Max Fog's tiny reviews meet: Review-A-Thon

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

The Inaugural IF Review-a-thon (one month in!)

Welcome… [graphic reads "2024 Interactive Fiction Review-a-thon" in purple and green text on a blue gradient background. Beside the text is a simple illustration of a tuna fish.] …to the inaugural IF Review-a-thon! (Thanks to @manonamora for the graphic idea—“thon” means “tuna” in French!) Backstory First mentioned in this post (four months ago… ), this idea had a dual inspiration. One motivator was, simply, my love of the community’s reviewing culture. I came to the community …

Okay! I’ve added my name to the spreadsheet, got the bingo, and… ready to review. I hope that’s all I need to do, because I’m honestly a little lost.

I tend to write very tiny reviews for games, since I am only at the start of reviewing things, and have little experience. So in short: one or two paragraphs studying the straightforward facts, and no clever musings that make a good review like Mike Russo and the rest. And a song (I’ll stick to Radiohead as much as possible) that makes me think of it. But hey! This is how I get good…

The bingo sheet looks like this, and it’ll be updated as I go:

Parser game
Over 1 hour
Released this year
Under 15 minutes
Released 2022-2023
By a new-to-me author
Released 1988-2021
Hypertext/Choice-based game
Between 15-60 minutes

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Okay, first game: Your World According to a Single Word by @Kastel

Oh, um. Hmm. Not sure how to begin.

The game’s flow is interesting and yet captivating, picking between single-choices with massive texts of screen before them, and ones with objects and a lot of choices. Especially the clothes drawer. I liked the clothes drawer. It really made me feel like the word was really new to this world: didn’t know which parts to focus on and remember, instead remembering the things we take for granted - the vital stuff - and forgetting or undescribing the stuff humans find special. I found that clever.

The world’s on some things really were fascinating, such as the images (considering it is text), and I think the concept and delivery was great. However, the end bit with the outro (from the comments on OS to the end) dragged on a little too long, which could have been intended, but didn’t feel it.

Glad I played it though. Reminds me of Lawrence of Arabia for no real reason whatsoever.

Song: whoof. I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Bodysnatchers? The lyrics fit. And the music has this weird, positive but not upbeat, silly but not funny, pretty good vibes. Though this song is too heavy for the game.

Game between 15-60 minutes: check.

[Kastel]

@SomeOne2

dragged on a little too long, which could have been intended

Not my style to “correct” reviews, but I will say it is intentional. I committed to the premise of the single word being a pretty bad writer too faithfully though.

And while I’m also not sure why it’s like the movie, I happen to like that movie a ton. Thanks for the review!

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Next review: The Sunburst Contamination by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson

This is an old 1988 basic game ported to Z-machine. It has a simple plot of you trying to … Well, it wasn’t entirely clear from what I played. You have to save your crew from contamination? It has some good puzzles, such as the videogame one. However, as it does resemble a Scott Adams game, there are many parsing issues, and backspace doesn’t work, instead outputting what I assume is a space. Which confused me, but it didn’t affect me largely enough at all.

There was parsing problems, such as what seems to me as no way to turn on and off things. I tried TURN ON FLASHLIGHT, which responded “What’s the use of turning that?” So I tried ACTIVATE FLASHLIGHT. It didn’t understand. So I attempted TURN ON LIGHT, which responded again with “What’s the use of turning that?” Then I tried TURN FLASHLIGHT. Same thing. Then, finally I tried TURN HHH, and I was still given “What’s the use of turning that?” Which was confusing, since every other verb I tried it would go something like “What in space is on flashlight?” If I typed X ON FLASHLIGHT.

As well as this, a fountain and pond that are the main attraction and take up the most space in a room description are not implemented at all, yet some benches which take up half a sentence yet are vital to the game are implemented.

I did spend a lot of time trying to talk to something that was not implemented, and then I got it after about 15 different failed attempts.

Overall, there were some problems. Many directly listed objects weren’t implemented, and I couldn’t get very far into the game. If the game changes halfway through, I couldn’t get there because I spent so long walking around and trying different things.

Song: hmmm. That’s very difficult. I can’t think of anything! I’ll try and find something.

Game released 1988-2021: check.

[Denk (Kenneth Pedersen)]

I haven’t completed it yet but like it, being aware that this parser is strict two-word parser it seems - far from Infocom standard parser. If you want to see the end, or get an idea of how much you missed, check out the walkthrough:
:: CASA :: Sunburst Contamination (Sunburst_Contamination.txt) (solutionarchive.com)

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Hmm, I missed about half the game but it feels much more annoying than when you look at the solution. No offence to the creators intended.

[Denk (Kenneth Pedersen)]

Yes, sometimes walkthroughs do give a skewed idea about the parser. In this case, the parser isn’t as good as it appears from the walkthrough.

In other cases I have often seen reviewers complain about the parser because the proposed command in a walkthrough is quite detailed for explanatory purposes, even though the game does accept more simple commands. But of course, needing to consult a walkthrough when you have the right idea is usually a sign of a bad parser.

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Next review: Codex Crusade by leechykeen

This was a strange thing to experience! It’s about a humble librarian’s assistant’s intern finding a strange and special book. Much of the game is in a weird cafeteria… at the bottom of the library? With alchemy and … fight scenes. Against an elevator bouncer called Jorge.

There are some fun bits, including alchemy, but there were bugs as well. After playing through multiple fight scenes with Jorge and fainting every time, I woke up to no text on the screen. Just a status bar and background image. And no way to get out.

Also, if you’re doing alchemy but are only holding one ingredient, once you’ve placed in that ingredient you are stuck in a forever loop you can’t escape.

