The Little Four
A quite cozy little slice of life parser game. You are captain Arthur Hastings, close friend of famous detective Hercule Poirot. In the intro, instead of one of their more famous thrilling mysteries, Hastings is reflecting back on a normal day in his life during a period when Hastings is staying in Poirot’s flat, in the guest bedroom. The flat below is owned by Hastings, and houses his four children. And on this rather run of the mill day, all you’re doing is getting coffee, walking the dog, watching over your children, and maybe meeting with Poirot before the day is done.
Though you do have some small tasks to perform through the day, this is much more about gradually exploring the two flats, and admiring and reminiscing about all the things your life has filled all the rooms with. There’s very few verbs needed other than moving around and EXAMINE. You might examine a photo, or Poirot’s walking stick, or the toys in your children’s bedrooms, and each item gives a couple sentences of attached memories. The item descriptions weave together a quite lovely tapestry of the lives of Hastings and some of the people closest to him. As personal preference, I do generally think that four+ sentences is a bit long for an item description, especially considering in this case how many rooms full of things to look at there are, no matter how vivid or imaginative the prose is. But then I’ve played some really well regarded parser games before which I also thought had rather long and dense descriptions for my tastes, but which other players specifically praised for their writing. Shrug.
Objects you haven’t examined yet are bolded, and directions are italicized. The task I’m trying to achieve was always listed in the status bar at the top of my interpreter as “Current objective” which was also helpful. The tasks do an adequate job shuffling me around the rooms, but it’s only when I think back on it that I recall the tasks as a whole and how they sketch out the whole domestic day in the life aspect of the story. During the actual playing, the focus always felt like it was more on all the fond anecdotes found in all the rooms, while during the moments when I was actually doing the tasks–things like getting your morning coffee or walking the dog–the description of the tasks as they were being done flashed by in a couple of brief sentences, almost like they were being fast forwarded through. There’s a nice anecdote if you examine the coffee maker, but I did feel like some of the tasks could’ve used a more physical presence from the player, or maybe a bit more dwelling on the moment, just some sort of pacing to make the few tasks Hastings was doing that day feel like they took up more time and space.
There’s nine tasks in total, and the last couple did feel more involving. The vital one is, after checking in with your children, going and meeting with Poirot along with one of your sons–the one that looks up to Poirot the most. Poirot sets a small mystery for the both of you to solve, and it’s a really nice moment. I did spend more time than maybe I was supposed to poring over the rooms and re-examining things I’d already examined looking for clues, but I figured it out in the end. One thing I did wish was for it to feel a bit more collaborative with my son when we were going through the rooms; I tried talking to him a couple of times and he just repeated his one general response, and he never commented or was described as looking through the rooms in a way where he felt like an active participant during my clue gathering. He only came alive when I returned to Poirot with my deduction.
But the overall sentiment, of us spending time together on a mystery devised by a man that meant so much to the both of us does carry through, all the way to the end of the day. It’s the warm atmosphere created in all the small sincere stories in the things you examine, and then the last third or so of the tasks that really binds this all together.