[Comp 01] Doe's Reviews/Critiques (2/4)
Marnie Parker
In this post are: an apple from nowhere through Earth & Sky.
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an apple from nowhere - 1 **
Sex with a kid -- enough said.
Quibbles: Offensive.
Praise: Absolutely none.
Finished.
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All Roads - 7 *
Huh? Again, huh? Well, the prose was very good, the atmosphere was
definitely atmospheric, but I never figured out what in the hot-underground-
afterlife went on. After I played it I was left more confused than I was
WHILE I played it. That's a neat trick. Questions unanswered: Who were the
rebels? What/who were they rebelling against and what did they want? What
tie did Francesca have to them? What was the dark? What was sliding? Who was
I? Who was I not? hat was the relationship between the assassin and the
target? And the ring?
This gets above average points because of the well-crafted prose and because
it keep me interested from beginning to end. But sometime I expected a
resolution and I never got one. I later heard others' theories about what it
meant, but they did not ring any bells with me. They did not describe the
game I played. Misleading the player is a legitimate game technique, but
only, I feel, when the player is finally enlightened. As with "fuzziness" in
science-fiction, vagueness is really no substitute for clear
conceptualization. (see Fusillade)
Quibbles: The water tap. Why would an 18th-century inn have piped running
water with a faucet? Not to mention that the tap was not mentioned in the
descriptions. Without a walkthru I would never have found it, because it
would not even have occurred to me that it was there.
Praise: This does have believable arching dark/light Gothic spaces that are
effectively described. I especially liked the fluttering birds, and the
lower angle perspective of looking up at the guard's legs (so many forget to
do that).
Finished.
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Beetmonger - 10 *
When I encountered this I thought, "This is a solid game." In every comp I
find one or two games (see Heroes) that I feel that about. I suppose that
does not sound like high praise, but it is. Because solid to me is: well-
written with a clear plot, usually some humor, but most of all, the game
world makes sense and the puzzles are well cued because they grow
ergonomically out of that world. The author doesn't drop some outre puzzle
on me out of the blue of his/her head, like a distant family member suddenly
showing up for an unannounced visit. Instead it all hangs together
coherently. So with solid games I feel a sense of trust. Trust that it won't
blow up, won't be buggy, and I will be able to solve the puzzles. I find
that rather a rare thing -- much rarer than it should be.
During the comp one almost has to rush to play enough games, so I didn't
actually finish this, because I only reached one of two the alternative
endings. So I am putting the other end on my iffy back burner for when I
have more time to savor it. Someone told me they disliked the religious tone
-- but it was really more of a Freemasonry riff. To miss the whimsy of this
game is to miss the point. But maybe we shouldn't even mention
Beetmongerism; it might not be safe.
Quibbles: Not many really, although I found the path of peace harder than
I felt it should have been. But, wait a minute, isn't that always the case?
Praise: I found a few puzzles a bit tough, but nothing I wouldn't have been
able to solve eventually by paying more attention to the text (I decided I
was playing too quickly after using some of the walkthru). The fun of this
game was that it was simply quite playable and its fake historical world
made a wacky sense.
Finished: One path.
----
Best of Three - 5 *
I tried not to, but I found this boring. It also up blew numerous times on
me even with a newer Glulxe). I never figured out why the protagonist found
the guy, Grant, interesting. *I* wouldn't sit and ask such a pedantic,
self-absorbed bore so many questions. In fact, I wanted to kick the
protagonist and tell her that she was being too smile-at-the-boy-and-ask-
him-questions, too draw-*him*-out, too Seventeen-magazine-old-fashioned. So,
after a while, I had a hard time listening with any interest to his
uninsightful replies. Several times I tried to switch the conversation to
myself (as the protagonist) to balance it and make it more of a dialogue
rather than a monologue. To give the game credit, I succeeded four to five
times. But never for long, because when I did, I didn't have much to say.
(Since *I* was supposed to be the hanging-around-a-caf‚ angst-ridden one, I
felt *my* greyed world-view deserved more illumination.)
Nevertheless, this IS an Emily Short piece so the writing is good, and the
conversation mechanics were usually done well. Although the topics needed
work.
Quibbles: This had too much pre-game-start backstory that was only
partially revealed by the conversation, so I never knew if the protagonist
still really liked Grant, or, if so, why. There was no chemistry between
these characters.
Praise: Neat Graphic. The cafe details were also a nice touch.
Not finished: Due to repeated blow ups.
----
Coast House - 6 **
Although I felt this was an adequate wander-around-the-game-map-and-do-
puzzles venture, I wasn't very interested. It needed something more
unusual in the way of setting/PC or something more suspenseful in the
way of action/NPCs to capture my interest. I also encountered an annoying
bug near the end (after I dropped an item, I could not pick it up again) that
prevented me from winning. But its usually satisfactory playability kept me
going from beginning to almost-end.
Not Finished: Due to one bug.
----
Crusade - 6 **
These puzzles in this were much too difficult for me -- not intuitive well-
cued and not well-clued. I think puzzles should be one or the other, or
both. So I needed a complete walkthru, because even with hints I did not
manage to finish. However, the interesting setting, unusual NPCs, and the
tongue-in-cheek anti-religion, er, anti-religious-fanatic humor helped to
redeem it somewhat. But I absolutely refuse to play a game with Bush in it
again. :-)
Not Finished: Due to too difficult puzzles.
----
Doomed - 1 **
I felt this had to be written by a young person. All I have to say, is, if
you continue writing IF, please, please use a proven game authoring system
such as: Inform, TADS, Alan, Hugo, etc. The DOS interface/parser, with
its repeating room descriptions and limited verbs, was simply... painful.
Not Finished: Due to my desire not to keep flinching and wincing.
----
Earth & Sky - 7 *
This was pure, unadulterated fun. But, then, I like being a superhero -- it
fulfills my childhood comic book fantasies. It was also way, way too short,
and had a few problems, such as some difficult and rather unintuitive
puzzles.
Quibbles: This simply needs more -- a LOT more story and SOME more
betatesting. How/when a superpower *didn't* work was not explained well. So
I didn't get it, as a result, suffered. Overall, the puzzles just need a
little better clueing.
Praise: The superpowers were well thought out, and the fight, nicely
plotted. Since I enjoyed this, I am glad to know it was just an introduction
and a larger game is on the way.
Finished.
doea...@aol.com
IF http://members.aol.com/doepage/intfict.htm
(An Iffy Theory | Glulx/Glk for Duncies | unglklib | Inform Primer)
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Jon Ingold
> descriptions. Without a walkthru I would never have found it, because it
> would not even have occurred to me that it was there.
True. But you don't need it.
Jon
Karl Ove Hufthammer
news:20011121005040...@nso-fx.aol.com:
Some spoilers below ...
> Not to mention that the tap was not mentioned in the
> descriptions. Without a walkthru I would never have found
> it, because it would not even have occurred to me that it
> was there.
You don't need the tap to destroy the note. I ate it. You can
also rip it into tiny shreds. (Any more solutions?) I think the
multiple solutions to puzzles worked *really* well in this
game. My solutions for the two first puzzles (getting rid of
the guard, and finding something to put in the alms bowl) were
very different from the ones in the walkthrough:
In the first puzzle, I cut the guard with the glass shards. The
guard grazed my leg with his knife, and when I got to the
fountain, the woman was frightened by the blood from the wound.
If you use the solution in the walkthrough, you don't get hurt,
but the woman is frightened by the red wine that your trousers
are soaked in (*thinking* that it's blood). I think that's a
very clever way to handle multiple solutions.
--
Karl Ove Hufthammer