10-Minute Reviews by Yekrats
Scott Starkey
this document.]
Hey there, folks... Scott Starkey here. This is the first time
I've published reviews in an open forum. Please bear with me.
When I started writing these reviews, I had the noble intention
of playing all of the games for 10 minutes, and then writing my
list of "10-Minute Reviews". After all, there is much that can
be told about a game by the first 10 minutes of it.
Unfortunately, I was not able to complete all of the games, but
I tried, I really did. I admire those who had the fortitude
to get through them all, and play them for up to two hours each.
That being said, there may be games in here that have a great
first 10 minutes, but later fell completely apart. Likewise,
some sleepers with great development later might have been missed
by the system. By no means is my way scientific.
One thing I noticed about myself: I hate giving a bad review.
Perhaps it's my empathy as a game-writer coming through, but
writing bad reviews pained me. If you get a bad review from me,
please do not take it personally. I know where you're coming
from, I really do. Keep on working, and you'll get better.
It's not like these values are really worth much, since I
entered the comp this year with "The Beetmonger's Journal,"
and could not vote.
There have been some people that have said that this year's
crop of games is of somewhat lower quality than in past years.
Let's just say that this reviewer didn't think so. Contrarily,
I think there are some real gems here, and generally I liked
things better than I had in past years. Of course, I only
played the first 10 minutes of each. Perhaps if I devoted two
hours to each one, I'd be cynical, too. But I hope not.
Anyway, here is my numerical list, from top to bottom:
10+ Earth and Sky
10 Moments out of Time
10- No Time to Squeal
9+ The Coast House
9 Film at Eleven
9- Heroes
9- All Roads
8+ Carma
8 Best of Three
7+ Crusade
7 Vicious Cycles
7 Prized Possession
7- 2112
7- Fine Tuned
6+ Fusillade
6+ Stick it to the Man
6 You Are Here
6 Bane of the Builders
6 Night Guest
6- To Otherwhere and Back
6- Triune
5+ The Chasing
5 Timeout
5 Love Song
5 The Isolato Incident
5 Grayscale
5 Jump
5- Stiffy Makane: TUC
5- Kallisti
5- Silicon Castles
4 The Evil Sorceror
4 The Cave of Morpheus
4 Elements
4 Shattered Memory
4 Stranded
4 Surreal
3+ Shroedinger's Cat
3 Goofy
3 Colours
3 Volcano Isle
2- Invasion of the Angora...
1 The Last Just Cause
1 You Were Doomed...
So without further ado, here are the games in the order that I played
them...
=======
Shattered Memory:
by Akbarr
Shattered memory starts out in a dreamlike state with no memory of the
protagonist's
life (hey, how convenient!) with the goal of stitching his memories back
together.
So, from what I can tell, we've got a surreal romp through dreamland.
Unfortunately,
I was not able to get out of the first room, nor figure out the purpose of
the first
room. I did stitch back a couple of memories, but became frustrated by the
unhelpfulness of the first PC that I encountered, and the starkness of the
scene.
It seemed like there was a verb there in that first room I was supposed to
guess.
This could be a promising game, I'm not sure. It seemed like the
memory-weaving idea
had some potential. However, the interactions with NPCs seemed like it
could be
cumbersome. NPC's understand menu-type commands, but ASK/TELL... ABOUT...
is also
implemented. I would suggest: Choose one or the other and do it well.
There is no
reason to separate it - to do otherwise is confusing for the player.
Rating: 4
Carma
by The Wanna-be Writer
Well, this one I'll want to go back an play some more, to be sure. You play
the role
of a wanna-be writer, on the sore side of a disgruntled anthropomorphic
comma. Damn,
it's weird, but fun. Having never played a Glulx game before, I was
impressed with
what it could do.
I had some problems getting out of the first room, and here's why. The
author kindly
put the words to ask about in Boldface type. Unfortunately, not being the
sharpest
crayon in the pack, I didn't notice this as "something to ask about" but
rather just
thrown in for emphasis. The first time I ran this, I asked about a myriad
of things,
and wound up getting frustrated. I had asked the snarly punctuation point
about a
particular word, when he was actually looking for the plural of that word to
advance
the story. A synonym would have been nice, there.
To exasperate the problem, once you ask a character about something, they
remember,
just like real life. I found myself running into brick walls of "I've
already told
you about that." What's good for realism is sometimes bad for playability.
