they did is because of the dissonance between the scientific writing (dry, clinical, detached) and the things being described (supernatural, paranormal craziness)... What else has that cold, neutral writing style? Wikipedia, of course.
See the full review
For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible stories of 2017 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2017 which you think might be worth considering for Best Story in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not mentioned here will...
For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible innovation uses of 2017 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2017 which you think might be worth considering for Best Use of Innovation in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not...
School of Chaos Creepypasta's by StrawberryPie1
I'm looking for realistic gaming stories that include creepypasta