Andrew's Reviews (1/5)
Andrew Krywaniuk
Windows game that wouldn't run on my PC). I have transcripts available for
any authors who request them.
And now, the reviews:
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* Typo!
* MingSheng
* The Big Scoop
* Stack Overflow
* Ninja
* Trading Punches
* Zero One
* Die Vollkommene Masse
Typo!
---
First impression: Hey, is this game typing for me? Or is that an
animation.... seems like an animation. Anyway, it sounds like the author has
found a cool hook for a game.
This game began well, with a non-dislosure agreement and the promise of a
psychic error correction system. But pretty soon I was in a padded room
trying to figure out how a big, complicated machine works. This may just be
a matter of taste, but I have to say that fiddling around with random
machines is one of my least favorite IF puzzles. It didn't help that there
are some implementation problems with the machine, including at least one
way to teleport into a fake room. (I notice from the credits that the
authors appear not to have employed beta-testers.) On the bright side, there
is an excellent HTML hint system for when you get stuck.
The error correction system actually does not feature very prominently in
the game. And while it is the game's most novel idea, it also appears to be
taken from the mistype.h library (which was written by someone else). The
majority of the game is fairly pedestrian. A lot of it involved consulting
the manual about red/green/blue hoses/wires/switches. There were even a few
decoy topics in the manual, which I felt was a bit unfair. I laughed a few
times, mostly due to the pyschic error correction system's attempt to deal
with the full English sentences that I typed in using the "log" command:
>* That kind of thing rarely wins any points.
[Flavorplex Psychic Typo Correction has divined that you want to "* that
find of thin barrel bin an its ."].
[Comment recorded.]
>* Yes, that's exactly what I intended to say!
[Flavorplex Psychic Typo Correction has divined that you want to "* yes,
taste east that i index to say"].
[Comment recorded.]
I also give the authors credit for some fun death sequences and the amusing
introduction and ending.
Novelty: medium
Interest: low
Fun: medium
Polish: low
Score: 5
---
MingSheng
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First impression: This author has spent a lot of effort on customizing the
terp, including the use of Chinese letters. I don't have a font that
supports Chinese, but pinyin should be just as good. (At least I can figure
out how to pronounce it that way.)
This game looks like it has been written with care. The room descriptions
are not complete to a pedantic degree, but there are no glaring omissions.
And as for the mysticism... well actually I quite enjoyed the philosophical
aspects of this game (for a change), and the pseudo-historical elements were
also fun.
MingSheng is not a particularly difficult game. I finished it without any
hints, well before the 2 hours were up. And the implementation is solid; no
major complaints there. In the end, I find that I don't have a whole lot to
say about this game... It amused me. It enlightened me (with some parables
that I had heard before, but were perhaps never so clearly explained). And
now it's over.
Novelty: medium
Interest: high
Fun: high
Polish: medium
Score: 8
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The Big Scoop
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First impression: Okay, this appears to be one of those games where you have
to play the game multiple times and learn by trial-and-error.
No player is going to solve the first puzzle without resorting to the hints.
This game is not too bad to play, but a bit low on detail. The author is a
non-native English speaker so the grammar is a bit weak (but acceptable).
However, the interaction with NPCs is very terse. Basically, the parser will
give you a list of parsers (most of which will elicit a one-line response).
If you give a list of topics, going through them all just becomes a chore.
The first puzzle didn't really make sense. Future puzzles are more logical.
I only used one minor hint after that, and I might have figured it out by
myself had I trusted the game to be logical.
In the end, this game was not half bad. Nothing mind-blowing, but at least
it was competently implemented. My main complaint is that everything in the
game is too generic... generic apartment, generic office. Even the evidence
is a McGuffin.
Novelty: low
Interest: low
Fun: medium
Polish: low
Score: 5
---
Stack Overflow
---
First impression: Ahh, the good old sequence where nothing the player does
will prevent capture. At least in this case the process is swift.
I have to put on some specific music in order to hit a wall with a hammer?
You know, Kubrick set many of his most violent scenes to classical music...
It's taking a long time to make any rhyme or reason out of this game. The
author seems inexperienced... e.g.
The elevator door is open.
The elevator doors swing shut.
The author also appears to be Russian, which explains why the English
grammar is a bit weak.