Perhaps it might have been more appropriate for the character to belittle
the
protagonist, but also give the info needed.
I ran out of time right after getting past the first disgruntled comma, but
definitely
this will be one that I want to go back and check out. It's got that kind
of loony
fantastic charm that I like.
Rating: 8+
Prized Possession
by Kathleen M. Fischer
This one has several great things going for it: a complex story-line, a
rich
environment, and a polished command for language. I have a feeling that
this might be
one of the fore-runners this year. The game seethes in the pathos of
twelfth century
Europe, with evil knights burning villages, and grim, dirty mayhem.
I did find the game somewhat disorienting, trying to find my raison d'etre.
Who was I,
and what was my place in the world? While I played, I always had someplace
to go, but
I never really understood why I was doing it. Perhaps that would have been
answered
later in the story. However, I wanted to know more, and I wish the game
would have
told me more readily. Because I couldn't ground myself to the character
more fully, I
rated it a bit lower than what I might have otherwise.
There seemed to be a couple of stringent time-based puzzles early on in the
game, and
those ended the game prematurely for me. I craved more information about
this world,
but that curiosity was penalized. In addition, I would have liked an
alternate
solution for the first puzzle. Something I did early-on seemed like it
should be valid
solution but was not recognized. Admitedly, I had to use the walkthrough to
get nudged
past the first couple of puzzles. Obviously, the author and I don't think
the same way!
Rating: 7
Stranded
by Rich Cummings
The premise of this game is you play a special agent whose plane goes down
over the ocean.
Fortunately, you are washed up on a small swampy island filled with danger
and INSTANT
DEATH. If you play this one, be prepared to hug close to the walkthrough or
lean on your
good pals SAVE, RESTORE, and UNDO.
At first, I was rather impressed with the area descriptions of the island.
However, I got
to the point where they seemed to be a little bit repetative. Also, the
author chose to
put actions in the room descriptions, so every time one LOOKs around, a
"couple of water
moccasins dart across your path," or some-such.
In addition to the few minor typos hither and yon, I was rather annoyed by
the "instant
death" locations scattered about the island. I would have rather thought
that the
"number-one agent" would have been better able to handle the dangers of the
swamp, or a
simple undertow, but I guess not. In my struggles to escape the quicksand
(of which I
found several spots) I could never escape it. Me, the player knows how, but
how does
that translate to the game? You can't swim out. You can fiddle around for
a long time,
but if you leave the area, you die. Amusingly, you can LIE DOWN ON and SIT
ON the
quicksand, but darned if I found a way out other than UNDO. Frustratingly,
there's no
signs or mention of "quicksand ahead" or anything. You find it by stumbling
upon it, and
dying.
I also found a rope, which any IF author must know is a scary thought.
Unfortunately,
it never quite did what I wanted it to. I couldn't attach it to something,
and then
pull the rope, for example. If I ever grabbed it, I untied it from whatever
it was
previously attached to.
Rating: 4
Surreal
by Matthew Lowe
Although I didn't find the game all-too surreal, this did seem to be an
old-school type
adventure, reminiscent of Scott Adams games. Puzzle components and lost
glowing treasures
were found just lying around.
The home-grown parser had a few holes and quirks, which was to be expected
by a
do-it-all-yourself text adventure system. For example, an inanimate river
"...cleverly
resists your touch." That's one clever river! TADS and Inform have years
of playtesting
under their belts. This is why authors making their own parser are swimming
up-river.
Yet, the game had charm. The readme files states that the game was written
by a
14-year-old. Dang, I wish I had half that talent when I was 14.
Rating: 4
Bane of the Builders
by Bogden Baliuc
Bane of the Builders by Bogden Baliuc, aside from being a clever
tongue-twister, turns out
to be a pretty good game, judging by the first ten minutes. It's a generic
"Star Trek"-like
space romp, where you play the role of an ensign who must find the Professor
(not just
*any* professor) in a creepy alien compound. Fortunately, the aliens
ignored me as if I
did not exist, but I assumed this was a design decision.
Aside from a couple of synonym errors, or items described in a room
description but never
formally created, I found no obvious, glaring errors. The game allows the
player to put
their own name into the story, which I found amusing.
