Mahadev

by Bob Reeves profile

Episode #6 of Painless Little Stupid Games
2011
Inform 7

Go to the game's main page

Review

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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baywoof, May 28, 2011 - Reply
I saw your review and decided to play the game, but can't find more than two locations. How do you get to the third location?
Dominic Delabruere, May 31, 2011 - Reply
For those who are stuck:

Hint 1. (Spoiler - click to show)Repeating a particular action several times will give you a clue.

Hint 2. (Spoiler - click to show)The action you must repeat to get that first clue is GO UP.

Hint 3. (Spoiler - click to show)Once you've got the clue, just do what it says you ought.

Hint 4. (Spoiler - click to show)There are a few puzzles following this same pattern.
baywoof, June 18, 2011 - Reply
Thanks!
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