[size=150]Beta Tester - By Darren Ingram[/size]
Game’s Blurb:
The goal is discovery. The fun is walking around and doing and seeing, with an emphasis on games and puzzles.
(Score and review contained within expandable spoiler):
[spoiler]Preconceptions:
Hmm. Blurb isn’t very exciting or imaginative. Also, my usual routine of playing, then reviewing, then reading other reviews has led to my seeing unfortunate (and extremely unfavorable) mentions of this game in the review of another game, over at Conrad Cook’s blog. Granted, Conrad’s evaluation of the game I intended to read about is far from in line with my own, so there may be good to come of Beta-Tester too. I guess the safer thing for me would be to finish the Comp before reading any comp chatter… since I can’t “un-see” other people’s opinions, and I can’t keep from adjusting my own expectations as a result. 
Review Summary:
A trek through a virtual reality of disjointed scenes and slapstick humor, Beta Tester succeeds in some ways but fails in others. Not unreservedly recommendable, but it does have enough “good” in it to entertain.
Played: 10/9/2009 for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Score: 5 (Passable)
Transcript: here
I can’t know this for sure, but I’m reasonably certain Beta Tester isn’t a joke entry. It’s a game with jokes, but that’s not the same thing. Every part of the game shows obvious effort, and not of the “I’m going to make these poor judging fools suffer” variety. Unless I’m way off the mark – admittedly, a possibility no matter the situation – the author is attempting to entertain his audience, not punish us.
I’m no stranger to games that use unreal elements to justify the coding of any mismatched whim that comes to mind, and that seems to be what Darren has done in Beta Tester. It’s slapstick and zaniness and goofball comedy that may be drawing its inspiration from Monty Python and others. So, through the entirety of Beta Tester I couldn’t help but ponder the question, “why isn’t this working more effectively here?” Was it because this sort of humor just doesn’t translate well into interactive fiction? Was it the author’s delivery, or the ever-present knowledge that this is the work of a hobbyist? Have I just outgrown this sort of thing, or (shudder) developed a calloused sense of humor?
A large part of this may just be something a little more obvious. Absurd humor is at its best when it’s unexpected, placed within an otherwise ordinary setting. This is something of which Monty Python – based on my very-far-from-expert knowledge of their sketch comedy – seemed to excel. When the whole game is a mishmash of random and purposely-unreal themes, the humor just doesn’t stand out as much.
That’s not to say Beta Tester doesn’t have its moments. The good parts just seem too familiar, as if I’ve heard the same jokes or seen the same slapstick. The game itself lacks focus, meandering from scene to disconnected scene with no apparent purpose – no plot, but plenty of self-referential bits. It tends to overuse the Super Duper Proper Naming Gimmick, and the dramatic “pause” – used everywhere – gets annoying as early as the opening scene.
The first puzzle – the one required just to progress further into the game – is more complicated and obscure than those that follow, but in the end I was pleased with how almost everything was solvable without hints. The exception, for me, was one point where “asking” is necessary, even though “talk to” had been completely unsupported. By then, I had the impression that the only communication I could instigate with an NPC involved automatic events based on entering the room, sitting down, or taking some other text-triggering action.
The implementation isn’t perfect. It’s not even great. But neither is it bad, on the whole. Aside from some blank responses and quite a few missed opportunities to support optional (but often obvious) actions, it all seemed solid enough not to draw too much attention to the rough parts.
The game does open up into the “walking around and doing and seeing” promised by the blurb, although the first parts make that seem like an empty promise. A two-player dice game called “First To 100” is something I had never seen before. I don’t know if it’s the author’s own invention or if he found it elsewhere (Google brings up unrelated results), but it was pretty clever nonetheless. It’s part luck, part guts, and easy to learn. It felt pretty clunky as implemented in the game (maybe this is something that needs a more graphical approach), but the game itself could be adapted for more than two participants, and perhaps enjoyed more with real dice. The author’s variation on Rock Paper Scissors was interesting too, but at the core, unchanged. I kept wishing for Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock (chuckle if you get that).
Lacking a story (this is just a setting used as a vehicle for the things the author himself finds humorous), and lacking an ending (although that’s not strictly true, since after a point it’s up to the player to trigger the ending, wrapping things up as though a typical game’s final goal had been met), it’s not easily recommendable. But if you’re in a wacky, laugh-for-any-reason kind of mood, and if you just want to tinker around in a disjointed world of nonsense, give Beta Tester a go. There are worse ways to kill an hour.[/spoiler]