Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)
Reviews of:
---
* Ruined Robots
* A Light's Tale
* The Realm
* Magocracy
* A Day in the Life of a Superhero
* Blue Sky
* Escape from Auriga
* Identity
Ruined Robots
---
First impression: I can't help but think that the UI elements will detract
from the game, but no matter. When the first room description mentions a
hole in the wall that isn't implemented, I'm not encouraged. "x me" gives
the default response as well.
This is a living room with a burning fire in the Hearth. There are rooms to
the East and Northeast, Southeast, South and exit to the West, and a
fireplace. There is also a small hole where the wall joins the floor, but
you can't get in it or put anything in it.
>west
You can't go that way.
>east
You can't go that way.
Did this game undergo any beta testing at all?
Oh wait a minute... it's because I'm in the hearth. That's awkward. I dunno
about Tads, but in Inform it's normal to say something like "You're not
going anywhere until you get out of the hearth."
The game begins with a litany of silly objects, including a glue stick that
gets your hands sticky:
>get all
plain cookie: You hands are too sticky to pick anything up.
I don't get it... I can see how my hands would be too slippery to pick
something up, but too sticky?! And then came the kiss of death:
"You're feeling a bit peckish. Perhaps it would be a good time to find
something to eat."
A hunger daemon... Is this a frigging Santoonie game? Was the author
"inspired" by a Santoonie game? (I saw that exact same phrase in Delvyn last
year, so unless Tads2 comes with boilerplate for a hunger daemon, I'm going
to fear the worst...)
The following has to be one of the most ridiculous sequences I have ever
seen in IF:
rental cottage ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
A large empty cottage with a sign saying 'FOR RENT' in the window. The
cottage seems securely locked up, You can exit via the South.
It seems like it's been lost.
If you asked, it might follow you (say ' Liffie, follow me')
>n
You can't go that way.
>x cottage
The Locked rental cottage is open. There's nothing in the Locked rental
cottage.
>enter cottage
The Locked rental cottage isn't important.
>unlock cottage
It's not locked!
And that occured while I was attempting to follow the walkthrough (at least
the first part...)
That's about as far as I got. I was actually kind of interested in finding
out the secret of the eccentric milionaire, but not interested enough to
continue playing. The game is buggy, cloying, and the walkthrough doesn't
work, but I give it some (minimal) credit for trying.
Novelty: undetermined
Interest: medium
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 2
---
A Light's Tale
---
First impression: An anonymous game. It was programmed by vbnz
(mog_zimri@hotmail.com). And no, that doesn't mean anything in rot13. It
does seem like an enigmatic game, though. I'm interested in seeing where it
is going. The English is not perfect, but it's good enough.
This game represents a variation on a familiar motif. You play through
various scenarios on the same map, but each time something is different.
It's not a bad technique.
The game also has an odd narrative style. The author keeps interjecting
things and steering you in particular directions. If I wanted to be
pretentious, I might complain that it breaks mimesis. But I don't... I'll
just say that it doesn't always work. The effect is sort of like that of
Amnesia from last year's comp (although this game is far superior to Amnesia
in every way).
This game really leads you along at every turn. It makes for an easier game
and a more predictable storyline, but perhaps less compelling. In the early
part of the game, the author simplified the implementation by not giving the
player much of a choice about what to do. Later on, when he does give the
player a choice (mostly due to bugs), the gameplay breaks down.
There were a lot of problems with the bar sequence in particular, such as
the over-zealous Bruno who kicks me out of the bar right after I do a favour
for the owner. Then there is the quixotic door in the flower shop that "it
looks like I can unlock" even before I have the key. (I had to resort to the
walkthrough 3 times in order to finish the game. I think only one of those
times was because I gave up too quickly. The others were due to serious bugs
in the gameplay.)
Another thing: the author does not give any of the NPCs a masculine/feminine
attribute. It's very frustrating when I can't refer to George as "him". I
found this bug in quite a few different games this year, mostly Tads games
for some reason.
I enjoyed the game enough to play it until the end, but I wasn't exactly
enthralled by it.
Novelty: medium
Interest: high
Fun: medium
Polish: low
Score: 5
---
The Realm
---
First impression: Okay, we start in a bedroom. That's sure to raise the ire
of the anti-bedroom nazis. "Search all" is not disabled. The characters are
all androgenous. I am led to believe that the author is not very
experienced.
The game is implemented with a subtle tongue-in-cheek attitude. I like the
fact that the task I have to carry out is "randomly selected".
