Noah's IF Spaceworld 2023- Evaluations

Competitions IFComp
100

Ribald Bat Lady Plunder Quest (Joey Acrimonious)

What it is about: You are Zorklang the Despoiler, the next big antihero since Wreck-it-Ralph, a vampire lady who is on a mission… to obtain a special gift for her husband, and hopefully wreck the city along the way.

The good: Since you’re a vampire, you need armor and some weapons, but you don’t need an armor upgrade to detect hidden passageways- you listen and smell instead. Lots of vampire lingo. We had pirate and barbarian lingo, now it’s time for vampire lingo! Sexual vampire lingo! We get a partner cat! And thugs to recruit! Looks like Dick McButts and Stiffy Makane have a new sexual rival! This aside, there is a good balance between sexual scenes, horror scenes and action scenes. This is yet another game with a murder mystery. This one, however, has plenty of people to talk to and seduce and wreck. All characters are over-the-top.

The bad: There are slightly long descriptive and dialogue scenes in between major actions. Some items do not have an obvious use (like the decanter). Some actions really remind me of Stormrider. Zorklang keeps letting her enemies get one step ahead, so she is on the backfoot nearly all the time, which is sort of a dampener. Some areas like the apothecary should be explorable, but are not. Directions after unlocking secret passages can be odd (east or south from docks to market square?).

The Huh: What is despoiling- is it just another fancy word for taking something? What’s with ye olde English? Also weird is that it’s in the third person. The humor is just sometimes on and sometimes off. The endgame felt too anticlimactic- alas, what just happened?

Grade: 71.8%

5 Likes
101

Thanks for playing and for the review!

Yes, despoiling is a fancy word for taking something. It was important to me that Zorklang uses the same parlance for what she does with both objects and people.

Edited to add: I am greatly honored that your methodology gave my game the exact same grade as Barcarolle in Yellow.

1 Like
102

It comes from “spoils” as in “spoils of war” (i.e. the loot you take when you win)—so “despoiling” is when you take the spoils from someone or something.

3 Likes
104

Hi Noah, thank you so much for taking the time to play my game and for your review.

I’m sorry that the game threw you off so many wrong tracks. I think the achievement checklist is a great idea and I see you found a lot of them! As for the Berghain: I was aware that not everyone would know it (but you obviously did) and I hope I’m forgiven for the tiny Berlin in-joke.

105

Lake Adventure (B. J. Best)

What it is about: You are Eddie Hughes, and you are playing your game that you developed a long time ago, recollecting memories. Sounds very familiar to another piece…

The good: The birthday invitation stuff from Hand Me Down returns, only you don’t need to find one since it’s your sister’s birthday, not yours. The slice of life memories also return. The premise is very similar- a family member is in hospital or in this case, already dead, and you are playing a game within a game. Liked the PC’s self-reflections. A hand-drawn map is provided, to make it seem more rustic. A hint is provided in-game, another fourth wall break. Collecting shards also is similar to the mechanic of Gift of What You Notice More. There is another cat! And another boat (how many of these already this year?)! And not only can we swim, we can even explore underwater! The time machine and memory capsule ending was really unexpected. The humor was done in a way such that it complemented (complimented?) the self-reflection segments. And we can even go to the moon (hypothetically)!

The bad: Why can’t we give people things? Surprise, surprise, no or limited undo button. I would also have liked to have more Easter eggs. At the very end, there’s no way to wake up and realize that it was all a dream after all? What happened to your sister’s birthday party in the end? Oh wait, she passed away… The eponymous exploration and adventure on the lake does not take up the lion’s share of the story.

The Huh: What’s with the DOS-like UI (with the question mark)? Does gas count as something spicy? Again, is the author from Wisconsin? And why does it seem reminiscent of You Came to a House Not Unlike the Previous One, where it also involves some people playing a game?

Grade: 73.3%

2 Likes
106

Milliways: the Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Max Fog)

What it is about: Welcome to the follow-up to the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. You arrive on a strange planet and do all sorts of wacky things, but you will sometimes be jumping around in the dark-literally, so it’s best not to deviate from the main path. Get ready for a very long ride.

