Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

[comp03] reviews

3 views
Skip to first unread message

Daniel Freas

unread,
Nov 16, 2003, 4:17:15 AM11/16/03
to
As an author I couldn't vote on the games this year but I've listed what my
vote would have been if I had been able to do so for each game. Comments
were made as I played the games or just after I finished, depending on when
inspiration struck. Reviews listed in the order I played the games and are
spoilery at times. I run linux so if your game is windows specific I didn't
play it.

---------------------------------------


Shadows on the Mirror
Chrysoula Tzavelas

I played this game first because Chrysoula was the only person besides
myself on the CompAuthors channel on ifMUD. As usual for comp authors we
were both feeling a bit nervous and it was nice to have someone to talk to
while we twiddled our thumbs waiting for feedback. The game is a one room
conversation game with wonderful writing and very good implementation.
Interesting from beginning to end. It leaves the player with a sort of
eerie feel that there is much more to be discovered than can possibly be
seen in one playthrough. I felt like I was there, which is not something
many an IF game can do. Definitely worth the time to play, and more than
once - one playthrough will just make you want to see more. Also, hints are
included ingame, which is a very nice touch.

Score: 8

-----------------------------------

Amnesia
Crazydwarf

Ok, call me crazy but this game wasn't half bad (ok, ok, it wasn't *all* bad
then). The spelling is horrible, the grammar is worse - but neither of
these are things I'm exceptional at so I laughed a bit at the really bad
parts and kept on playing. The game has no discernable plot, nor any
wonderful puzzles. So what's so great about it? I haven't a clue - there is
nothing I can point out about this game as being good, and yet I enjoyed
playing it. Also a bug prevented me from seeing the ending, but since I
didn't really care anyway (after all there is no plot) I didn't see this as
such a terrible thing. It made me laugh, which is more than can be said for
a great number of games that do have plots, puzzles, a mastery of the
english language, and a lack of bugs.

Score: 4

-----------------------------------

Episode in the Life of an Artist
Peter Eastman

Interesting. This game starts out slow - it has some good bits but it also
has a lot of empty space. I could tell the author put some thought into
this though so I did want to finish it. I ended up using the walkthrough
about half way through the game - not because the puzzles were too
difficult but just because I was finding it hard to stay interested through
the sparse bits to get to the good bits in between (and there are some good
bits to be seen in this game). The best part of this game was the
"outtakes" option at the end - it was worth an extra point at least. Play
the game, use the walkthrough, but do read the story parts - it's worth the
time.

Score: 6

-----------------------------------

Cerulean Stowaway
Roger Descheneaux

The story line of this game is kind of fun, and there are a few
sit-back-and-watch bits that I really enjoyed. There are a lot of items to
carry around though, and some are eventually quite important even though
they don't appear to have any significance at the time. I eventually gave
up when I got to a hint that said "Turn off the breaker. Cut the cable.
Block the drain with the hamburger. Open the valve. Find a Cerulean. Get it
to chase you here. Stand on the table. Spray the Cerulean with the cleaner.
Flip the breaker with the mop. How?s that for a subtle hint?" I didn't have
the hamburger, and the mop was long gone. It might have been possible to
backtrack and pick these things up somehow but this game also has a rather
large map and I was tired of wandering around aimlessly. If the game scores
high in the comp I'll probably go back and spend more time with it, but
right now with 30 games on my computer I'm moving on.

Score: 6

-----------------------------------

Bio
David Linder

You start this game in a room with a bandage and gas leaking in under the
door. The dresser in the room description does not actually exist and there
is nothing else to be found. At this point (after quite a few failed
attempts to get on with the game) I resorted to the hint file to find that
the first command should be "open armoire." This annoyed me. There is no
mention of an armoire anywhere - yes I suppose you could call the dresser
that, but I already discovered that dresser is not a word this game
recognizes so I had given up on it. Furthermore since I could not find the
armoire I assumed the bandage was all I had to work with. In an attempt to
escape the gas I tried to wrap it around my face - it didn't work. I then
tried "wear bandage" and the game told me that I put the bandage on over
the cut on my arm that wasn't actually there yet. It turns out you get this
cut later, and since you already have the bandage on and can't remove it
you're out of luck. Incidentally if you try to sleep the game gives you an
error message.

