What it is about: In a city where candy is its heartbeat, you are trapped in an abandoned candy factory, and must escape (again) all while deducing who killed the city mayor. Turns out somebody had an affair…
The good: Turning things on and see what happens. Tasting the candy. Reading the mysterious notes. Not turning into a (blue) raspberry like a certain someone from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The comical candy factory in a overall serious atmosphere made for good contrast.
The bad: This piece focuses too much on the escape room aspect, and not enough on the ‘deduce who is the culprit’ aspect. There are also too few areas to explore when compared to some of the other entries, but this was designed to be shorter.
The Huh: Although it’s a standalone, it is also the sequel to Who Shot Gum E. Bear from last year!
Spoilers: I used a walkthrough and hints for most of the games this year, especially the parser ones.
Beat Witch (Robert Patten)
What it is about: You’re a super fighting vampire (of sorts), and you have to defeat an evil witch who is reprogramming everyone in the city with her music a la Dr Wily. Unfortunately, everyone here thinks you are THE beat witch. The challenge: Flee your pursuers, save the city that thinks you’re evil and face, but do not succumb to, the music (I had the music off, it’s just extra decoration).
The good: The dark descriptions mixed with the occasional comical scenes is really appropriate for a horror piece. The mysterious lab test. Plenty of dialogue, including from ghosts. Plenty of fake villains before the real one finally shows up. The Mewtwo Strikes Back references. The fake Game Over! (there are a myriad of real ones, too.) The flashbacks.
The bad: I wish this one had more stages and more areas to explore before you head to the beat witch’s castle. We head there rather early. We need more info on the mysterious lab test. Where’s the death counter? Since we’re a beat witch, we need more people to drain lives from, right? The endgame is somewhat challenging, and the pace was faster than expected.
The Huh: Where’s the first rule of magic: ‘Thou shalt not harm a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm’? Why wasn’t Benny possessed? Mercy is indeed greater than revenge, after all…
What it is about: You are a barbarian king. An ancient evil has returned and is roaming the land, having already killed one of your advisors. You’ll have to take them down, all while looting as much as you can along the way!
The good: The humor. Like the other Lord of the Rings-inspired title, this one has it in spades. For a fantasy setting, you are, despite being the king, expected to behave like a barbarian, so you get all sorts of brutal commands- you hit things rather than drain them like in Beat Witch. I’m sticking with the standard ones, though, but sometimes you have to use barbarian language. The descriptions of your environs are detailed and clear, with almost everything and action accounted for. From others’ reviews, it was said that this was originally for the Single Choice Jam, so I was surprised how it came out to be like this- not too easy, not too hard, as Manon suggested. You also get a fun buddy in Alcaz. And an even better one in Lydia. The time reversal puzzle is in the commands! (but it gets repetitive after some time)
The bad: The two guards puzzle could have been better implemented (you ask the question!). When to just take and when to really loot, well, is up to guessing. This tries too hard to be a Castlevania-Monster Hunter hybrid, but there are very few things to actually defeat. Including said ancient evil…
The Huh: The Groundhog Day approach is even weirder than in Last Valentines’ Day. The maze the second time is even more tedious- there is no way to know if we are correct. The endgame was really… strange, since what happened to everyone was never revealed.
Hi @RockmanX, thank you very much for playing and reviewing my game! I did leave the ending a bit vague (Alcaz is going to research with the Sage what happens to magic, and the PC and Lydia go back to the palace due to some “urgent matter”), because I am an optimist at heart and thought if this works why not think of what would come next… Maybe I can add more back story / exposure in a post comp release.
The reason Benny wasn’t possessed was he wasn’t dead. Young Polly only killed her mother (accidentally), not her entire family. And as Denise observes, Polly is – by choice – a very underpowered beat witch. She would have to drain people by the hundreds to start possessing corpses.
What it is about: Yikes, you’ve accidentally opened a hole in hell and caused the Devil to go from there into your laboratory. Worse still, you’ve signed a deal that you can’t back out of. Let’s find a way to send him back, shall we? Oh, and we have another cult to deal with.
The good: Loads of pesudo-old English here. The opening makes the Devil look like an innocent robot, and Hell a beachside resort! And wait, is the devil nonbinary? Is this a parody of Frankenstein or what? Although the title screams fantastical horror, this one also has loads of humor to go along with it. Almost over the top, so much that there is a list of amusing things to do (found at the end). There are plenty of things to ask the Devil about- not as many as Galatea, but still. Moreover, there is a list of suggested topics, so you’ll won’t be bedeviled (pun intended) for loss of words. Oh, yes, you can order the Devil about, just like a robot! You need to find items in different areas to create the ink, so that’s the puzzle to balance the dialogue scenes, with the devil and with a handful of citizens. Good deal of other references to spice it all up. And we have a convenient encyclopedia of demonic lore at our perusal. The ending was a bit anticlimactic, but delivered the knockout punch line.
The bad: There are no people to romance, but sadly Hans and the devil are not even eligible for romance. In fact, there are little romantic scenes. The devil clearly gives us a loophole for us to exploit, why can’t they have more teeth (or fangs)? Hans also gives us an obvious exploit in his speech. And also ‘ask devil about philosophy’ isn’t something the devil can do, right? We couldn’t fight them either, I guess. And what did we do in between getting rid of the devil and creating something else?