I did explore the following stages: Magrathea, under Magrathea, the dark hub, Milliways, Morpher Ship, Detective Agency, Ark B, Design Workshop, Big Bang Burger Bar, all in separate playthroughs. I couldn’t get into the Fjord stage multiple times, until I realized I had missed out a certain step (see below). Saving often is highly recommended. After a long time, I finally managed to unravel more stuff, but still extremely difficult to trigger the final two areas for the endgame. Probably an error (see below).

The good: We start out with another reference to whales. And many a spaceship. There is a Wood Between the Worlds hub, but it’s in total darkness. We of course have the actual Hitchhiker’s Guide with us, and each area has some sort of puzzle. Like Little Match Girl, it’s another Metroidvania, but a lot more random. Plenty of puzzles, as expected. Plenty of weird locations and exotic items, as expected. Plenty of Hitchhiker’s Guide references, as expected. The stages themselves are not too huge. The humor is enough to be enjoyable but not overpowering. For something that was based on an officially published novel, it is really, given the constraints and the time limit, a job well done.

The bad: Plenty of ways you can go wrong: wrong turn action timing, wrong direction, etc. You’ll need to follow everything and every step very precisely. Tedious is really an understatement. Quite a bit of time is spent in the hub. Oh yes, there is an item limit like in The Witch. Some parts can be annoyingly buggy. The tray in the kitchen for the infamous gargle blaster puzzle stage for example. The game did not register that I had the tray, so the final two areas were impossible to access. There were also some minor ambiguities and typos. Some areas are bigger with more things to do and some were smaller. Granted that this game is on the extra large size category, this may sound harsh, but I would have preferred that every area was about the same size.

The Huh: Not very familiar with the source material, so hard to thoroughly comment. Why are Brian Rushton and Manon on the banned list?

Grade: 85.0%

6 Likes
107

Out Of Scope (Drew Castalia)

What it is about: A political romance about love and violence, and society’s binding or loosening of these aspects.

The good: Trying to examine the issue from the point of view of two siblings, Joe and Zoe. Framing it as both a family issue as well as the wider implications in society. Again, there is a secret mastermind behind it all. The paradox between love and violence. Everyone has different goals and different interpretations and different ways to achieve them. The family is broken, physically (the house), figuratively and all. The pressure, the prejudices, the battles are real. When you know the moon is a scrambled egg, that’s where the horror starts. The sentences are short and to the point. With a situation like this, there’s no need for puzzles.

The bad: The game keeps crashing or unable to load, and this also applies for the offline version. I managed to get to the start of Chapter 2 before this happened. The UI is novel- you have to point and click the textbox, but it’s very cumbersome as you may not realize where the various textboxes are. I had to use the walkthrough instead to figure out what was going on. The choices are also given in a yes or no format. The martial pacifist is in the shadows.

The Huh: Someone has to die, huh? Despite the novel genre, concept and settings, a really tough pill to swallow, I am not sure of what to make of this, and am not sure of what grade to give as well… Indeed, love wins, but being a pacifist sure is incredibly hard in a world like this…

Update: I managed to reach chapter 5 offline (the east wing of the house part).

Grade: 65.5%

6 Likes
108

5 posts were split to a new topic: Credits as easter eggs?

109

Thanks for taking a look at my game, Noah. Can I ask, when does the game crash? Is there a reliable way to break it or a place in the story where it always fails? I’d love to fix it before too many others experience the same annoyance.

Someone doesn’t necessarily have to die (unless you count poor Vesj). More details on that in the walkthrough, of course.

2 Likes
110

[Moving half of my message back into this thread from the moved thread:]

Thank you for your review! I’m glad you got through much, but I’m sorry that you also got the tray bug. (I really need to get that fixed…)

111

Have Orb, Will Travel (Older Timer)

What it is about: You’re some mysterious wizard who goes round helping people. You need to find this sacred orb for, who knows? Well, the Council of Elders sent you on this mission anyway.

The good: The weird setting and the weird stuff you can obtain. Trying to do an Indiana Jones within a fantasy genre is appreciable. Plenty of weird puzzles and mazes. And who put a cube (or two) and pyramid in my locker? There is a hub and spoke style structure again, though far less obvious than in Knight Knave and Milliways, complete with backtracking. Like Lake Adventure, there is swimming at one point.

