Beat the Devil

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Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 15 Write a review

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

In Robert Camisa's Beat The Devil, Lucifer is building an addition to Hell, and you're his betatester. He overheard you mumbling about how you'd sell your soul for a chance with the object of your affections, and, being surfeited with souls already ("Washington and Hollywood provide me with all the souls I'll ever need to buy."), makes you this alternate offer: wander through this Stygian mall and defeat the incarnations of the seven deadly sins, and that date is yours. It's a fun concept, and Beat The Devil gives it an energetic, cartoonish implementation.

- Cory Roush (Ohio), June 29, 2017

In this game, you are dared by the devil to get out of a mall with the seven deadly sins in it so you can go on a date with a beautiful young woman.

First, the annoying things. This game claims it is too easy to need a walkthrough; like most games with such a claim, it doesn't implement very many alternate solutions to puzzles (in faft, I think there is only one solution for each puzzle), as well as neglecting many synonyms. The goal of the game is to make a passive, desirable girl sleep with you as a reward. Finally, it has some unnecessarily gross parts, such as with Lust.

Beyond that, the setting has some creative touches, a gently vague in-game help system, and some creative depictions of the seven deadly sins.

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- Thrax, March 24, 2015

- Sobol (Russia), January 7, 2015

- streever (America), December 2, 2013

- Nathanial, May 27, 2011

- rainbow_fish_953 (Kansas), July 28, 2009

- Audiart (Davis, CA), January 8, 2009

In this light and slightly sloppy puzzler (and possible first effort) you have to dispose of the seven mortal sins in Satan's new mall in order to get the girl. The puzzles are not bad, mostly running along the standard lines of taking everything which isn't bolted down and strategically relocating it. The tone is humorous, though a fair amount is both juvenile and unsuitable for children (Pride has a small penis, Lust has a misfire in his pants, etc.) I did not find it particularly worthwhile, but this might be interesting to devoted puzzle fans who can forgive a number of flaws in implementation.

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- brattish (Canada), February 26, 2008

- NiMuSi (London, UK), February 23, 2008

- mrihel (Philadelphia, PA, USA), January 31, 2008

- Sami Preuninger (New York City), November 30, 2007

- flatluigi (Massachusetts, USA), November 23, 2007

- Emily Short, October 22, 2007

Baf's Guide

Another entry in the ever-expanding genre of hell- or Satan-themed games, but a pretty good one. Hell is a shopping mall, and the seven deadly sins are embodied in various forms somewhere in the mall, and you have to find and defeat them. Not as funny as it might be--the humor is sometimes a bit sophomoric--but the writing's reasonably solid and the puzzles are fairly creative. One particularly good puzzle recalls one of the better moments in Leather Goddesses of Phobos, no small feat. There are some bugs and design errors, but on the whole this works well.

-- Duncan Stevens