Most of the puzzles in the game are quite silly. They don't necessary make
literal sense, but you can figure them out by following the hints in the
text and then combining the objects and NPCs you find in logical ways. But
there is one particular "guess the topic of conversation" puzzle late in the
game that had me resorting to to the walkthrough.
Aside from this one impossible puzzle, The Realm is a very easy game. I
don't think it took longer than 15 minutes to complete. It was definitely
anti-climactic when I met the dragon and a mere two turns later I had won
the game. I wondered if there were any alternate endings so I checked the
walkthrough, but there weren't. BTW, this is the second game that
automatically quits after you win it. Please don't do that!
Novelty: low
Interest: medium
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 4
---
Magocracy
---
First impression: A MUD-like game... entering it in the ifcomp is just
inviting flames. I'm not really expecting to enjoy this since I have no
patience for melee combat (I use the undo key a lot).
This is actually a pretty well done game. Considering all the cool spells
and objects, it could even make a decent non-combat game. But as it is, it's
a combat game, and I just don't have the patience to learn the correct
weapon to use against each creature. So I resort to the hints file for some
advice, then win the game by using cheap tactics in combat (including the
use of undo whenever I get hit).
With the combat out of the way, what's left is the atmosphere, and what's
there is pretty good. The NPCs are well implemented and they will even chat
with you briefly if they think you're not a threat. There are also some
interesting plot points revealed as the game goes on. But overall, the
ifcomp just isn't the right place to enter this game.
Novelty: medium
Interest: medium
Fun: medium
Polish: high
Score: 6
---
A Day in the Life of a Superhero
---
First impression: The second superhero game of the comp. I like the premise,
and based on the introduction, I'm prepared to be impressed.
I like the idea of starting the game with a menu. It gives you the option to
read the introduction, credits, etc, and by implication it also tells you
that they exist. It seems to me that this should satisfy the needs of the
anally retentive crowd who occasionally complain about the line "first time
players should type about" appearing at the top of the screen.
So everything is going great. I enjoyed the first scene; now I'm back in my
apartment looking for clues. But something wierd happens:
> talk to parrot
A fusty smell pervades your apartment. It's probably a mixture of you never
getting around to cleaning it and that time the Slug Monster was here to
kill you.
You see, my room is a bit smelly and the parrot is also called smelly, and
apparently the terp is somehow interpreting "talk to parrot" as "x smell" or
something like that. That's the risk you take when you choose one of the
lesser-known authoring systems. Last year's Sophie's Big Adventure had
similarly mind-boggling bugs that appeared to derive from the interpreter
(e.g. "save" being interpreted as "south", restored game files being
corrupt, etc), and this author appears to have learned nothing from the
experience. FWIW, I gave the game a chance. I even downloaded the latest
adrift runner, but the bug was still there.
ADitLoaS comes with a built-in walkthrough (you just type "gimme the
walkthrough"), and you will definitely need it. But it's an odd walkthrough.
Not only does it contain a few commands that give errors, but it also
contains a fair number of "undo" operations. That's just bizarre! (I suppose
they could be there to give you some context, but they really don't.
Unfortunately, this game is so buggy that it is basically unplayable. (So
was Sophie's Big Adventure, but in that case the most serious bugs only
became apparent after I had been playing for more than 2 hours.) I played
through the game with the walkthrough and I concluded that even without the
parser problems, I still wouldn't give the story and gameplay more than a
5-6. Still, the "guess the odd syntax" puzzles and inexplicable connections
between events are one thing, but how could even a minimal amount of testing
fail to reveal the obvious problems with the parser?
Novelty: medium
Interest: high
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 3
---
Blue Sky
---
First impression: Quite a mundane setting. That doesn't bug me. It's what
you do with it that counts. Let's see... mostly default parser responses, no
about text or credits. Plus I'm holding a pamphlet, but it doesn't seem to
tell me anything useful when I read it. So what's the point? I'm not
particularly hopeful about this game.
Two things strike me about BS. Firstly, it appears that the author really
wanted to educate people about the history of Santa Fe. This game is almost
like a virtual tour. In fact, I rather expect that the text from the plaques
was literally transcribed from the real thing. Secondly, I get the
impression that the author was inspired in some way by "Bureaucracy" (and
no, it's not just because of the llama).
The geography of this game is confusing. I've never seen so many "guess the
exits" puzzles in one game. (There are a lot of compass directions mentioned
in the room descriptions, but very often you can't go that way.) Talking to
people is also frustrating. When you ask them about an unknown topic there
is no reply. Thus, you don't know which people might have something useful
to say.