The bad: Since this one is another old-school style piece, expect descriptions to be scarce and somewhat generic, pretty much the same issues that The Witch had. I tend to prefer stuff that have a good balance of everything: dialogue, puzzles, explorables and collectables, storyline, and so on. This one doesn’t, and it’s probably because I am more familiar with the newer-era kind of parsers (totally unfamiliar when this evaluation series started, but more familiar now). Also, take all has to be container specific, another feature that the newer-era ones ignore for simplicity’s sake. There are only three power-ups, and you get them all near the beginning, something that, again, is totally alien to the newer-era ones, since you normally get power-ups through the course of the story. Plenty of tedious mazes, oops again. Which is important as some games give a list of directions you can go- some at the end of the description, others in a separate header, but this one is not explicit about that. Oh, and there’s no undo button. Some stuff really feels like they need more information (colored buttons for instance).

The Huh: The sound effects were nice, but not necessary. The UI was something retro like Lake Adventure and Obscura, but somewhat more drab. Plenty of questions about the Holy Grail/Orb are left unanswered. Why is it so sacred? What is its power? Why was it hidden away? Do we need to destroy it like that One Ring? How did we end up here? Why are we Alice but not Indiana Jones?

Grade: 62.4%

8 Likes
112

I’ve finished evaluating 90% of IFComp 2023 entries. The remaining six will be based on uncompleted playthroughs due to time constraints.

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113

Congratulations on doing so much! It’s been fun reading them.

Of the last six, Magor Investigates and Creative Cooking are a lot smaller, although I had to use walkthroughs on both.

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114

Creative Cooking (dott. Piergiorgio)

What it is about: Cooking for a friend reunion dinner, but it’s not what you think it is. Looks like some ingredients are missing again. It’s also meant to be a teaser for a bigger WIP.

The good: We start out in a lab, much like Dr Ludwig. (Milliways also has one, but you don’t get to see it until somewhere in the middle, unless you count the restaurant as one). Unlike Eat the Eldritch, there are no fish sticks to cook out of a giant sea worm. Like One Does Not Simply Fry, it’s another cookfest. There is a red herring, but it’s useful, unlike All Hands Abandon Ship. At this time, I am making multiple references between IFComp entries. Relatively short, for a parser game, with few key items. First game that needs an external interpreter and with the old school UI that several (Lake Adventure, Obscura, Have Orb, Hawkstone) have. Not everything has to end in you fighting the villain anyway.

The bad: Other than talking to some people and gathering some ingredients, there’s not much we can do, since the area itself is rather limited, but nevertheless really tries to spice (pun intended) things up. I also thought that the market will be an important place to buy ingredients (like the tavern in Dr Ludwig), but surprisingly, we don’t have anything to do. Same goes for some other areas, like the Shit Pit and what’s north of the garden and east of the city. Some things you can’t look at, like the table in your study.

The Huh: Names sound very Italian and Japanese, even the leaves (the author is Italian, after all). The title is somewhat of a misnomer, since we don’t do any cooking until the end, and probably should have included a cooking segment. How to get to the last 2 locations? More background story, please. Trying to pull off a fantasy slice of life is difficult, but it’s good attempt at a beginning, I think. Also, exotic programming language.

Grade: 70.5%

6 Likes
115

Milliways? In a lab?? It even says in the blurb that it starts on the Ramp (leading down from the Heart of Gold to the legendary lost planet of Magrathea).

I think this is just a smaller version of what will be a larger game.

116

Magor Investigates … (aka Magor the Investigator) (Larry Horsfield)

What it is about: You are Magor, the head detective and wizard of the kingdom of Hecate. Now the king and duke have consulted you about a case of some aliens (or something like that) on one of the southern islands. But it’s not really about how to deal with them. It’s about helping the rest of the people in the castle about their tasks.