Score: 3

-------------------------------------

Delvyn
Santoonie Corp.

The first game to really get on my nerves! The legal notice at the beginning
is typical for this author's r*if posts, but no less annoying for being
expected. I ate breakfast naked (my bedroom was described as "bedroom" so I
wasn't about to waste time trying commands there). I then went out to the
field and was accosted by a talking scarecrow that has apparently been
stalking me. After this, darkness ensued, but I was saved by the activation
of my infravision. Whew boy. I went on to find a house and an oil tanker. I
tried to get into the house through various means and failed. Already
annoyed, I decided to forgo looking through the included html file to see
if there were any hints - I just don't care.

Score: 1

---------------------------------------

The Recruit
Mike Sousa

This game crashed when I tried to bring it up in qtads, but when I used wine
and htmltads.exe I got it running. Only matters if you happen to be running
linux, and it may just be me - at any rate I got it running and the little
glitch didn't effect my opinions of the game at all. So ignoring that
little bit this was a wonderful game. I finished it with a sort of "that's
it?" feeling but when I read the notes option provided at the end I
understood much better what the caveat of the game had been. Without that
feature I might have been a bit in the dark. I had the basic gist of it but
just hadn't made that last logical Aha! step. The description of the purple
room left me as slackjawed as the player character, I read it three times
before I was satisfied enough to move on. With a slightly more satisfying
ending this game would have been my first 10 of the competition.

Score: 9

-----------------------------------------

Scavenger
Quintin Stone

I started this game late at night and it didn't grab my attention right
away. However I kept playing it and it seemed to be decently written. After
about 20 minutes I got stuck and resorted to the walkthrough. The
walkthrough has 219 commands (if I counted right) and apparently doesn't
even lead you to the optimal ending. Now at 219 commands to get to an
ending, and two hours to play, I'd have just a little over 30 seconds per
command. After this little bit of math I decided I didn't want to spend
that much time on a game that I wasn't immensely interested in to begin
with.

Score: 5

------------------------------------------

Temple of Kaos
Peter Gambles

Another good game, though the puzzles are far from intuitive. The author
seems to indicate that this was the intent. I relied on the walkthrough
command for almost everything. The game kept me interested though, and that
is at least worth a few points. No bugs that I found, no annoying bits
either. I couldn't bring myself to care a fig about the shiftgrethor but it
seems to be a secondary part of the game anyway so it wasn't a big deal.

Score: 7

------------------------------------------

Adoo's Stinky Story
B. Perry

I expected the title to say it all but I was pleasantly surprised. This game
was pretty good. There's a plot, some decent puzzles, a map that's just the
right size, and a few people walking around to give the thing a bit of
life. Nothing about it really grabbed me and said this-is-a-great-game! but
there wasn't anything wrong with it either. The puzzles are all pretty
clear (well once you figure out the recipe that is) and for the bits that
aren't there is a built in hint system that is well written. Certainly
worth the time it took to play.

Score: 7

------------------------------------------

The Atomic Heart
Stefan Blixt

I played this game for a bit, started running low on batteries and when I
tried to recharge, the game ended. I figured I missed something important
somewhere in there so I went to the hint file. Once I had the hint file
open I kept it open and basically followed the walkthrough straight on to
the end. In retrospect it was a very interesting story with decent, logical
puzzles and a nice world with which to interact. However while I was in the
game I found myself faced with what seemed a huge world of which I
understood nothing. I'm still not quite sure why some of the things worked
the way they did, but I suppose that's the price to be paid for using a
walkthrough. At any rate I didn't find any bugs and it was a decent game.