On top of it, there are some very odd verb implementations:
>i
You are carrying:
a pamphlet
a peruvian blanket (being worn)
a sipa
>give sipa to indians
The Indians selling jewelry don't seem interested.
>give blanket to them
The Indians selling jewelry don't seem interested.
>give pamplet to them
You aren't holding the Indians selling jewelry.
Ahh.. I seem to have misspelled "pamphlet". But still, this indicates that
the author has overriden the give verb to include "give <topic/special> to
<held>". What's with that?
Since this game has no gameplay to speak of, its only appeal would derive
from whether you are interested in learning about the history of Santa Fe
from a text adventure. I am not. I prefer to visit places by actually going
there.
Novelty: low
Interest: low
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 2
---
Escape from Auriga (disqualified)
---
First impression: This seems rather like the movie "Alien". Oh wait...
wasn't this the game that was disqualified for violating copyright?
I don't have too much patience for games with random elements, so I played
it with the walkthrough. Actually, it's not a half bad game, though not
particularly original/memorable. Most of the puzzles are resource
conservation based (ammo, specifically).
Novelty: low
Interest: low
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 5
---
Identity
---
First impression: This game purports to be "an interactive short story"
rather than a game. Not sure how I feel about that. The author says it is
his first game, but it appears to be competently implemented. (He had the
good sense to get beta testers.)
I'm not finding any significant bugs in the gameplay. But then again, the
author takes a rather pusillanimous approach to unanticipated actions:
>search grass
You don't need to perform that action with the grass.
Well, I don't like that. Blah, blah, blah, mimesis, blah.
You come equipped with a scanner. I expected to see quite a few of those
after the success of last year's triage (but they are difficult/tedious to
implement). This one is implemented in about the same way as everything
else. Only objects of special significance will yield a non-default
response. So less work for the author, less fun for the player.
Identity is almost completely bug free, although rather brief and terse. The
puzzles were of medium difficulty... just hard enough to be interesting, but
never unfair (although I admit that I cheated on one of them out of
laziness). And despite being titled "an interactive short story", it seemed
like more of a game than a story to me.
Novelty: low
Interest: medium
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 6
Reviews of:
---
* Ruined Robots
* A Light's Tale
* The Realm
* Magocracy
* A Day in the Life of a Superhero
* Blue Sky
* Escape from Auriga
* Identity
Ruined Robots
---
First impression: I can't help but think that the UI elements will detract
from the game, but no matter. When the first room description mentions a
hole in the wall that isn't implemented, I'm not encouraged. "x me" gives
the default response as well.
This is a living room with a burning fire in the Hearth. There are rooms to
the East and Northeast, Southeast, South and exit to the West, and a
fireplace. There is also a small hole where the wall joins the floor, but
you can't get in it or put anything in it.
>west
You can't go that way.
>east
You can't go that way.
Did this game undergo any beta testing at all?
Oh wait a minute... it's because I'm in the hearth. That's awkward. I dunno
about Tads, but in Inform it's normal to say something like "You're not
going anywhere until you get out of the hearth."
The game begins with a litany of silly objects, including a glue stick that
gets your hands sticky:
>get all
plain cookie: You hands are too sticky to pick anything up.
I don't get it... I can see how my hands would be too slippery to pick
something up, but too sticky?! And then came the kiss of death:
"You're feeling a bit peckish. Perhaps it would be a good time to find
something to eat."
A hunger daemon... Is this a frigging Santoonie game? Was the author
"inspired" by a Santoonie game? (I saw that exact same phrase in Delvyn last
year, so unless Tads2 comes with boilerplate for a hunger daemon, I'm going
to fear the worst...)
The following has to be one of the most ridiculous sequences I have ever
seen in IF:
rental cottage ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
A large empty cottage with a sign saying 'FOR RENT' in the window. The
cottage seems securely locked up, You can exit via the South.
It seems like it's been lost.
If you asked, it might follow you (say ' Liffie, follow me')
>n
You can't go that way.
>x cottage
The Locked rental cottage is open. There's nothing in the Locked rental
cottage.
>enter cottage
The Locked rental cottage isn't important.
>unlock cottage
It's not locked!
And that occured while I was attempting to follow the walkthrough (at least
the first part...)
That's about as far as I got. I was actually kind of interested in finding
out the secret of the eccentric milionaire, but not interested enough to
continue playing. The game is buggy, cloying, and the walkthrough doesn't
work, but I give it some (minimal) credit for trying.