I would play through any sequels that are made. It’s actually a fairly fun game, where background images actually are fairly good and sound effects (although weird) actually contribute (I don’t often play with sound, but of the ones I have played with, I think only DOL-OS is better for me).

Song: Why am I thinking of Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)? It’s nothing like it. Well, not quite true. I think I might give up on songs. I can’t think of any.

Game by a new-to-me-author: check.

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

The Way Home by Kenneth Pedersen

This game starts with you, tied to a tree, with two trolls going to steal the diamond you are carrying. From the start, it has some simple yet nice puzzle ideas, but it feels like they are underhinted or unclear why you would think of that - for example, GET ROCK WITH BLANKET. I will skim over that, though, because I have been guilty of doing so as well in my game.

The game is mostly polished, with a few guess-the-verb moments, but I like the idea. Although one bit that irritated me was when I made a ladder, and then tried to drop it next to the wall to climb over, and it wouldn’t let me, and it turned out that I had to drop the ladder on the hill and use it as a sled, which did not feel hinted at all!

Some other problems involved problems with movement. For instance:

➢ e
There is no route to the east, only east, west and up.

Mostly it was an okay game, although I admit I had trouble enjoying some parts. Als note that the Game Over text goes over the room name in the map, but never goes back to the room name, so you end up with a lot of rooms called “Game Over” on the map.

Parser game: check

[Denk (Kenneth Pedersen)]

Thanks for the review! Your criticism is certainly fair. Though puzzle difficulty is always subjective, some people may find the puzzles easier, but as you have no doubt completed Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, that is probably not the case

Your idea regarding the wall I never thought of - so if I get around updating the game, the game should tell the player that the wall is too high to climb over using the ladder. There is a clue what to do instead, if you examine the wall and then examine the plaque you find that there is a poem there, but it may be too subtle a clue: “Hills lead through snow to holy places but only with danger for your life.”

Perhaps, if I manage to get the player more invested in the game - e.g. with more elaborate descriptions - the player may be more patient with the puzzles(?). From your IFDB review title I understand - and your are perfectly right - that the text in this game is fairly cold. Location descriptions are too brief, which was a consequence of porting the C64 version (single load tape game) to Adrift without spicing up the game with better descriptions, at a time I was new to modern IF and thought the puzzles alone would do it.

So if neither the text nor the puzzles were very good, I guess your 3 stars were generous. In any case an interesting and useful review.

(BTW, the map issue is probably due to the Adrift WebRunner(?) which is not as polished as the Windows Runner. I don’t think Frankendrift have that issue either)

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Next game: Look Around the Corner by Doug Orleans

For this next review, I began playing Teatime With A Vampire (which, along with Romance the Backrooms, could do with some reviews) - before realising it’s a lot more NSFW than I expected, so I pulled back.

I went for this game - a much smaller, easier and simpler game. There was not much to do, giving it the feel of a limited parser game. It wasn’t - you still got all the verbs (or the ones that I tried). It starts simple - waking up, light shining round the corner off to the north, and let to explore. Exploring involves simply going north and then east, over and over again as you get all the responses - of which there weren’t as many as I would have liked. However, there is a way to win. After realising that I should probably be listening to the song instead of 11 5 18 12 1 14 14 by Yann Tiersen. I quite liked the song, but it was there that I got the answer to winning the game. It’s a short, one-move, and just a little unsatisfactory ending, but it does the job.

I would say that, for sure, the best bit was the false ending (looking round the corner). I would wish there were more of them, though.

Game under 15 minutes: check.

Song: I think I have one for this one. Faust Arp. It is very short, and has themes of dreaming and waking up and endless cycles - or at least that’s what it feels like to me after listening to the song a lot.

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

Oops - I may have just forgotten about this. Anyway, now I’m back!

Next game: Kiss of Beth by Charm Cochran

To start off with, that was a very impressive change in mood there. I was in no way expecting that - I was thinking along the style of a completely different type of horror. So - yeah.

I’m not sure where to begin. The beginning? Sounds reasonable. At the start, I already felt clued as to just what might be the ending with the colour palette. That was the first, subtle giveaway. In this game, visuals seemed much more influential on the outcome than many others I’ve played. I thought pictures were cool, giving me a good idea of who I was looking at, although I’m not sure it felt necessary after the first try. The gray-scale change was too sudden, going from full colour to completely gray then wavering through different variations on the gray-scale. It felt slightly too jarring to me.

As I played through, I felt more and more like the game stayed straight on track with my original expectations upon seeing the guy: he’s fairly normal, but he certainly is going to be a violent murderer and you’re gonna have to escape. The only thing that clashed was, of course, the colour palette, which felt to me like I was playing a more sinister and bit more bleak version of Sweetpea.

But oh, was I wrong.

Looking at other reviews, it seems like people had very similar thoughts playing through. The thing was very cleverly designed though, finally clicking all the seemingly wonky puzzle pieces together in a satisfying pattern that reveals something much scarier, if I’m thinking in game terms. And yet, it feels like I should have known that all along, and that’s what makes it even scarier - it adds to this sense of “just another person-eating ritual going on upstairs. Nothing to worry about.” And I think that works well.

Song: Um. Radiohead is depressing and weird, but usually not scary, unless you’re into things that may or may not be satanic rituals (Morning Bell, I’m looking at you). Time to open up Amnesiac! I’m thinking… Sorry, but We Suck Young Blood is the most likely candidate. And that’s not saying much. God, I think Morning Bell would be better, especially when they start singing something that sounds suspiciously like “Cut the kiiiids in haaaalf…”

Hypertext/Choice-based game: check.

[SomeOne2 (Max Fog)]

I also forgot to thank @anon66621404 profusely for her delightful artwork, which is now the banner of my review thread!! It is literally me in a nutshell.