At times, the game (even inside the compound supposedly sprawling with
aliens) seemed a
little stark.. Aliens didn't seem to do much. The writing is certainly
adequate, and
without errors, but it lacked a little pizzazz. Many descriptions are
prefaced with the
common "You see a", a phrase which is past its prime. This does lend an
"old-school" feel
to it. Will I come back to the game? Maybe. There might be something great
just beyond.
Rating: 6
Goofy
by Ricardo Dague
What do you get when you combine sophomoric humor with a home-grown Java
parser without
SAVE/RESTORE and other niceties? You get Goofy, which never elevates itself
beyond its
title. Most of the objects and rooms have very terse descriptions. Room
"desciptions"
are like "Exits are west and north." On the good side, I was not able to
find any bugs
or spelling mistakes, per se. Of course, there was not
a lot to misspell.
My advice to Ricardo: Put a little more heart into it. This is interactive
FICTION.
I want a story, not directions to travel.
Rating: 3
Kallisti
by James A. Mitchlehill
How does one rate a game which is well-executed rendering of a protagonist
character
which I dispised? Kalliisti puts you in the third-person omniscient
perspective of
a stalker, preying upon a female fellow office-worker after hours. I'll
have to
admit, the first few minutes of the game disturbed me somewhat. I didn't
want to be
this guy, nor get into his mindset. It bothers me a little in ordinary
fiction, but
IF even moreso, with the player's necessary strong attachment to the
character.
Much of the opening of the game seemed to be a maze of ASK/TELL.. ABOUT..
which I
wish was a little more interconnected. I spent most of my time guessing
topics that
the female would be interested in talking about, getting only a small
percentage
of hits. Maybe I don't have the proper "stalker" mindset. Without a
walkthrough,
I was never able to get past the first scene.
I would have to say the game had good characterization, spelling, and a
cohesive
style. But unfortunately, that didn't make up for my being uncomfortable
with the
situation, so I will mark it down accordingly.
Rating: 5-
Moments out of time
by L. Ross Laszewski
Hoo-boy. I knew a good one would come along and blow me away. I'll
definately say this
is one I'll go back to. You play an agent going back in time to record
information
about the past. In this way, it rather reminds me of "A Mind Forever
Voyaging."
The writing and ambiance seems top-notch. My only negative aspect I can
come up with
(and this is stretching it) is the overwhelming amount of stuff that you
have to deal
with at the beginning of the game. The game basically gives you 15 gadgets
to take
with you on your mission, which you must whittle down to about 6. I assume
that
choosing different items will allow you different skills later in the story.
But,
how is a player to choose starting equipment without any other information
to go on?
It was somewhat overwhelming, and a lot of reading to "get to the good
part."
This is *not* the sort of game that one should expect to play in ten minutes
or less.
Far from it. Heck, the game comes with a 17-page on-line manual, and most
of the
gadgets come with directions, too. Despite the overwhelming feeling of
brain overload,
games like this make me excited about the contest.
Rating: 10
The Chasing
by Anssi Raisanen
"The Chasing" puts you in the role of an upper class gentleman who awakens
one
morning to find he has lost seven of his favorite horses. He sets out about
town
and country looking for the naughty beasts. The style seems written in a
high-society style that I could never quite identify with.
I would have preferred if the landscape was a little more condensed.
Locations
seemed to be a little bit stark and empty. Why bother coding a location
unless
you will use it to pull the character into the story? I never really felt
that
pull. The NPCs seemed to be a little bit obtuse. The underpinnings of the
system seemed to be a little bit flawed as well; when you put on clothes,
for
instance, it says you wear them, but it removes them from your inventory.
That's rather bewildering. I found a couple more errors of similar
magnitude.
I encountered at least one guess-the-verb problem.
Rating: 5+
Schroedinger's Cat
by James Wilson
Hoo-boy. Here we take the Schroedinger's Cat dilemma to somewhat of an IF
form.
Which was, if you put a cat into a box with a device that has a chance of
killing
it every moment, and cannot see the cat, is it dead or alive? From what I
understand, logically, it is both dead and alive, until you open the box and
verify one way or the other.
So, this work presents itself as a minimalist "play with the widgets"
exercise.
Granted, it's interactive, but there's not much fiction here. You get a
couple
of living cats, a few boxes for killing aforementioned felines, a few boxes
for
bringing them back to life, and a camera for recording this for posterity.