Novelty: undetermined
Interest: medium
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 2
---
A Light's Tale
---
First impression: An anonymous game. It was programmed by vbnz
(mog_zimri@hotmail.com). And no, that doesn't mean anything in rot13. It
does seem like an enigmatic game, though. I'm interested in seeing where it
is going. The English is not perfect, but it's good enough.
This game represents a variation on a familiar motif. You play through
various scenarios on the same map, but each time something is different.
It's not a bad technique.
The game also has an odd narrative style. The author keeps interjecting
things and steering you in particular directions. If I wanted to be
pretentious, I might complain that it breaks mimesis. But I don't... I'll
just say that it doesn't always work. The effect is sort of like that of
Amnesia from last year's comp (although this game is far superior to Amnesia
in every way).
This game really leads you along at every turn. It makes for an easier game
and a more predictable storyline, but perhaps less compelling. In the early
part of the game, the author simplified the implementation by not giving the
player much of a choice about what to do. Later on, when he does give the
player a choice (mostly due to bugs), the gameplay breaks down.
There were a lot of problems with the bar sequence in particular, such as
the over-zealous Bruno who kicks me out of the bar right after I do a favour
for the owner. Then there is the quixotic door in the flower shop that "it
looks like I can unlock" even before I have the key. (I had to resort to the
walkthrough 3 times in order to finish the game. I think only one of those
times was because I gave up too quickly. The others were due to serious bugs
in the gameplay.)
Another thing: the author does not give any of the NPCs a masculine/feminine
attribute. It's very frustrating when I can't refer to George as "him". I
found this bug in quite a few different games this year, mostly Tads games
for some reason.
I enjoyed the game enough to play it until the end, but I wasn't exactly
enthralled by it.
Novelty: medium
Interest: high
Fun: medium
Polish: low
Score: 5
---
The Realm
---
First impression: Okay, we start in a bedroom. That's sure to raise the ire
of the anti-bedroom nazis. "Search all" is not disabled. The characters are
all androgenous. I am led to believe that the author is not very
experienced.
The game is implemented with a subtle tongue-in-cheek attitude. I like the
fact that the task I have to carry out is "randomly selected".
Most of the puzzles in the game are quite silly. They don't necessary make
literal sense, but you can figure them out by following the hints in the
text and then combining the objects and NPCs you find in logical ways. But
there is one particular "guess the topic of conversation" puzzle late in the
game that had me resorting to to the walkthrough.
Aside from this one impossible puzzle, The Realm is a very easy game. I
don't think it took longer than 15 minutes to complete. It was definitely
anti-climactic when I met the dragon and a mere two turns later I had won
the game. I wondered if there were any alternate endings so I checked the
walkthrough, but there weren't. BTW, this is the second game that
automatically quits after you win it. Please don't do that!
Novelty: low
Interest: medium
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 4
---
Magocracy
---
First impression: A MUD-like game... entering it in the ifcomp is just
inviting flames. I'm not really expecting to enjoy this since I have no
patience for melee combat (I use the undo key a lot).
This is actually a pretty well done game. Considering all the cool spells
and objects, it could even make a decent non-combat game. But as it is, it's
a combat game, and I just don't have the patience to learn the correct
weapon to use against each creature. So I resort to the hints file for some
advice, then win the game by using cheap tactics in combat (including the
use of undo whenever I get hit).
With the combat out of the way, what's left is the atmosphere, and what's
there is pretty good. The NPCs are well implemented and they will even chat
with you briefly if they think you're not a threat. There are also some
interesting plot points revealed as the game goes on. But overall, the
ifcomp just isn't the right place to enter this game.
Novelty: medium
Interest: medium
Fun: medium
Polish: high
Score: 6
---
A Day in the Life of a Superhero
---
First impression: The second superhero game of the comp. I like the premise,
and based on the introduction, I'm prepared to be impressed.
I like the idea of starting the game with a menu. It gives you the option to
read the introduction, credits, etc, and by implication it also tells you
that they exist. It seems to me that this should satisfy the needs of the
anally retentive crowd who occasionally complain about the line "first time
players should type about" appearing at the top of the screen.
So everything is going great. I enjoyed the first scene; now I'm back in my
apartment looking for clues. But something wierd happens:
> talk to parrot
A fusty smell pervades your apartment. It's probably a mixture of you never
getting around to cleaning it and that time the Slug Monster was here to
kill you.
