Category Archives: Game Review

Game Review: Hercules! (2021, Leo Weinreb)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Hercules! is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

Usually, I don’t like to start a game review by quoting a huge chunk of text from the game but the opening to Hercules! and the game’s response to the first few commands that I typed in will tell you a lot about whether or not this game is for you.

From Hercules!, by Leo Weinreb:

“Hi! My name’s Hercules, and I want to be a hero!”

That was your opening line to the Gods on the glowing marble steps of Mount Olympus. There was a beat of silence as your words rang through the air – and then a roaring, hysterical fit of laughter that could not be quelled.

You can’t really blame them, you suppose – you don’t exactly fit the heroic mold. You’re near-sighted, scrawny, constantly allergic, and have far more phobias than a demigod should. Your spiteful stepmother Hera discounts you out of hand, and even your father Zeus is skeptical at best. But you know you can be as great as the Gods themselves if only someone would just give you a chance!

As luck would have it, the day after your meeting with the Gods, your cousin Eurystheus offered you a temp job. Finally, you’ve been given a chance to prove yourself, and you’ll be sure not to squander this opportunity! Let’s see, this to-do list he gave you can’t be all that hard…

Main Road
You are on a plain dirt road leading east to the land of Tiryns, where your cousin Eurystheus serves as king.

>verbose
Hercules! is now in its “verbose” mode, which always gives long descriptions of locations (even if you’ve been there before).

>x me
You’ve never been one for vanity, but you give yourself a good once-over. Your limbs are scrawny and weak, almost spaghetti-noodle like, and your acne hasn’t improved since middle school. Your spectacles slide down your nose so much that you’ve gotten into a habit of just pushing them back up again, and your height is considerably below average. Sure you may not be much to look at, but you’d rather be brainy than brawny any day. Give me a good instruction manual and some Albuterol and nothing is impossible!

This game imagines a Hercules who, for lack of a better term, is a nerd.  If you think being a nerd is difficult in the modern world, just try to being one in ancient Greece, at a time when muscles and ludicrous feats of strength are everything!  Determined to prove yourself, you accept the 12 impossible tasks that have been assigned to you by your cousin.

This is a fun game.  Obviously, the main appeal of the game is the way that it pokes fun at Greek mythology but the writing is also consistently funny and the NPCs are all enjoyably quirky and weird.  The puzzles aren’t too difficult and, fortunately, you can download a walkthrough.  I laughed several times while walking through Hercules!  There’s not many IF games that I can say that about.

Play Herclues!

Game Review: The Golden Heist (2021, George Lockett and Rob Thorman)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The Golden Heist is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

You are a thief, living in Rome during the time of Nero. You survived the Great Fire, just to see Nero work your architect father to death in his mad pursuit to turn the world’s greatest city into a monument to his own ego. Before your father died, he entrusted you with the plans to the Golden Palace. Now, it is Nero’s birthday and you are planning the heist of the century! You’re going to need to pick an accomplice (you get three choices). You’re going to need to make the right choices. You’re going to have to solve a few puzzles. And you’re going to have to make your father proud.

I really dug The Golden Heist, which rejuvenates its familiar heist plot through the use of the Roman setting. Not only does the game teach a little history (and the authors obviously know their stuff when it comes to the Roman Empire) but it also required a little thought. Which accomplice you pick does matter. How you treat that accomplice and all the other decision that you make matter. This is a game where your choices really do effect how things work out. The Golden Heist is clever, well-written, and, because every choice you make matters, it has a lot of replay value.

Play The Golden Heist.

Game Review: Plane Walker (2021, Jack Comfort)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Plane Walker is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

You have just woken up on a plane.  You have no idea how you got on the plane.  You have no idea where the plane is going.  You’re not even sure who you are.  But you know that you need to figure out what’s going on and how to fly a plane!

I enjoyed playing this Inform game.  The premise was interesting.  The descriptions were vivid, well-written, and witty.  The game was puzzle-heavy, as most Inform games are.  As I’ve said before, the puzzles are usually my downfall when it comes to Interactive Fiction and some of the puzzles in Plane Walker are difficult to solve on your own.  Fortunately, the game comes with a walk-through.  Most importantly, the game pays off in the end.  The mystery is worth solving.

Play Plane Walker.

 

Game Review: Dungeons and Deadlines (2020, Miles Matrix)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Stressed out, you lose focus and injure yourself using a stapler. You die from an untreated sepsis, because you didn’t make time to see a doctor.

You lasted 3 days.

That was my fate the first time that I played Dungeons and Dragons, a work simulator that is all about the horror of having a job.