The
minimalism left me wanting more. Other than the joy of killing cats, where
is
the fun? :-)
I did find something that seemed like it may be a bug. When I put a cat in
a
box, a cat reappeared in the starting room. This confused me, because it
seemed
to be the same cat I put in the box. Of course, it could have been part of
the logical world, and I hadn't just figured it out yet.
Another thing that irritated me, unfortunately. When one opens a box, the
game doesn't tell you what's in the box. Also, the contents of a box are
not revealed by an >EXAMINE BOX. Only >LOOK IN BOX will tell you what's in
the blasted thing. If I examine a box or open it, should the game tell you
what's inside, for the sake of those poor folks out here with repetative
stress disorder? Hey, I think so.
Rating: 3+
The Gostak
by Carl Muckenhoupt
For a word- and language-lover like myself, games like this are a real
treat. Do you remember that old Twilight Zone episode where a man woke
up, and every word in the language meant something else, and he had to
relearn language? Well, you can experience some of that joy yourself
with this game.
Gostak is presented entirely in an alternative language to English. Part of
the
"game" is figuring out the verbs and nouns to play the game. GET,
INVENTORY,
and every other word for that matter is replaced by an alternative nonsense
word.
Take notes on every action the NPCs do, and eventually, you'll find that
the nonsense starts to make a bit of sense, which is when things became fun
for me.
I assisted with the playtesting of this game, and suggested the HELP file,
totally in the language of the game. Heh, heh. :-) Since I playtested, I
will not rate this one.
Fine-Tuned
by "Dionysius Porcupine"
Fine Tuned features a Victorian Era daredevil and his automobile. The tone
seemed light, and caused me to laugh a couple of times.
I did not find any bugs, however, I did take a couple of issues. Getting
in and driving your car, though a bit humorous, is also tedious and
pedantic.
I also played a little game of guess-the-verb trying to assist a man that
was hurt.
I was just wondering: Is this game so big as to justify being a .z8?!
Rating: 7-
Silicon Castles
by Jack Maet
Okay, I've got two things to admit. Number 1, I'm a chess nut.
Number 2, I played this game beyond the ten minutes that I said I
would. Once you get into this game, it is essentially a chess
simulation developed in Z-machine. It seems to have a pretty good
chess engine behind it. It seemed to handle my oddball style as
well as most do, which is pretty well.
Unfortunately, due to the all-text interface, it is a little bit
clunky. Also, unfortunately, there isn't much fiction here. How
in the heck do I castle? So, although I hate to mark it down,
I feel I must.
Rating: 5-
A Night Guest
by Dr. Inkalot
Chuckle... an IF game told in baudy verse, reminding me of somewhat of a bad
Oscar
Wilde poem. Most of it is indeed in ABAB rhyming form (if you stretch a
word or two) which
is really quite fun and impressive. The poetry itself isn't all that good,
but it's
fun and good for a laugh or two.
The commands one needs to win the game are somewhat obtuse at best. I could
rarely
figure out what to do when, but fortunately the online help is very handy.
It was
a short work, and I was able to complete it in the 10-minute alotment. I
think that
any more would drive a reader a bit bonkers, however.
Rating: 6
Invasion of the Angora...
by Morten Rasmussen
Well, as typical with the home-grown parsers, this one leaves a lot to be
desired.
Simple commands that I'm used to seem to not be present (like ASK..ABOUT..).
The game is reminiscient of a mud, with basically non-intelligent NPCs
wandering
around doing random stuff. If you turn on "social mode" they'll even
repeatedly
pick their nose and stand around doing nothing. All of this happens in
"real time,"
so by the time you type a character's name to interact with them, it's
likely they
will be gone. Also, I would not recommend "social mode," because all of the
nose-picking and staring off into space in real time really drove me nuts.
Also, like a mud, you can get involved in life-or-death struggles for
seemingly
no reason. Bored, I attacked a mime and was forced to kill him.
Fortunately,
on-lookers ignored the combat, and more importantly, the corpse. I lost a
handful
of hit-points in the struggle, but I felt it was worth it.
Rating: 2-
No Time to Squeal
by Michael J. Sousa and Robb Sherwin
What a good and emotionally moving story. The player acts the role of
different characters in a story of a sport's agent, his pregnant wife,
and the psychotic superstar which the agent represents.