I was making a little bit of progress... getting to the space station and
then figuring out a couple of puzzles. But I see that my score is still only
6 out of 42 and having resorted to the object-specific hints, it appears
that the solutions to the puzzles may a) be fairly arbitrary, and b) require
knowledge of advanced topology. And when you get to the end, there's no
payoff. Nothing makes sense in retrospect. The ideal ending (according to
the walkthrough) is to fall instantly in love with (and marry) the first
girl you meet. Talk about shallow!
The things you have to type in to win this game are so utterly random, it's
hard to believe that even one person playtested it. (The credits do list an
"alpha tester".) Also, I am still not 100% sure that this game was not
entered as a prank.
Even though this game is almost completely unplayable, I give it a 3 because
it obviously required some programming skill to produce it.
Novelty: medium
Interest: low
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 3
---
Ninja
---
First impression: I hate to go into a game expecting to hate it, but when I
saw the name of the author I couldn't help it. I'm not going to spend pages
upon pages criticizing the game, since I expect that will be redundant by
the time this is posted.
? i
You cannot do that. You are not a master yet...
? inv
You cannot do that.
? inventory
You are carrying:
Nothing.
Lovely... the game can't even handle abbreviations. Or (as is hinted) it
deliberately prevents me from using them "because I am not a master". No
difference to me. However, I note that "e" for east still works... or does
it?
The prose in the game is actually not half bad, what little of it there is.
It helps that it's a Ninja theme so the author can get away with "Nice try,
grasshopper" and the like. As for the gameplay, it took me about 3 minutes
to learn that I couldn't enter the shrine by going east (you have to type
"enter shrine", which I notice isn't in the verb list in the readme). I
played for about 5 minutes, got nowhere, died 3 times, then quit. Since the
author will no doubt brag that he wrote the game in under 5 minutes, that
seems like a fair trade.
Novelty: medium
Interest: very low
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 2
---
Trading Punches
---
First impression: it seems competently done... graphics, music, elegant
prose. But I really don't want to listen to a tape loop over and over while
playing IF. <Mute>
The author uses repeated actions as a way to advance the exposition - it's
not a bad technique. But I'm having a hard time visualizing the courtyard.
Why can't I go in any direction? Perhaps because the game wants me to type
"x man". Is this game going to be all story and no puzzles?
One major weakness of "Trading Punches" is that the gameplay is quite
limited. Asking people about things doesn't work. When I try to touch the
dead body of my father, it says that he won't let me. There are 4 cups; I
can't "get all cups" or "sit in chair". There are some puzzles later in the
game. Nothing major, really. Mostly visiting the right places in the right
order.
Overall, a nice story, but the interactivity is also very low. Most actions
are triggered indirectly (e.g. x person). Much of the time you are told
exactly what to do in order to proceed. And the room descriptions and
geography is so confusing as to become continually frustrating. Innocuous
scenery objects are inconsistently implemented, yet are often important. As
I said, nice story, though.
Novelty: medium
Interest: high
Fun: medium
Polish: medium
Score: 7
---
Zero One
---
First impression: It takes some effort to get used to Alan. The interpreter
doesn't even support transcripts. There's a conversation going on. I
"listen"... and hear nothing. I have to "listen to conversation". This is
not a good sign. Also, the game was written in 5 days and the README says it
is "expected to be perfect". Good luck, you will need it!
Now I need to open the other cell door:
> e
The door is closed.
> open door
I don't know which door you mean.
> open east door
You must supply a noun.
Okay, so I needed to "open metal door"... but most parsers would handle that
more elegantly. Every door in this game is a different colour just to solve
this problem. I have an idea... why not just use fewer doors? Everything
else about the implementation is also suitably annoying (e.g. "lunchbox"
doesn't work, only "lunch box").
Now I'm in a fight with some guy called Terry. I can't attack him because I
don't have a weapon. And I can't run away because... well, the game doesn't
really explain that. According to the README, my opponent is gay. Thus he
will obviously stop attacking me if I kiss him. (Unfortunately, I still
don't have a weapon, so there's still nothing I can do to avoid getting
raped.)
There are some wierd bits, though:
> kick snack machine
In irritation at being denied a bite to eat, you kick the snack machine with
full force.
The ferocity of your kick was such that the snack machine buckles. Bits
start falling off, a loud 'PING!' noise can be heard, and the snack machine
disingrates before your eyes.
