I got frustrated with this one quickly so won’t vote on it.
Magpie Takes the Train
This started off well. Each parser entry was pretty obvious, and each entry gave a fair bit of text, so much so that nearly every response was a little scene all by itself.
After that initial hand-holding, I was left to guess at what I’m supposed to do. Not: I was left some choices to make (however ill-prepared I felt), but, I was left to guess at the author’s intention for me. Most of my obvious attempts gave a unique response so there’s not really an implementation problem, but I have always been bad at parser games.
However, it’s Inform’s broken implementation of darkness that really irritates me. Suddenly I can’t continue the conversation I’m in because it got dark. The PC is suddenly deaf and forgetful in addition to blind. I have never understood why. I’m sure I’ll need the darkness for a later puzzle bit, so I Z Z Z a lot until it goes away.
Nothing I try gets very far until the text tells me to destroy a beard, which I easily do, but, on examining that character after it fell off, it’s still on, and nobody else seemed to notice despite the text hinting that it would have. I’m confused.
An NPC barks at me for touching the radiator – fine, I’ll wait until it’s dark to fill the room with steam or however this is supposed to change matters – but when it gets dark I can’t do anything again.
I’m done.