The story moves along briskly but well. The game is interesting that it
uses many unusual commands getting through the story, but everything seemed
to make sense, and the game took everything I threw at it in good stride.
There might have been only one case that I was confused about what to do
next, which was resolved in short order.
There are some minor grotesque issues with this game, especially the
opening,
but that is forgiven because of the fun gameplay and interesting storyline
that
follows.
Rating: 10
2112
by George K. George
For being a homegrown parser, this is the best one that I've had so far.
The
environment, though not perfect, is by far the best I've had so far, making
it almost unintrusive to the rest of the story. Yet, there seem to be some
disambiguation issues, and simple commands (like Z for WAIT) are missing.
That aside, the game seemed to work pretty well. I found a couple of minor
bugs, but nothing to write home about. The plot seemed to move along
somewhat
slowly at first, but once it got started it seemed okay. It's a sci-fi
story,
where a student goes on a field trip to Mars, but gets caught up in a
mystery
of a friend's missing father. Good stuff there.
Rating: 7-
Timeout
by Stephen Hilderbrand
Timeout steals its setting from WestEndGames' Paranoia RPG. An insane
computer enlists Troubleshooters (read: disposable people) to do its
insane machinations. Little imbroglios are all considered treason, and
the penalty for treason is death. Fortunately, you get 6 clones to
finish the game.
The background is fun, but borrowed. I always love a good game of Paranoia,
however. Unfortunately, I found myself confused about what to do or where
to go. Perhaps that is a little like the way a Paranoia game should be.
I found myself unsure of where to go, even though I was ordered to go
someplace. Deathtraps are around every corner... but hey, that's the
point.
So it was wacky, very tongue in cheek, but probably a whole lot more fun
for the designer than the player (as I've found Paranoia to be.) I found
myself somewhat frustrated with this one.
Rating: 5
Fusillade
by Mike Duncan
This seems to be a collection of (as-yet) unrelated vignettes, leaping from
scene to scene through history. Some events are of famous people, like
Dolly Madison or Jimi Hendrix, yet some I didn't recognize. I did not find
how the scenes were interrelated.
The scenes cut a little abruptly for my taste. When that happened, I had
a hard time identifying with my new character. I had no idea if I was male,
female, or what *role* I was supposed to play. I didn't feel like I had
a good sense of direction when I was thrust into a scene. I know that's
difficult, but it's essential when working with multiple characters. "No
Time to Squeal" did an excellent job during character transitional states,
and gave me the name of the character in the corner to boot.
The game uses a stripped-down verb-set. In fact, direction is abandoned
altogether, but not without a minor problem. Trying to go >OUT of an area
will give you a rather nasty TADS error. Otherwise, the work was
error-free,
as far as I could tell.
Rating: 6+
Triune
by Papillon
A girl avoids pursuit of her murderous father and finds herself in a
fantasy allegorical world of unicorns, gypsies, and castles. The avoiding-
the-father part at the beginning is truly terrifying, but the puzzle to
escape is not too hard.
The fantasy world afterwards seemed to be a bit of a sprawl, but was
arranged logically. The story never really grabbed me, however, after
the initial scare. Objects and scenery seemed a little bit bland. There
were some NPCs that I could not seem to interact with, much.
The hypertext compass-directions were a nice touch, however.
Rating: 6
The Isolato Incident
by Alan deNiro
I admit being bewildered by this story told in the "royal We" perspective.
Usually I'm one to champion new points-of-view into the tired old, 2nd-
person POV, but this didn't seem to work as well as I would have liked.
There is something about "we" that doesn't seem to work very well when
doing mundane things like "sit on throne".
The landscape is sparse and dreamlike, as the narrator carries us through
the surreal story. The narrator frequently interrupts the story and
makes asides, but this distracted me from comprehending an already
dizzying plot.
But, the author states that this is his first work of Interactive Fiction,
and promises more to come. I look forward to it!
Rating: 5
Colours
by [no name listed]
A tortuous romp through a wild collection of surreal rooms, each occupied
by a different archetypal NPC. It seems to be a puzzle romp, devoid of
plot.
In fact, you are dropped into the first room without an introduction as to
why you are here. Unfortunately, there are directions described in rooms
which don't exist, making it even tougher than necessary. In my short time
playing I was annoyed by a bevy of other little bugs.