I was so angry about dying of sepsis, I decided to try again.  This time, I said, I no stress.  When the game asked if I wanted to work overtime, I said no.  When the game asked if I would arrive early, ontime, or late, I picked late.

You get fired before the end of the probation period. Idiot.

You lasted 3 days.

Well, that didn’t work.  I decided to try again.  When you play Dungeons and Deadlines, the idea is to balance four ratings: stress, family, health, and esteem.  Keep them balanced and I guess you’ll make it.  Let one get too low or too high and you’ll lose your job or maybe your life.  This time, I was determined to be neither too lazy nor too much of a workaholic.  Instead, my goal was to just do an adequate job and keep everything balanced.

At first, my approach of showing up on time, doing the work, but spending the weekend with my family seemed to work well.  I survived past the third day.  On the 9th day, I was told this:

Elon Musk follows you back on Twitter. You’re so thrilled, you come too quickly when you have Sex with your spouse that night.

My family rating went down a little but my esteem rating went up.  Figuring that I had figured this game out, I continued to play.

On Day 17, I was given the choice of pulling a “work card” or a “life card.”  (This game not only simulates having a job but it also simulates playing a card game.)  Since I was at work, I went the the work card.  I made a mistake:

You finish your task faster than projected. Your supervisor is very happy with you. He also expects more from you now.

Up went my stress level.

You faint. All this stress has finally gotten to you. Your stomach ulcer bursts and you die. Ugh.

You lasted 18 days.

18 days!  To win the game, you have to survive 62 days.  Good luck with that.  As for me, I’m going to keep trying.

Play Dungeons and Deadlines.

2021 Interactive Fiction Competition Reveiew: extraordinary_fandoms.exe (2021, Storysinger Presents)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

extraordinary_fandoms.exe is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

This game is about a non binary teenager who gets on Discord, discovers a group of friends, and also discovers a love of coding while helping them design of wiki for their Japanese virtual idol group.  Things take a serious turn when the teenager’s friend realize that the teenager is in an abusive situation.  The friends come together to help them escape from their horrific home life.

This game is a tribute to the friendships that are made online and how they can change a life forever.  It’s mostly made up of a combination of Discord chats and DMs and it carefully charts the path to discovering that the main character is being abused by their parents.  Like many Twine games, it’s more of a short story than a traditional IF game.  You do get options but mostly it’s just two different ways to phrase the same sentence.  Do you say “hi” or do you say “hello?”  I would have liked more choices but that’s not really what extraordinary_fandoms.exe is all about.  Instead, it’s a celebration of friendship and changing lives and, as far as that’s concerned, it succeeds.  Most importantly, if it’s help out anyone who is in a similar situation as the game’s main character, that’s all that really matters.

Play extraordinary_fandoms.exe.

Game Review: Taste of Fingers (2021, V Dobranov)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Taste of Fingers is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

You are in a city that you do not know, a stranger in a strange land. You are hiding behind the counter of a small cafe while, outside, the world comes to an end. Whether it’s due to a plague or just people finally being driven mad by the stress of every day life, going outside is not recommended. The cafe is your only sanctuary. Behind the counter, you experience memories of the way the world was in the days leading up to whatever has happened. When an intruder enters the cafe, it is time for action!

Like a lot of Twine games, Taste of Fingers is more of a short story with choices than an actual game. You really don’t have much control over how the game progresses or how it ends. The main choice you get to make is which memories to explore while you hid behind the counter. It’s not possible to explore every memory over the course of just one play through, which does give this game a high replay value. The descriptions of the cafe and the memories are vivid enough that you’ll want to explore them, even if it would have been nice to have had more options. Realistically, though, there aren’t that many options available when the world is ending around you. Taste of Fingers captures the feel of a world spinning out of control. It’s not a happy game but it does what it does well.

Play Taste of Fingers.

IF Comp Review: The Daughter (2021, Giovanni Rubino)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The Daughter is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

The time is the distant future. In a world where everyone is practically immortal, there’s been a death. A girl, who were told is the first daughter to have been born in thousands of year, has been found at the bottom of a cliff. Did she commit suicide or was she pushed? You take the role of Agura. You’re investigating but, because you live in utopia, you don’t have much experience investigating crimes. You listen to what the ancient ones used to call a podcast. The name of it is Serial.

This was a strange one. Like a lot of Twine-designed works of Interactive Fiction, it’s more of a short story with choices than an actual game. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. With the exception of choosing your prononus, the choices you make don’t make that much of a difference in the story’s that told. Clicking on a choice will often lead to a large bulk of writing, detailing the future world but not really moving the investigation forward. The game ends up abruptly without really seeming to come to a conclusion.

