The Golden King
I’m not sure what to say about this one. I began my experience with The Golden King by getting absolutely jump-scared by the audio, then trying WASD and the mouse for far too long before I realised I needed to use the arrow keys.
Once I got going, I enjoyed what I played. The VO is well written and acted. If I’d picked this up on Steam or Itch, I’d be pretty pleased.
This was IFComp, though. I don’t really want to get into the “what is IF” debate. That’s an answered question: IF is what the IF community thinks IF is. And I don’t think exclusion is very useful in determining a genre. But there was no text here, not even as subtitles (which is a genuine accessibility concern) so I’m finding it difficult to judge this piece as IF, rather than more broadly as a video game.
Demonstration
The machines in the elevator sound just like tigers
The best way I can describe my experience of playing Demonstration is that it felt like going to an art gallery, not getting the exhibit, and wondering if the art is bad, of if I’m just stupid.
It started off well, with an option to turn on the music (unlike TGK’s jump scare!), which proved to sound great, but quickly went downhill when “look out of window” did not turn out to be a synonym for “x window”.
Like I mentioned in previous reviews, I’m a bit parser challenged, so was happy to chalk that up to my own inexperience, but the playthrough didn’t really get much better. I felt confused the entire time. If Tablex Vivants was a pleasant dream, this was one of those confusing, looping, not-quite-nightmares.
I was only able to finish the game due to Dan’s walkthrough—I have no idea why I had to take the last action I did, especially when “talk to partner” did nothing.
I did really like the quote above about elevators and tigers, and it was nicely written, so I think I’m chalking this one down to “I don’t get it”.
Thirst For Blood
You go back in the night, in search of better blood.
It took me a little while to grasp navigating a single room with compass directions, but once I got there I enjoyed exploring a person’s room from the vantage point of a quite literal fly on the wall!
The prose here was occasionally a little clunky, but the objective was well telegraphed and the descriptions of under the bed as a cave and a person’s legs as a forest were charming.