Rating: 3
The Coast House
by Stephen Newton and Dan Newton
What a refreshing entry! This story concerns a mystery concerning the
protagonist's grandparents at their old abandoned house and the surrounding
lands. I found myself sucked into the story, wanting to go on beyond 10
minutes. I'll definately play this one in the future.
Probably the best thing about this game is its setting seemed very real.
The authors did an excellent job of describing the scenes, causing me
to remember fondly my own grandparents' houses. Excellent effort here,
and well-crafted.
Rating: 9+
Volcano Isle
by Paul DeWitt
Volcano Isle is another Zork-like throwback, reminding me of those "classic"
Adventureland-like days on my old Apple ][. It features limits on both
items and weight, but fortunately allows one to store much everything in a
bottle found on the beach, getting around the item limit. Entering the
island's jungle switches the background of the screen to dark green,
however the black-on-dark green color scheme is nigh unreadable.
Most of the descriptions of places and things are pretty sparse.
Often during the game, my protaganist was taken over by vivid visions,
repeated over and over again, presumably premonitions of my future
adventure.
They happened often enough, and repeated themselves several times, that I
started to find them pretty annoying. (Okay, one hallucination is okay;
when they start happening every turn I start to lose my train of thought!)
Rating: 3
Heroes
by Sean Barrett
"Heroes" outdoes my entry by 150%. That is, to say, instead of 2 parallel
plot lines, there are 5. Somehow, the author wove 5 plotlines together
into one story. Indeed, it's impossible to "win" (according to the author)
unless you've played through all five plotlines. At the beginning of the
story you are invited to choose between 5 archetypes to start the story,
but may switch between them at any time.
I played through as the thief, and was quite entertained. It was
reminiscent
of the Looking-Glass Studios game "Thief" in text adventure form, and seemed
to work very well. I'll be interested in playing the other archetypes
later,
for sure.
So, there seem to be enough bells and whistles here for 5 games. It boggles
my mind how the author kept track of it all, and thus, high marks.
Rating: 9-
Jump
by Chris Mudd
Teen angst, suicide, and kids with guns, and some naughty language make the
"Adult Content" warning appropriate, here. Unfortunately, those issues are
not really my cup of tea. The writing was not particularly bad by any
means.
I found a few programming snafu's: objects referred to in descriptions
not being found, or a locker that UNLOCK LOCKER would not redirect
automagically
to the key.
Communication is done by TALK TO CHARACTER repeatedly until you've milked
them
for all of their information. I'm not sure why the author chose to drag it
out through several steps, when all of the information could have been given
in one.
The thought of kids with guns is an issue that scares me a little. I hope
this
game has a socially responsible ending, but by the tone that was set early
on,
I fear the worst.
Rating: 5
The Evil Sorceror
by Gren Remoz
Unfortunately, when I played this game, my machine was under some sort of
bad mojo. My zip interpreter totally locked up my machine. At the time,
I blamed the game. (Perhaps because it was the only IF game I'd ever
played with a disclaimer against computer damage.) In any case, now I'm not
totally sure it was the fault of the game, but couldn't get over the fact
that my computer crashed twice while playing it. Sorry.
However, I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt. It might have been
an honest mistake and not malicious intent. That being said, I didn't play
very much of this game. Had I gotten farther, I might have been
annoyed by the many objects and the small inventory limit. What I played
seemed to be an inventory management nightmare. The prose wasn't
Rybread-bad,
but didn't want to make me risk crashing my machine a third time.
I'm sorry for not having played more.
Rating: 4
The Cave of Morpheus
by Mark Silcox
Surreal and mired in bathroom humor, tCoM was not exactly what I was
expecting. The dreamlike switching gears of plot only confused me and put
me ill at ease. Perhaps that was its point. I wanted direction, and it
didn't give that to me. It seemed like there was a severe time-limitation
in the first story, that I didn't manage to escape.
I don't think all of these problems were the total fault of the author.
I don't think the ADRIFT system is quite as robust as TADS or Inform.
Common commands seemed to be beyond the capacity for the parser to
understand.
Ah, well...
Rating: 4
You Were Doomed from the Start!
by Noob
I knew I was saving that 1 for something! Doomed was probably a good
programming
exercise for the author, but does not work as an adventure.
First, throw your standard verb set out the window, and don't use direct
objects.