The good: Since this one has to be played offline, I was expecting more of the same, or to have problems with the UI. Hooray for autofill! We have a task list (like in Stormrider and Bat Lady Quest). The descriptions are clear- if a desk has no drawer, it will say so, avoiding the needless option of opening the drawer. We have a lightbulb on our head, and have yet another lab (we are a detective wizard, after all). The missions- like making tea, watering the plant, searching the archives- sound simple enough, but soon you realize that there are plenty of other stuff underfoot. The missions themselves are not too hard. Despite it being a fantasy genre, it has a good amount of humor, for example, ‘Keep Calm and Consult the Archives’ (compared to something like The Witch and Have Orb). The blend of magic and technology is incredible- you can keep a desalination plant running on magic with very low costs. Descriptions are enough to keep you going- not too sparse to make you confused, not too much to make you bored.

The bad: First of all, Comic Sans is not a good font for parser games. There is not much dialogue- you can’t talk to somebody or ask about something, despite the fact that you go round solving problems. There were only two major problems to solve- brewing tea and searching the archives, so I would have wanted it to be longer.

The Huh: This is part of a larger series, but enough backstory is implemented such that it can also work as a standalone. Wait, how do you water that plant of yours?

Grade: 72.5%

5 Likes
117

Antony and Cleopatra: Case IV: The Murder of Marlon Brando (Travis Moy)

What it is about: The year is 20XX. America is prospering under you-know-who. But so too did crime. Team up with the dynamic detective duo, Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra to investigate a murder!

I cheated by using 2 computers, since I couldn’t find someone else to go along for the ride. Spedrun it too.

The good: It’s in 2021, but we have people like Audrey Hepburn and the two main characters are from 45 BC. In real life, but you have this time machine to send them into the 21st century. Mind you, this is just the beginning, get ready to see Rasputin, William Randolph Hearst, Otto von Bismarck, Napoleon Bonaparte and more! The central feature is the ability to schedule visits to different locations and interviews with different people. In previous murder mysteries (Mayor McFreeze, Stormrider, Last Vestiges), the things you had to do were more or less done in a fixed order. Not here. Dialogue is clearly color-coded, so experiences will always be slightly different. The tone of both characters are also different despite similar responses (A is more direct than C). This one has a mix of nearly everything: celebrities, political intrigue, family affairs and the like added on to the murder mystery. This is done in such a way that it flows. The final part plays out exactly the same as in Last Vestiges. The information is in the left column for your reference, just in case you do forget. And are we in Alexandria, Virginia or Alexandria, Egypt?

The bad: Since it requires 2 people to play, I kept looking at both computers, not very convenient. Then again, this concept is novel, but I’m not so sure if this was pulled off well enough, or should it be single player, with an option for either character. I also was expecting more character-exclusive routes, not just in terms of dialogue. Sometimes it feels too much like a TV show though. And I was thinking along the lines of key items, probably from the parsers before this, but this one is more focused on interactions between A and C and the different suspects and the areas involved. And since this isn’t a parser, where’s my map?

The Huh: More humor, please? In this case, the historical context is all over the place, which is both a good and a bad. This piece would feel more coherent if it was played as intended. This also feels more like a building block to a more advanced and ambitious IF that basically embraces the Cluedo spirit. In particular, trying to emulate a murder mystery where every detective has asymmetric and incomplete information. It’s trying to be like multiplayer digital Cluedo, just not quite there yet…

Grade: 65.9%

5 Likes
118

Hawkstone (Handsome McStranger)

What it is about: Another really long adventure that you undertake. Your boat has crashed on a mysterious island- not unlike Milliways- and you’ll need to explore this island to find out its secrets, as usual.

Probably my first impressions of this piece, via walkthrough, unfinished.

The good: Despite the fantasy setting, the humor really pulls it through, which was not the case for some others (The Witch, Have Orb). Apparently you can shop online in the Middle Ages! And there is a club! Using items isn’t so bad, since the game checks whether you pass the case or not. And items and exits are fortunately clearly labelled. To keep with the Halloween theme, we actually pay a visit to the underworld. There are not too many instructions to remember, one of the features of old-school that actually is helpful. At least there is an open ending, I think?

The bad: I’m not used to stats and levels in a parser, especially when fighting, since previously you could just say hit A with B, especially since this is a feature of the modern parsers. Well, modern enough anyway. Also, look A instead of x A, since the latter is again a feature of modern parsers. Since there are levels, probably should have some achievements to go along as well, like Magor Investigates and Gestures Towards Divinity. And randomness. The thing that turns people like me off sometimes when playing parser IF- this isn’t a garcha. Location descriptions don’t always align with what you’re doing as you need to scroll up to remember where you are. Saying you did a thing and got something really doesn’t help at all. What do we get? The same issues with old school stuff show up here: no undo, item limit, the like.