Huh? The author apparently thought that was amusing, as he included it in
the notes in the walkthrough.
And the cheese burger (as opposed to a cheeseburger) is apparently a Big
Kahuna burger. Note to author: a pop culture reference is only funny when...
well, I'll know it when I see it.
Novelty: low
Interest: low
Fun: low
Polish: low
Score: 2
---
Die Vollkommene Masse (withdrawn)
---
First Impression: I was initially intrigued. The premise seems interesting
and the author seems articulate. But then a few things began to gnaw at
me... the author suggests playing the game in verbose mode (I guess the room
descriptions will change?) but then doesn't set it on by default. How do you
miss something like that? Also, I have imprisoned myself in my room in order
to avoid talking to my captors, but from my descriptions, 3 out of 4 of them
seem like nice people. Anyway, how did I form this opinion if I never talked
to them?
The themes from my HTML TADS interpreter were awful and made the text
unreadable. I had to turn them off. (I'm not sure if that's the fault of the
game or the interpreter.)
After playing the game for a few minutes, the implementation seems more
shoddy. The map is very large and dotted with scenery, much of which is
unimplemented. In the basement, there is a man taking a bath, but I can't
refer to him as "man" or "djoser". After a couple of minutes I figure out
the reason -- he is implemented, but only in the room to the west. That's no
excuse; if it's in the room description, it should be implemented.
This whole plot continues to make no sense. On one hand, when I "x djoser" I
seem afraid that he's going to rape me. But if I "kiss djoser" then he
declines because I'm not worthy.
Also, note this lovely exchange:
>read book
I don't know how to read the bookshelf.
>read books
The group of book isn't important.
>search books
You flip through the books, looking for something interesting and only
finding boring, sappy romance novels. Then one catches your eye;, taking it
off the shelf, you discover it to be a diary. Shifting your eyes to make
sure nobody saw, you take it.
The English is not perfect. Not surprising, since the author is German.
However, using a spell-checker is recommended. While it is difficult to
solve the game using logic, a brute force "search all" and "get all"
approach seems to work. Putting clothes on the doll doesn't seem to work. Is
this a "guess the verb"?
The warlords have no reaction to any items other than the exact ones needed
to solve the game. Usi has no reaction when I give him his teacup or diary.
Nor Djoser, when I give him his sword. Some objects aren't named correctly,
such as the golden candelabra.
This is hopeless... walkthrough time. Ahh, here's part of the problem: the
walkthrough doesn't work. As I noticed before, I can't attach clothing to
the doll. I figure maybe it's an interpreter problem, so I check for a newer
version. When I go to the ifcomp site, I find out the game has been
withdrawn. Figures!
Novelty: medium
Interest: medium
Fun: low
Polish: very low
Score: 1
Kevin Venzke
"Andrew Krywaniuk" <askr...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Rrgmd.233489$%k.212357@pd7tw2no...
> Die Vollkommene Masse (withdrawn)
> ---
> The English is not perfect. Not surprising, since the author is German.
I don't have the impression that the author is German. I wonder if anyone knows
this for certain?
I have a file called "Die Vollkommene Masse.doc" which contains the decisive
paragraph (for me):
"This game is not pornographic, but contains some "questionable" content. If you
're
disturbed, it's not my fault! It's YOURS. Mmyep."
I don't think "mmyep" is an ESL word. I also get the impression from the .doc
that the author is interested in languages generally.
Kevin Venzke
Zas
>
> I don't have the impression that the author is German. I wonder if anyone knows
> this for certain?
I don't know it for sure, but as a native speaker and member of the
German IF-Community I would be very surprised, if the author was
German. There are a lot of mistakes in the German texts a native
speaker would never make. I think, the author had one or two years of
German in school or something.
Regards,
Jens
Carolyn Magruder
> that the author is interested in languages generally.
>
> Kevin Venzke
"Mmyep" is a vocal noise written out in text, like "bzzz" for a bee
(as opposed to the word "buzz") or "crick-crick-crick" for the noise
that a cricket makes (as opposed to the word "chirp"). "Mmyep" is a
condensation of "hmm" and "yep", where "yep" is a particularly
informal English word for "yes".
(If you yourself are a native English speaker, I will now proceed to
feel silly.)
Carolyn