Instead of the intuitive TAKE or GET to pick something up, the parser forces
you
to use the "word" PICKUP KEY.
Oh, yeah, there are KEYS to PICKUP all right. Every room (numbered for your
mapping convenience) that I found had a key in it. If the game had a
transcript
command in it (which it does not) the commands would have looked like this:
>N
>PICKUP KEY
>E
>PICKUP KEY
>N
>PICKUP KEY
...
I'm sorry if this review and rating come across as harsh, but I think the
author
would have better luck using TADS or Inform, and not reinventing the wheel,
and
then consider story over inventory.
Rating: 1+
You Are Here
Roy Fisher
You Are Here is a simulation of a Multi-User Dungeon (a MUD) and seems to do
a pretty good job of capturing the feel of MUDs. Other characters (though
not
very smart) invite you on quests with them, and it's pretty easy get started
hacking and slashing your way into the game.
Unfortunately, I found a few bugs. My companion died early on from the
trauma
of a Hydra, but his voice lingered around, giving me advice. Also, even
though
I chose a female personna for the game, the game still treated me as though
I
was male.
Not a bad effort, and interesting, if you're into the MUD scene.
Rating: 6
To Otherwhere and Back
by Gregory Ewing
The author of To Otherwhere and Back suggests that playing without the
walkthrough would be nigh-implossible, and after a few moves, I believed
him.
After playing with the help of the walkthrough, I still had problems (mainly
because of the unusual format the walkthrough came in.) Also, certain words
of vocabulary only seem to be present at certain times of the story. No
going
out of order, here!
The adventure allows you to play the part of a lonely programmer. However,
every move seems to be a "Guess what to do next". There's not a lot to do
here, and only one obscure thing will move the story along.
There was good stuff, though. Playing the part of a programmer, I came
across a bug, which I'd like to nominate for the "Most Amusing Bug Award".
I think it's unintential, but I ask the author to leave it in!
>TEST
"test"? I don't know that word.
Tee-hee-heee... It still cracks me up! This won a point or two right here!
Rating: 6-
Love Song
by Mihalis Georgostathis
A young man must write a song for his sweetie or be shunned. Thus is the
stuff of young teen angst. It might have been a passable game except for
the
errors that Quest seems to impose.
Again, I kept running into mimesis-breaks with verb problems. I'll forgive
the author somewhat, because English is not his native language, but around
every corner there was a misspelling or a grammatical error that started to
bug me. There were other weird things, too: When you carry a tune, you
physically have it in your inventory. Huh?
Rating: 5
Crusade
by John Gorenfeld
Crusade is a religious and political parody, taking place during the (duh!)
Crusades. A careful reader might be concerned that this topic might be
in poor taste, when considering current political events, and you'd be
right. However, Crusade danced in the gray area between offensive and
inoffensive, and made me laugh out loud.
I did get stuck in the game, early on. Though I'm not usually dense with
IF, darned if I could go on past the puzzles of the second room. Perhaps
I missed something. Without the benefit of a walkthrough, I was stuck.
Perhaps after a walkthrough is published, this could be worth revisiting.
Rating: 7+
Vicious Cycles
by Simon Mark
Vicious Cycles seems to be another surreal tapestry of dreams, but this
seems to be of higher quality than some I've played. It seemed like,
despite the fractured nature of the story, the plot was actually going
someplace, and a mystery was being revealed.
However, sometimes, it seemed like I was being carried along for the
ride, and had little to do with the story other than to be a passive
observer. The very first few hints provided didn't mentioned things
I hadn't seen yet.
The problem with these kind of stories is, the author has to give a
sense of place and characterization in a short amount of time. This
story didn't quite pull it off as well as "Moments out of Time", and
I was often left with "Okay, who am I now?" questions. I need to
know who I am before I can establish goals. If I can't establish
goals, I feel no sense of direction, and I'm lost. Don't get me
wrong-- there's good stuff here, and I'm anxious to see what else
the author will put out in the future.
Rating: 7
Elements
John Evans
Elements starts out with a strange barrage of questions, and then
drops the protaganist in a surreal otherworld based on the four
elements. The story and setting are odd and surreal, and don't
seem to mesh together totally well for my tastes. Rooms seem
pretty bland and Zork-like: Earth Room, Fire Room, etc.
