Papillon's Unsubmitted Reviews (mostly Space Horror)
Papillon
I didn't actually submit scores. Mostly because I only played... very very
few games. Because I ended up managing a non-IF game release and moving into
a new apartment during the judging time period and just never had the
energy. Sorry.
So anyway, here are my comments on the few games I did play. First the
spoiler-heavy game notes, things I wrote down as I played. Then the review.
Then the scoring, which doesn't matter since I didn't submit it.
Space Horror I, by Jerry
First impressions: How rude! There are free extraction utilities that work
much better than that and allow you OPTIONS on how and where to install. I
am not happy about having the game stick itself somewhere else and litter my
desktop. You do realise that not everyone assigns everything to drive C,
right?
And then, this so-called shortcut turns out to launch a webpage - which with
my firefox setup is a bad thing to do, because firefox is stupid and doesn't
take control and SHOW me the stupid webpage.
"come so easy" easily.
The amount of information presented in the inventory items is interesting
and a good use of the media.
"Did you get the X?" Lack of state. Yes, this is true to a CYOA book, but is
one of the improvements made available by using any proper game system
instead of plain HTML.
Was the grisly child-killing really necessary? Especially if we're going for
a CYOA feel, shouldn't that sort of thing be more implied than seen?
The forum posts are another nice use of media.
Weren't the forum dudes all over the country? How did they get here so fast?
Okay, I've reached an ending - a non-death ending, I backed out of instant
deaths. Like many CYOAs, it's not very satisfying. And I'm having to do a
*lot* of backing up to see if I can find an alternate path...
Finally, I think I found one.
Tsk, using zodiac symbols as alien language.
Uh, what am I supposed to do with it?
I'm stuck in an endless loop here, and the 'hints' on the menu don't say
anything about it. The walkthrough does, but it says nothing about WHY this
works. And it's not really a walkthrough - it says nothing about how to find
a thread.
Not pleased with the video inclusion. Since I refuse to install Windows
Media Player it took a bit of fiddling to get it running, and then it went
ON and ON and ON - come on, even graphic adventures, if they are any good,
have subtitles. :)
... oh fine, AFTER I suffered through all that you present me with text?
Then please indicate that it was optional!
... and also completely pointless, since the game promptly ends. Grr.
Why were they BOTH kidnapping people AND hunting people? If the alien
scanners could read your brain enough to translate, why would they need to
bother with a silly color-code? Couldn't they just tell you were friendly?
Or program their ships not to work for the werewolves? The alien plots just
don't really work for me.
Review:
Man. What a mixed bag. This one alternately pleased me and annoyed the heck
out of me. It's mostly a Choose Your Own Adventure story, with a few
interesting touches. But the *really* interesting bits never went anywhere.
The author made use of the HTML format to present all kinds of extra
information in a subtle way (for example, allowing you to examine the items
in your backpack and draw conclusions from them rather than telling you "You
notice Thing X") but you never got to USE information so cleverly gathered,
so it just felt pointless. The one 'puzzle' I did encounter was completely
confusing, partially because it was so out-of-character for the rest of the
game. If there were any hints for that, I didn't see them. And while, yes,
it makes sense after the fact, it was pretty annoying BEFORE the fact, and
there is no explanation given for how to solve it. Also, all the 'endings' I
reached (counting only the happyish endings, not the "You are about to die..
THE END" ones) felt very unsatisfying. Why? Lack of effort involved in
reaching them, maybe? I don't know.
It was somewhat entertaining. It was somewhat infuriating. I would play
another game by the same artist in the same style, but only if they ditched
the video and the bad installer program.
Language
Acceptable. Suffers a bit from the typical condition of "trying too hard"
and has a few small slips here and there, but generally language use is an
Average here. 1 point.
Depth
Above average. Multiple plot threads and the addition of elements like the
bookbag info were definitely appreciated. However, I found some details of
the backstory hard to reconcile, so I can't give this a perfect score. 1.5
points.
Coding
I have to boil this all down to average, since the interface issues were
alternately good and ANNOYING AS ANYTHING. 1 point.
Direction
The nature of a CYOA game means that it has an automatic sense of direction
- you almost can't help moving forward. Until, that is, you run into a
puzzle loop that gives you no suggestions about how to get out of it. 1.5
points.