You see, my room is a bit smelly and the parrot is also called smelly, and
apparently the terp is somehow interpreting "talk to parrot" as "x smell" or
something like that. That's the risk you take when you choose one of the
lesser-known authoring systems. Last year's Sophie's Big Adventure had
similarly mind-boggling bugs that appeared to derive from the interpreter
(e.g. "save" being interpreted as "south", restored game files being
corrupt, etc), and this author appears to have learned nothing from the
experience. FWIW, I gave the game a chance. I even downloaded the latest
adrift runner, but the bug was still there.
ADitLoaS comes with a built-in walkthrough (you just type "gimme the
walkthrough"), and you will definitely need it. But it's an odd walkthrough.
Not only does it contain a few commands that give errors, but it also
contains a fair number of "undo" operations. That's just bizarre! (I suppose
they could be there to give you some context, but they really don't.
Unfortunately, this game is so buggy that it is basically unplayable. (So
was Sophie's Big Adventure, but in that case the most serious bugs only
became apparent after I had been playing for more than 2 hours.) I played
through the game with the walkthrough and I concluded that even without the
parser problems, I still wouldn't give the story and gameplay more than a
5-6. Still, the "guess the odd syntax" puzzles and inexplicable connections
between events are one thing, but how could even a minimal amount of testing
fail to reveal the obvious problems with the parser?
Novelty: medium
Interest: high
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 3
---
Blue Sky
---
First impression: Quite a mundane setting. That doesn't bug me. It's what
you do with it that counts. Let's see... mostly default parser responses, no
about text or credits. Plus I'm holding a pamphlet, but it doesn't seem to
tell me anything useful when I read it. So what's the point? I'm not
particularly hopeful about this game.
Two things strike me about BS. Firstly, it appears that the author really
wanted to educate people about the history of Santa Fe. This game is almost
like a virtual tour. In fact, I rather expect that the text from the plaques
was literally transcribed from the real thing. Secondly, I get the
impression that the author was inspired in some way by "Bureaucracy" (and
no, it's not just because of the llama).
The geography of this game is confusing. I've never seen so many "guess the
exits" puzzles in one game. (There are a lot of compass directions mentioned
in the room descriptions, but very often you can't go that way.) Talking to
people is also frustrating. When you ask them about an unknown topic there
is no reply. Thus, you don't know which people might have something useful
to say.
On top of it, there are some very odd verb implementations:
>i
You are carrying:
a pamphlet
a peruvian blanket (being worn)
a sipa
>give sipa to indians
The Indians selling jewelry don't seem interested.
>give blanket to them
The Indians selling jewelry don't seem interested.
>give pamplet to them
You aren't holding the Indians selling jewelry.
Ahh.. I seem to have misspelled "pamphlet". But still, this indicates that
the author has overriden the give verb to include "give <topic/special> to
<held>". What's with that?
Since this game has no gameplay to speak of, its only appeal would derive
from whether you are interested in learning about the history of Santa Fe
from a text adventure. I am not. I prefer to visit places by actually going
there.
Novelty: low
Interest: low
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 2
---
Escape from Auriga (disqualified)
---
First impression: This seems rather like the movie "Alien". Oh wait...
wasn't this the game that was disqualified for violating copyright?
I don't have too much patience for games with random elements, so I played
it with the walkthrough. Actually, it's not a half bad game, though not
particularly original/memorable. Most of the puzzles are resource
conservation based (ammo, specifically).
Novelty: low
Interest: low
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 5
---
Identity
---
First impression: This game purports to be "an interactive short story"
rather than a game. Not sure how I feel about that. The author says it is
his first game, but it appears to be competently implemented. (He had the
good sense to get beta testers.)
I'm not finding any significant bugs in the gameplay. But then again, the
author takes a rather pusillanimous approach to unanticipated actions:
>search grass
You don't need to perform that action with the grass.
Well, I don't like that. Blah, blah, blah, mimesis, blah.
You come equipped with a scanner. I expected to see quite a few of those
after the success of last year's triage (but they are difficult/tedious to
implement). This one is implemented in about the same way as everything
else. Only objects of special significance will yield a non-default
response. So less work for the author, less fun for the player.
Identity is almost completely bug free, although rather brief and terse. The
puzzles were of medium difficulty... just hard enough to be interesting, but
never unfair (although I admit that I cheated on one of them out of
laziness). And despite being titled "an interactive short story", it seemed
like more of a game than a story to me.
Novelty: low
Interest: medium
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 6
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