The Huh: Another old-school style parser, with really average UI. Clearly fighting old-school parsers have been my biggest weakness this IFComp season. Trying to combine RPG elements in an old-school parser IF is indeed challenging, and I’m not so sure if the author pulled it off in a way that is really appealing. The author is trying to go old-school while still incorporating features of modern day parser IF like stats and humor. The result is more of a mess than something worth shining the light on, since glitches can occur. There is no need to reinvent the parser wheel here. This one tries too much to be like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Mega Man Legends, but it’s clearly missing something- that x-factor that Little Match Girl, Milliways, Beauty Cold and Austere, Counterfeit Monkey and others have, since it does get repetitive after some time.

Grade: 65.2%

3 Likes
119

Artful Deceit (James O’Reilly)

What it is about: Yet another murder mystery, this time it’s got something to do with art, and the victim had foresaw.

The good: There are custom commands to analyze stuff and there are also commands to simply drive to somewhere. The documents and feelies are generously included, along with an instruction manual and maps. This is the third game to have an art gallery after Gestures and Pseudo-Dementia, involved in a significant way in the plot. Colored filters reminds me of colored test tubes in Milliways. Exits and items are clearly stated. It also clearly says that you don’t have enough evidence if this happens, which is broken down into three aspects- means, motive and opportunity. Puzzles are reasonably nice enough.

The bad: There are plenty of rooms in the house, but some of them are not important to solving the murder. This is also the same for some of the paintings in the art gallery. This isn’t an escape room like in All Hands Abandon Ship, where you can throw in some red herrings. Something also tells me that you don’t have a lot of chances to talk to people (unlike in, say Last Vestiges). Colored buttons is something more along the lines of fantasy (as in Have Orb), or science fiction, so having it here is really out of left field.

The Huh: I’m not very familiar with the Commodore 64, much like in Obscura with the ZX Spectrum, so it running really slower than usual took me by surprise, even if the UI is similar to the rest of the old school ones (which means no modern commands, even if analyze is indeed one). Getting and analyzing things and talking to people can be tedious sometimes, compared to the ease of modern parsers. The classic revenge killing arc feels unexpected- I would have liked something more unexpected!

Grade: 66.3%

6 Likes
120

How Prince Quisborne the Feckless Shook His Title (John Ziegler)

What it is about: You are the mentor to Prince Quisborne, and he seems to be a little eccentric and has a knack for rhyming and poetry. But for ruling the kingdom? Well, not so much. Can you be a good Shifu?

Episode 1 lets us escort the prince to the festival. Episode 2 takes us and the price for some mysterious adventures…which is again unfinished. In other words, readthrough mode.

The good: There are plenty of things to look at, and what’s more, the descriptions are really detailed. Yes, there is an area with plenty of things to look at this early on in the game. This shows how much time was spent in the worldbuilding aspect- the world is indeed huge. And yes, the author provided a separate map, and borders for aesthetics. The humor is quite nice and spicy, in particular the prince’s dialogues. And our disciple warms up to us as things go along. There are plenty of things we can do. Even with a walkthrough mode on, I basically had a lot to take in after only seeing 10% of the entire piece.

The bad: The length- this game is big- and the verbosity. There is a lot to go through, even if there was no two-hour restriction. Since there is plenty of things to explore with a really big and open world at our disposal, it is easy to get lost and bogged down in the details and forget about our mission objectives, thus wandering in circles. I couldn’t find readthrough mode initially, but thanks to the author for including one. There are plenty of puzzles to complement the narrative, but the puzzles get weirder and weirder. And I want my romance the prince option so badly.

The Huh: This needs more backstory. This feels like it could be on to some Kung Fu Panda style antics and plot, but you’re Shifu, and this, as mentioned elsewhere, is the intro to what could very well be a huge game. Seriously, PQ needs to be more feckful. And I found out that you could do things that you shouldn’t be doing, seriously? The author is really ambitious, and it really shows.

Grade: 74.1%

7 Likes