Score: 6

-------------------------------------------

Baluthar
Chris Molloy Wischer

Another decent game, nothing that jumped out and grabbed me, but well
written and apparently bug free. I used the walkthrough again - that seems
to be a pattern with the games I've played. If they're excellent I take the
time to figure out the puzzles, if they're good but don't grab my attention
I use the walkthrough so I'll see the whole game before I decide if I like
it, and if they just plain stink I mess around for a while and then give
up. There were a couple of commands in the walkthrough that left me
wondering if I would have ever figured out the answer without being told,
but since I didn't spend a lot of time searching for the answers I went
ahead and assumed the author put in sufficient clues. One thing I didn't
like is that the game ends with one of the main problems unresolved (unless
I missed something). I mean sure you get your kid back, but what about the
Ivarns? Aren't they still just as much of a problem as they were at the
beginning of the game?

Score: 5

--------------------------------------------

Caffeination
Michael Loegering

This game could have been good with different puzzles. I figured out a
little of the game and then got stuck and took a peak at the walkthrough.
That got me a little farther but again I got stuck and had to look, this
time I looked at the whole thing. The solutions to the puzzles are
complicated, if I spent weeks on this game I might have solved it all
myself, but in two hours? Not likely. At any rate it seems to be bug free
and the plot is interesting enough that I didn't want to use the
walkthrough. Incidentally I gave up when I saw some of the more complicated
bits of the walkthrough so I have no idea what the end of this game looks
like.

Score: 5

---------------------------------------------

Domicile
John Evans

So at first I wandered around and didn't find the stone circle so I got
stuck. I asked for a hint and was told about the stone circle so I went off
searching for it. After finding it I figured out the first puzzle easily
and moved on to the next part of the game. At this point I was thinking of
it as a pretty cool game, the idea was good, the one puzzle I had solved
had been kind of fun and I hadn't seen any bugs yet. Then I went back to
exploring. Tried to examine the boarded up windows but apparently they
don't actually exist. Likewise for the ornamental fireplace, the table, the
sofas, the designs, etc, etc...I was starting to get the idea that not much
had been implemented unless it was essential to the game. Also I found the
bust on a shelf but apparently I can no longer take it (no reason is
given). If I can take it once I should be able to take it again - this
annoyed me. I think this might have been a good game if more time had been
spent on implementing scenery and such, as it was I didn't bother
completing it.

Score: 4

--------------------------------------------

Gourmet
Aaron Reed

I enjoyed playing this one. The puzzles flow nicely from one to the next and
give the feel of something that needs to be done rather than a puzzle
required to advance the game. I had to resort to the walkthrough for a
couple bits but for the most part everything is clear. The story is
interesting and well written. There were a few times when a weird line of
text would come up, mostly in the form of me solving a puzzle and getting
the "you solved it" response and then directly after that getting a "you
can't do that response" even though I had already done it. My guess is that
there are a couple functions in the code that don't exit after running the
success bits and keep right on reading through the fail bits. Also I ended
the game with an excellent review but had only 58 out of 100 points. I
don't know if there is a way to get the other points or not but it seemed
rather odd that I received what seemed to be a perfect ending and yet still
had a sub-perfect score.

Score: 8

---------------------------------------------

Internal Documents
Tom Lechner

Well I can definitely see where this guy is coming from. Credits say he
spent a lot of time playing the old games and decided to write his own - no
suprise that his game turned out to be a lot like the old games. The game
is good, in fact if I were still playing IF on my old Kaypro2 down in the
basement for long hours on the weekend I'd probably love this game. It has
a huge map, difficult, but solveable puzzles, and decent writing. But I'm
not. I have two hours and 29 other games and the neverending map makes me
feel like I'm faced with an impossible challenge while the puzzles make me
go running immediately for the walkthrough. If this game had less
extraneous rooms and more straight forward puzzles I would have spent
longer on it - as it was I gave up fairly quick.

Score: 5

---------------------------------------------

Fat Lardo and the Rubber Ducky
Somebody

In this game you play with a duck. That is all. There are half a dozen or so
commands that work on the duck but other than that there is nothing to this
game. Quit doesn't work - if you want to get out you have to type xyzzy.
And thus we have my second one of the comp. The only way it could have been
worse is if the duck would have been buggy.

Score: 1

----------------------------------------------

No Room
Ben Heaton

This game has only one failing (aside from the fact that it is only long
enough to fit one failing in comfortably) - I solved the puzzle instantly
but had to resort to the walkthrough command to get the correct phrasing.
In any other game this would have annoyed me - however this game was so
short that it was over before I had time to be annoyed. I give it an extra
point for knowing when to stop.