I suspect that the author’s intentions may have been satirical but it’s hard to say. I’m not sure what to make of The Daughter but I did appreciate the effort that it went to describe it’s futuristic society. I just wish there had been more for me, as the one in charge of interacting, to do in this work of interactive fiction.

Play The Daughter.

Horror Game Review: Space Invaders (1978, Tomohiro Nishikado)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Thanks to the Internet Archive, I played Space Invaders earlier today.

Yes, Space Invaders. This is the arcade game where an army of aliens are marching down the screen and you have to shoot them while not getting shot yourself. It’s the first game that a lot of people played. It’s a game that’s been frequently imitated and rebooted. This is the ultimate arcade video game and it took me just a few minutes of playing to discover why. The game may be simple but it’s also incredibly addictive. No sooner are you done celebrating getting rid of all of the aliens than another group of them show up and starting marching down the screen. Get rid of that second group and a third shows up. And then a fourth and a fifth. Each time a new wave starts, the invaders move a little more quickly and it becomes more of a challenge to get rid of them all. Not even destroying the big alien spaceship will keep the aliens from returning. They can be blown apart but they can never be defeated.

For that reason, Space Invaders is not only the first great arcade game but it’s also the first great horror games. It doesn’t matter how good you are or how many the space invaders you blow away. they’re going to keep coming until eventually, they get past your shields. There is no way to win the game. The only victory comes from never giving up and lasting longer than your friends. Do that and you’ll be champion even after the Earth has been conquered.

Play Space Invaders.

Game Review: Sleepover Rules (2020, Sjoerd Hekking)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In this twine game, a friend invites you to visit his home. He says that you can come over and you can ever sleep over but that it’s important that you follow the rules. What are the rules? He gives you four pages of notes, detailing all the rules for the different times of day.

Some of the rules make sense. When you arrive at the front door, knock twice. If you enter the kitchen and his mother is making something to eat, do not make eye contact with her. Do not bother his father if the old man is watching television.

Other rules make less sense. If you find yourself standing in front of a portrait of a woman, do not move until the portrait blinks at you. If you hear a scream in the middle of the night, pull your covers over your head and do not get out of bed. If you’re taking a shower and hear a sound, do not leave the shower. If you see your friend at certain times of the day, do not approach him because he won’t actually be your friend.

These rules would be enough to make most people stay home but you go anyways. Can you follow the rules and survive the house? It’s not as easy as it sounds because there are a lot rules to remember and there are also a lot of ghosts looking for a reason to kill you. Only knocking once before entering the house is as good a reason to take you out as any. Don’t worry, though. Each time you die, new ghosts and new quests are unlocked and you find yourself standing in front of the house again.

It’s fun for Halloween and a good horror game, with none of the clunkiness that you sometimes find in other big Twine games. The house is great location and very well-described. You can survive by following the rules but it’s more fun to intentionally break the rules and discover all the different ways that you can die. There’s a lot of them!

Play Sleepover Rules.

Game Review: The House on Highfield Lane (2021, Andy Joel)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The House on Highfield Lane is an entrant in 2021 Interactive Fiction competition.  Browse and experience all of the games by clicking here.

Mandy has always been frightened by the forboding house that sits on Highfield Lane but, when she’s walking home from school one day and comes across a letter that’s been addresses to the house’s owner, she decides to finally conquer her fear. What starts as a simple quest to deliver the mail turns into a long adventure as Mandy explores the house, solves puzzles, and even helps to reanimate the dead.

The author of this game described its genre as being “horror without the horror,” because, even though the game is about exploring a creepy old house, there aren’t any of the elements that usually come with a haunted house game. (There is a mad scientist but he’s not such a bad fellow.) This is actually kind of an old-fashioned game, where the emphasis is on exploring and solving puzzles. There’s a lot of puzzles. Solving puzzles has always been my weak spot when it comes to playing IF games. I’m the type of player who always ends up asking for hints or looking at a walk-through. The House on Highfield Lane does come with hints. It wasn’t long after I started playing that I started to use them but again, I’m terrible at puzzles. I think most experienced IF players will be able to solve the majority of the game’s puzzles without having to ask for help.

This is an enjoyable and engaging game. The descriptions of each room were so well-written that I could easily picture them in my head as I played, This game was partially designed to show off the new Quest 6 engine and it does a good job of doing just that. Content-wise, it feels like a throwback to the old text adventures that you would play for hours, experimenting with different verbs and seeing what you could do in each room of the house. If you like exploration-centered games and don’t mind having to figure out several puzzles, this is a game you should enjoy.

Play The House on Highfield Lane.