THE MAGPIE TAKES THE TRAIN
In a short sequel to “Alias ‘The Magpie’”, we play again as the notorious master thief, this time trying to snatch a ruby from a millionaire while we are in the same train car with her. There are several people in the carriage that we can interact with, and a central element we can avail of is the suitcase that contains various outfits. The repeated plot device of the train plunging into a tunnel every now and then also helps us in attaining our goal. This game is a perfect example of how the player, through trial and error, and through experimenting with the various possibilities that the setting offers, learns more and more about the environment and finally arrives at the goal. Even if this is just one scene, taking place basically in one location only, it is enough of a game due to the careful implementation and the multitude of things you can try. The humor is good - for example the ways in which the Magpie, in the different outfits, compliments the millionaire, cracked me up. The conversation system is original and simple to use. There is a good hint system which I had to use twice, and never until the explicit answer. I caught only one small problem with the verb “show”: ‘show (object) to (person)’ yields “The object pays no heed to the person.” (rather than the other way around). That is just nitpicking, though. All in all, this piece of IF, as to its pacing, humor, and level of implementation, is quite a jewel in itself. 10