Score: 2

----------------------------------------------

A Paper Moon
Andrew Krywaniuk

I get the feeling that this is a good game. I'm just not getting into it for
some reason. However, I don't want to judge it based on what I've seen so
far since I've only played about fifteen minutes worth. So the review shall
remain in this form until I return and give this game a fair shot - for now
it's on to the next entry.

Score: ?

----------------------------------------------

Risorgimento Represso
Michael J. Coyne

Very impressive game. The writing is excellent, the puzzles are both
challenging and intuitive and the descriptions are suitably detailed. My
only complaint is the length of the game. This is one game that I refuse to
resort to the walkthrough for; there is no point in ruining the game just
so I can fit it in the two hour limit. I'm up to 476 moves so far (yes I've
exceeded two hours by quite a bit already, but my vote doesn't count anyway
so I can do things like that) and not even half way through if the score is
any judge of where I am in the game.

Score: 9

----------------------------------------------

Slouching Towards Bedlam
Star Foster and Daniel Ravipinto

This game isn't getting my attention. There's nothing wrong with it per se,
I'm just not finding myself interested. Maybe it's a bad genre for me - the
hint command mentions that this is a mystery and I'm not much on mysteries.
Anyway I didn't give it a fair enough shot to reasonably score it so I'm
leaving this game unrated for now. Maybe I'll come back to it later.

Score: ?

----------------------------------------------

Little Girl in the Big World
Peter Wendrich

I ran into about two dozen "Confused about the <object> part." responses and
gave up. Regardless of the quality of the game itself, the parser is not
sufficiently advanced to hold up its end of the production. I can't enjoy a
game if I have to fight with the parser to get it to understand me. I'm
giving this game a few points just because I know it was a lot of work to
get it running, though I wish the author would have chosen to use one of
the standard IF languages instead of starting from scratch.

Score: 3

----------------------------------------------

--
--Daniel
Left, left, I hadda good brain but it left...

Quintin Stone

unread,
Nov 18, 2003, 12:12:04 AM11/18/03
to
On Sun, 16 Nov 2003, Daniel Freas wrote:

> As an author I couldn't vote on the games this year but I've listed what
> my vote would have been if I had been able to do so for each game.
> Comments were made as I played the games or just after I finished,
> depending on when inspiration struck. Reviews listed in the order I
> played the games and are spoilery at times. I run linux so if your game
> is windows specific I didn't play it.

Just curious: you rated Scavenger after playing briefly and not getting
into it, but didn't rate Paper Moon or Slouching Towards Bedlam after only
brief play. Do you plan on going back and trying any of these games again
now that you're not constrained by time?

/====================================================================\
|| Quintin Stone O- > "You speak of necessary evil? One ||
|| Code Monkey < of those necessities is that if ||
|| Rebel Programmers Society > innocents must suffer, the guilty must ||
|| st...@rps.net < suffer more." -- Mackenzie Calhoun ||
|| http://www.rps.net/ > "Once Burned" by Peter David ||
\====================================================================/

Daniel Freas

unread,
Nov 18, 2003, 12:45:30 AM11/18/03
to
Quintin Stone wrote:
> Just curious: you rated Scavenger after playing briefly and not getting
> into it, but didn't rate Paper Moon or Slouching Towards Bedlam after only
> brief play. Do you plan on going back and trying any of these games again
> now that you're not constrained by time?

It depended on my mood at the time honestly. I wasn't too worried about it
since my votes didn't count so I may have been more arbitrary at times than
I would have had I been an actual judge. I think I played Bedlam for
something like five minutes before putting it aside.

If I had started your game in the middle of the day I probably would have
played it to completion and given it a better score. Irresponsible of me,
but there it is. As for wether or not I'll be going back - the answer is
probably, but not soon. Maybe over Christmas.

Also you may want to note that had the order I played the games in been
different it probably would have been one of those two that got a rating
based on what I had seen and yours that got a question mark. It just wasn't
until I had played quite a few that I thought of using question marks as
temporary scores.

0 new messages