I found a few bugs, like an item that can be worn when it's in
another object. Also, I found several items called "scrap of
paper", but the parser was unable to distinguish between them
all.
Rating: 4
Stick It to the Man
by H. Joshua Field
This story revolves around a bunch of anarchists going to a
anarchist rally, and relies heavily on intricate conversation
menus between the protagonists roommates and other people she
meets. It is evident the amount of work that went into this
piece. NPC's seem to move with a mind of their own, and you
can strike up fairly realistic conversations with them, which
was nice.
I did find a few bugs in the conversation tree, however. In
one instance, a PC kept repeating the introductory hellos as
if I met them for the first time.
I have to admit, I did finish the game in the 10 minute
period, and it seemed as if it was rather abrupt. I don't
believe I achieved the "optimal ending," but who knows. With
the amount of branching and NPC behavior that had to be
accounted for, I'm not surprised that the story seemed to
end early, but it left me feeling like something was missing.
Rating: 6+
Film at Eleven
by Bowen Greenwood
NPC interaction is where this story really shines! Film at
Eleven is about a television news personality in a podunk
American town, trying to get the big news story of the year,
the mayor's extra-marital affair with an intern.
The story is a little hokey, the characters are a bit
stereotyped, but it's certainly well-written. The prose
seems very polished, and the environment has many details,
lending me to believe this is a real place. Some of the
scripts (especially Rachel's) seems to not have a lot
of variety, however.
The story (at least the first few minutes) reminds me of
Infocom quality game, as far as humor level, a-ha value,
and difficulty of the puzzles. Excellent effort!
Rating: 9
Best Of Three
by Emily Short
Best of Three is another work based almost entirely on conversation
menus, and carried off really well.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a good grasp of who I was early
in the work, but perhaps after playing more that would be
cleared up. It was just starting to make more sense as the
time expired.
After a few entries coming in using convo-menus, I have to wonder
if I like this style. I'll have to say that the jury is still out.
Conversation menus allow for *very* rich conversation, but I get
lazy and just click and click. I feel like sometimes, my possibilities
are too limited. I know this game allowed me to do other things
besides the conversations (well done!) but if there's something to
click on--then by golly--I've gotta click it!
Rating: 8
Earth and Sky
by Lee Kirby
There's nothing like a good superhero story to tickle my funny
bone and get me excited. Earth and Sky does honor to the super
hero genre, while somehow avoiding being hokey or hackneyed. (That's
a herculean feat of itself!)
Here is another game that uses conversation menus to a certain
extent, and I didn't mind at all. I was like a kid in a candy
factory, testing out my powers. The bottom line here is: playing
Sky is fun. I love it. Well done. If you like comic books as I
do, you'll love it.
Rating: 10
The Last Just Cause
by Noob
The same quality that we saw in "You Were Doomed from the Start"
is back in "The Last Just Cause." Here we have another Noob-
created parser, which only accepts commands one word at a time.
The author asks for extra bonus points for doing it all himself.
I'm sorry to say, it's almost unplayable, and probably worse
than his other work. Sorry, bud.
Rating: 1
Grayscale
by Daniel Freas
Okay, I'm wandering around in this house without any sense of
identity or reason why I'm here. Maybe 10 minutes is not enough
to "get to the good part" of Grayscale. However, I found the
house lightly populated with stuff, and nothing indicated where
to go or do next. Perhaps part of the puzzle is in the discovery.
Rating: 5
Stiffy Makane: The Undiscovered Country
by one of the Bruces
Well, I'm embarrassed for even trying this. You play the game,
you takes your chances, right? What can I say? It's better than
what I expected: really offensive, and somewhat funny at the
same time. I can't say much more without bursting out into tears.
Rating: 5-
All Roads
by John Ingold
All Roads is a well-written piece, reminiscent of Nelson's or
Plotkin's work, certainly. The puzzles are also of a caliber
of Plotkin and Nelson. Indeed, this is a hard game, and
occasionally I found myself testing several seemingly plausable
solutions without coming up with the right answer. Fortunately,
the author provided a walkthrough.
The story was interesting and well-written, but wasn't quite as
enjoyable to me as some of the other works this year.
Rating: 9-
Scott Starkey
Sorry about the formatting, folks. If you want the text file
of my reviews, just as me, and I'll send it to you.
-- Scott S.