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Caution: Murder ahead, November 18, 2016This is probably about the 'darkest' IF I have ever played--you are a 'lowly' palace minister who is seizing an opportunity to essentially become king(after the king has died) by eliminating your rivals, one by one. And you have two hours(within the game, not on the clock) to achieve this. When I say 'eliminate', I mean actually killing your rivals--albeit indirectly(get my hands dirty!? Perish the thought!). If you object to this idea, then I strongly advise against playing this game. I know it's 'only fiction' but I can see how some would be turned off by it. But being the persistent IF-er, I pressed on...
It took me about 7 days to figure this game out, and should you decide to 'press on' like I did, I suggest you do the following--
1. Lay aside any expectation of 'winning' within the first few playthroughs. You will not. This game has a very tight time schedule, instead of a turn-counter, there is a time clock that measures out time according to how long the author estimates your chosen actions would take(instead of each action taking 1 turn, a 'wait' may take 2 minutes, a move between rooms may take 10 seconds, etc, though the clock at the top will advance only in 5 minute increments--it will not visibly advance with every move, so you have to guess). Most estimates I have seen say that a successful playthrough should take about 100 moves(which would sum up to about 2 hours, game time).
2. Expect to play through to the end(a failure,(Spoiler - click to show)when the war secretary-turned-warlord takes over the city-state) many times. But see each playthrough as a means of exploring the palace(you really won't be able to go anywhere outside) further, and getting to know each NPC more, by surveillance, observation, questions, etc. Search your own room, first, figure out the machinery.
3. Probably the best perspective to take is to realize that, at the beginning of the game, you ALREADY have a plan(to eliminate your rivals)--you just need to recall what it is, and put it in motion. Your initial playthroughs will be about figuring out the component parts of the plan, then you will need to put them together timing-wise.
4. These parts will interlock, in the final game(where you actually win) in such a way that you will need to work on each of the rivals simultaneously, putting a move or two in here and there against each. The order in which you execute these moves is very important. One mistake can be costly. You have to find out the correct order in which to destroy them.
I must make a confession, here. Though I have found out how to eliminate each of the rivals(there are 5), I never got the order correct. I kept dying, because I would forget something, took too long to do another thing, etc etc. Finally, I decided that I had other things I wanted to do and put the game aside. The 'enjoyment' that I got came from the 'figuring out' process, and I was content to know that I 'could' have figured out the timing. This game is truly rigorous. If Mr Cadre's intentions were to completely vex you, then he succeeded with me.
I did enjoy the rich descriptions and full character developments. Clearly, you are meant to explore all of these before completing the details of your plan and carrying them out with the final playthrough--in which you will NOT have time to do any information gathering. Look at EVERYTHING. ASK QUESTIONS. Experiment with ALL take-able objects. USE the equipment(for example, in some of my first playthroughs,(Spoiler - click to show) I did nothing but sit in the room and watch each one of the main NPCs on the surveillance system, particularly the rivals, for the entire two hours. I did this for each NPC.).
But for all its intricacy, there are some flaws. I think that the seeming anachronisms (palace guards, albeit with rifles, the 'war' with Venice, etc) were intentional, the author is bringing the old era of city-states(the Carolingian League) into the future, with electronics, helicopters, etc. The two biggest flaws that I can recall are--
1. Indifference; apparently, none of the deaths that you will have caused will be investigated, despite the social rank of the victims(in fact,(Spoiler - click to show) in the one in which there IS a reaction,you are present and it's obvious that you supplied the weapon. And surely, the queen and/or her son would notice that her brother-in-law had been murdered by the falling toy, which she had to have seen you take...!??.
2. In case no one noticed, (Spoiler - click to show)there is a cannibalistic plant taking over the palace! Nothing is said as to what was/will be done to eliminate it! Unless I missed something.
It bears repeating that in this game, YOU WILL BE DOING A LOT OF KILLING. Which perhaps leads to a third flaw--(Spoiler - click to show)when you destroy the war minister, you will also destroy his army. There may not be many people left to rule..!!??
Therefore, I gave it three stars. With these things in mind, I hope you enjoy the game, should you choose to play it.