Mahadev

by Bob Reeves profile

Episode #6 of Painless Little Stupid Games
2011

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Number of Ratings: 3
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- Edo, April 17, 2022

unplayable, November 25, 2018

by IFthenXYZZY
Related reviews: mahadev

game gets 1 star for intriguing concept
1 star withheld for subverting the game's own premise: narrator micromanaging an all powerful entity to the point of rendering it impotent
1 star withheld for not introducing the game in a manner that prepares the player for the significant deviation from standard IF gameplay: usual verbs, ways of interacting with the world, etc...
1 star withheld for not only not providing a hint option for the frustrated player, but being unable to find a walkthru online to even get past the second room.
1 star withheld for contemptuous sink-swim attitude towards player: it's great the other reviewer had people reach out to him/her; it should not take a village to play an IF game.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A vision of the divine., May 23, 2011
by Dominic Delabruere (U.S.A.)

Well, that was embarrassing.

I wrote a review of this game earlier, and had to rewrite it after a couple folks pointed out to me that the game is rather larger than I thought. If you think it has only two locations, look further. If you think it has only three locations, keep going. The game actually has an ending. I originally gave two stars, but now I'm giving four. And only one of those at most is meant to make up for my mistake with the last review.

All in all, it's a fairly polished and lovely vision of the divine. The player character is a god, or perhaps the original god, exploring his/her kingdom. The prose, including parser errors, is cleverly and beautifully constructed with all the trappings of religious reverence, mystery and vision. It's interactive scripture that draws on the most fantastic images from Abrahamic and Vedic texts alike.

So, four stars for polish, some mildly clever mechanics, and stellar prose. It misses out on the final star because it's too easy to play without realizing there's more to do than is immediately obvious(Spoiler - click to show), and because the ending falls too neatly into the old "It was all an anesthetically induced hallucination" trope.

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