The Huh: Why isn’t there ‘no alcohol after 10.30 pm’ in the charter? Can we ask the devil about hell’s real estate? And get them to taste their ASS? Oh, and speaking of which, is this a Frankenstein prequel? And can Dr Ludwig go on a Lady Thalia-like jewel heist next?
What it is about: This isn’t an escape room. You’re in your house, and some foreign thing has invaded and is now roaming your house. If you don’t do something, it will devour you. So, what you gonna do? Who you gonna call?
I had one bad ending and one letter ending and one secret box ending. Oh well.
The good: There are various ways you can try to ‘defeat’ the ‘thing’: poison, letter, secret weapon(?). Once again, despite the horror genre, it still comes across as rather amusing. Violence is sometimes the answer. There is even a command to amplify the violence! Too much deja vu- well it’s a sandbox game anyway.
The bad: It feels so random. Most of the time I felt it was a cat and mouse game with me trying to chase down the thing. The hard part: favourable situations are really hard to come by. Most of the time was like this: go into room, explore room, take stuff, get out, start the cycle all over again. There were few explorable areas to begin with, and thus few key items. It could be so much more. Backstory? What backstory? Viewed in isolation, this piece leaves a lot hanging.
The Huh: Every ending has that ‘huh’ moment. But wait, maybe it was just a dream after all? Just what is that mysterious thing, exactly? It really was difficult to get into this one. If I had some context, and some knowledge of Ascension of Limbs, it would have helped.
What it is about: Another murder mystery. Another escape room. How many of these have we seen this year?
The good: The picross puzzle. In a Sherlocked game. By now, after playing a few parsers, my strategy when dealing with an area is to first look at everything and see what secrets they reveal. This is no exception. There are a fair number of items to look at, as expected- in a one-area game, no less. Again, not all are important- some are more crucial than others. The ending has a big and unexpected twist. Not as horrifying as Lunium, but still cleverly disguised. You are forced to ask people about a topic, which narrows down the possibilities.
The bad: Not enough people to talk to, or rather, ask about something. It’s pretty standard for pieces of this genre- explore and then ‘answer some questions’. The escape room aspect, unlike in Mayor McFreeze, is made explicit, which is a letdown.
The Huh: This piece was ‘inspired by a real case, and created as a potential teaching tool for forensic science or medical education.’ Alas, I missed the point of this piece! And if this was used as a way to introduce forensic science, then it certainly fits the bill, but the story just feels out-of-place. And more medical context please!
The so-called ‘urgent matter’ I read as Our Hero needing to, uh, ‘sheathe his sword’, as it were. At least, that’s the last thing we’re told to do before the fade to black…
Lol you make me laugh so hard I’m crying. It was a direct reference to the quit command QUIT (sheathe your *blade* and rest your battle-weary soul) but of course it can be taken in other ways if people read that as sheathe your “sword”.
I basically wanted to end with a teaser (the urgent matter) so I can create a follow up scenario. There is also the matter of magic disappearing, so basically two lines of story I left open. But I do think the king got his “high adventure” to relieve his boredom with regular matters of state (making him “feel alive” once more). So we won a batlle but not the war .
Thank you for the honest review! I had thought about whether to state it upfront that it was an educational game but I felt it might put others off without them even trying it as it’s been heavily catered to the general public. The storyline is fictional but the cause of death is from a real case.
What it is about: You a stuck on a pirate ship (how many ships/boats are there this IFComp?) and must evacuate lest you drown.
The good: If this is another one-area escape room game, then the fact that there is a sense of urgency is given right at the beginning in term of turns remaining before the ship sinks, so it’s very fast paced. If it hits 0, the game is lenient enough to ask us to bail in order not to force us to drown. Throwing things increases the counter. Also, we know how heavy our booty is. Plenty of exotic things to look at. The crux of it is figuring out which items to discard and which not to. Moreover, it also tests you on your ability to make use of your environment- like focusing the sun’s rays on the magnifying glass for instance. A very good sense of pirate humor despite the tense situation here- the captain thinks beavers are dangerous!
The bad: We don’t get to look at everything all at once. If this were a mystery, then it is a must to cover all bases, but the strict turn limit means this is going to be difficult. Not to mention the aggressive tree and beaver. With only the ship captain and you, this feels rather lonely.
The Huh: What is a weevil anyway? This piece also marks the 20th anniversary of the sequel To Hell in a Hamper.
What it is about: Something’s gone wrong at the circus (no murders), everything’s malfunctioning, and you are called to fix everyone’s performances. While also finding out what exactly is causing said mishaps. You have some balloons and pies in your trailer. Time to get to work!
The good: A fetch-item quest begins this piece- not surprisingly since the key items are all hidden somewhere in the circus grounds. What a refresher. Some minor puzzles along the way and some interesting dialogue with your colleagues to make for good pacing. Nice humor overall. Then we have three major stage challenges. All of which require using the items we found and doing something with them. Sounds familiar? There are many ways to literally honk (no, a pig isn’t one of them, but a goose is). In One King to Loot Them All, you had barbaric actions. Here you need to act like a clown. After all this, the final boss(?)- which is not who you think they are (again). The game starts and ends… with a goose. Welp.
The bad: I wish there were more items and more uses for said items. There are a fair number of areas in the circus to explore, however not all of them have items that are obtainable. Even if they are, they are of limited use. The endgame epic fight just wasn’t there- there was only one honk! Also, more items to honk, please.
The Huh: Where’s my damned flying ferris wheel? And how to get the strange endings? And could there have been a singing segment?