Enjoyment
As I said - I liked it and I hated it in fairly equal measure. 1 point. :)
Total score - 6.
Dreary Lands, by Paul Lee
Okay, it's been a while since I've touched a zcode game. Let's hope I
haven't forgotten anything important.
Let's take the introduction!
Colored text... I tend to dislike that but at least it's not too bad...
'concerened' If you can't spellcheck your INTRO, then this tends to put me
in a negative mood to begin with. Text is meandering, looping around, saying
nothing but saying it at length...
Forcing actions upon me that I didn't actually take? I just picked UP the
rod, I didn't say I wanted to do anything with it.
No self-description given.
Shouldn't I have noticed I landed in a car without having to type look
again?
It's WEIRD. Not WIERD. Okay, we can see you're not getting marks for
language. :)
a grimy cupholder (which is closed)
>open cupholder
That's not something you can open.
So I have a box, I'm in a car, and I'm in a game which doesn't bother making
sense. Yeah, I'm going for the walkthrough.
Since I pressed different buttons than the walkthrough and it opened anyway,
are those just pointless?
... weirdly enough, I jumped straight to the 'correct' verb with the brown
box because of my mild frustration with the game, giving me the desire to
BITE THINGS.
'*The* evil animated tree'?? That would imply I had any idea what you were
talking about.
Look, a list of invisible currently burning objects!
Get an arrow? What arrows? They're not in the description. They're not on
the weapons rack. Is this game a joke?
I think I'm tired of this. It's been... 20 minutes. That's enough.
Review:
This game is every negative preconception you already have about competition
games. A "lazy fantasy" setting (there's some magic, and it does some stuff,
and there's a kingdom, see? And it's... somewhere. Who needs details?),
arbitrary puzzles that joke about how arbitrary they are, odd
brightly-colored objects, language that is both overwrought and poorly
spelled, and bugs.
It could be a truly brilliant satire, but I didn't bother playing it long
enough to find out.
Language
Poor, but not unreadable. Lots and lots of mistakes. 0.5 points.
Depth
Practically nonexistent. Story and setting make no sense, nothing seems to
be implemented that isn't needed for the story. 0 points.
Coding
Serious bug involving things being on fire, rendering the game impossible
without the walkthrough. 0.5 points.
Direction
Average. 1 point.
Enjoyment
I'm quitting out of boredom. 0 points.
Total score - 2. Wow, this new scoring system *does* come out a lot harsher
than my previous years.
FutureGame (tm), by The FutureGame Corporation
Hey, a CYOA! And no mistakes in the first screen of text! (because it's just
introducing the system?)
(reads first screen of GAME text.)
Hrm. I suspect a DEVIOUS mind at work here. This will probably be either
hilarious or boring.
Ah. I see we have selected the option of 'Boring.'
Review: This is a prank. Ignore it. This is really going to screw with my
judging standards, though, isn't it?
Language
The language is really quite good. Not completely perfect, but high enough
that it has to score a 2.
Depth
Less than zero, as there is no gameworld. -1.
Coding
Achieves the goal required. 1.
Direction
You get from point A to point B in an efficient fashion. 1.
Enjoyment
For being a prank, it actually depletes my entertainment rather than just
failing to provide any. -1.
Final score: 2. At least they can spell.
... After this point, I started playing A New Life, decided it was cool and
I should come back to it later when I was in a better mood, then put the
Comp down and never DID get back to it. Sorry.
---
Hanako Games
Anime Games and Screensavers To Download
http://www.hanakogames.com/
lve...@mail333.com
what other people wrote about them and imho this review is very unkind
and even arrogant. Is there a need to point out a person's spelling
mistakes if it's obvious that the author is not English speaking or
else he is a poor speller? There was no need to put out all those
examples.
Boluc Papuccuoglu
No, not really. The author may be writing in a non-native language,
but that only means he/she should take care in recruiting beta testers
who are native speakers and ask them to take extra care with
grammar/spelling. Those are TEXT based games, and if one can't bother
to polish one's resulting work, then one deserves all the flak one
receives. And a touch of sympathy for papillon whose playing order
preempted really bad three games at the start.