[spoiler]Yeah, pretty much the worst stuff you imagine is what happens. It’s blatantly manipulative, which is annoying, even if it’s good at drawing out emotions. The ending gets really odd, and I think it was mostly due to the author not knowing when to stop writing.
It’s an oddly strong game except for those faults, I think.[/spoiler]
[size=150]The Duel in the Snow[/size]
I’m dreaming of a White Russian…
[spoiler]So right off the bat I liked the special commands and the glossary. But the thirst puzzle drove me crazy, and I ended up rushing outside and off to the duel since I couldn’t find anything to drink in my house. (Why can’t I eat/drink some snow? Or make some gin with the juniper berries?) Anyway, I lost the duel.
The second time around I took my time, solved the thirst issue and then read a whole lot of poetry. The nature of the game started to wear on me since I couldn’t really change things or speed things up. And, you know, it’s hard to talk to characters with names like Gronovskij. (But they sure shoot better than I do.)
Wanting to know more about what was going on with Natasha and why the insult hurt so much, I played again. This time I thought about how the random anecdotes in the flashback should have stopped when Gronovskij and Kropkin are talking about/laughing at me. Eventually I turned to the walkthough to discover that the owl saves the day. (Who knew? And it appears to be the only way to not die; I tried using the book and the bottle in my pocket instead of the owl but found no help there.)
A question in the Amusing asks me if I ever discovered what really happened… no, although I really really wanted to! But after reading some other reviews, I am pretty sure the game was hinting at Natasha having run off with Kropkin (since she seems to be the poet and the last poem in the book is for K- and all) and the whole duel thing really gets instigated by my dear friend Kropkin (who sobered up quite quickly when I challenged Gronovskij) to get me out of the way. (But, why would I have to be out of the picture if my wife has already left me?)
This led me to playing yet again, in an effort to figure out if there’s a way to confirm the suspicions about Kropkin. He sighs when I ask about Natasha and blushes about the poetry, so I guess I’m on to something. But I can’t challenge him, or shoot him during the duel instead of Gronovskij. This, I think, is a missed opportunity. Imagine an ending where you play through, suspect your friend, even get shot (since the death scene is where Natasha is revealed as the writer) and then you have a chance to shoot your “friend” when he comes to help you. (Meaning you’d have to reserve your pistol shot until the very last.) The ending would still be bleak, fitting the tone of the story, but it might also be a bit more satisfying.
Anyway, the game as it stands is atmospheric and interesting, but the lack of real motivation (outside of thirst) at the beginning and the inability to uncover all the mysteries or really change anything is a bit of a letdown. Although it says something about the game that I played through it repeatedly, kept thinking about it, and came back again, doesn’t it? It would have been even more compelling with more story/resolution and less emphasis on distracting/odd puzzles.[/spoiler]
[size=150]The Believable Adventures of an Invisible Man[/size]
Your definition of believable may vary.
[spoiler]From the introductory text alone I find myself not liking the PC.
Entering a wardrobe takes me to my apartment? Oh, yeah, because I was in a secret lab. That’s my secret lift.
Being naked and invisible makes it really hard to carry stuff around unseen. Please tell me I don’t have to hide things inside my person. Pretty please?
I have poisonous pizza in my oven? That the walkthrough tells me I am supposed to throw out the window for the creepy guy instead?
I don’t think I really want to take my revenge out on anyone just now. Thanks.[/spoiler]
[size=150]The Ascot[/size]
Why is it that the file name for this game is YNKaboom? Am I missing something?
[spoiler]I am offered an ascot, then told it is cursed. Do I still want it? Um, no thanks. That was easy enough.
Oh, all right, I’ll give it another chance. This time I’ll say yes to everything. Except for the question at the end about playing the adventure again.
The humor/style of this is just not my thing. And I can’t get too invested in a game when all I have to type is Y or N each turn.[/spoiler]
[size=150]Trap Cave[/size]
But this cave is different. It’s in Germany.
[spoiler]Most of the game is in German, but the choices were in English, so I did play around a bit just making choices with no real idea of the context. I found a key and eventually got a RIP message.
I’m not against CYOA as a rule, but I think it works much better when it’s used to change the direction of a story instead of being used as an exploration tool. If my choices include things like examine this or go south, then I’d much rather be free to look and walk around on my own. Also, this style is no fun for puzzles, since it’s hard to let the player figure stuff out and feel the satisfaction of actually solving things. I mean, if my choices are:
well, what would you pick? And how would it matter?[/spoiler]
Now that I think of it, the filename is a hint about how to win the game. Really! I’m liking The Ascot more and more. 
K, now I know I’m missing something! Perhaps a replay is in order.
Mild spoiler:
There is a way to really win this game, getting a 100% positive ending.
Medium spoiler:
It has something to do with typing commands that are not yes/no. Try it.
Second medium spoiler:
Bascially, you don’t have two options, but three: Y, N and Kaboom. That’s why the filename is a spoiler.
Heavy spoiler
Say something not “yes/no” twice at a random point in the game, then give the interpreter to the monster. It will say “Huh?”, which makes the interpreter explode. Pretty clever fourth-wall breaking puzzle, actually.
[size=150]Earl Grey[/size]
This title seems incomplete without tea at the front and hot at the end.
[spoiler]At first, I was completely befuddled about what this game was trying to do. But it’s actually a pretty cool and unique concept: you change things by removing and adding letters to their names. How? It involves a mysterious runebag and some particular phrasing. This neat idea is bogged down, however, by opening with a lesson in which you do a lot of talking to a man named Eaves. Then the game wants you to be mean to him, for no apparent reason, then he is mean back, and then the stated purpose of the game completely changes.
While I did like the concept and the hints/internal monologue at the bottom, when the game changed I found myself wishing the point was just to go gather tea still. At one point, the game has you thinking, “You know, Eaves, it’s not like I didn’t have other options today…” and I agreed, remembering the list of other games I could be playing. Didn’t finish this one.[/spoiler]
[size=150]Beta Tester [/size]
Hey, is this a just a trick to get your game tested?
[spoiler]This game does a bunch of things wrong. There’s no real plot or endgoal (the motivation is just have fun) there’s some errors in the gameplay (like no response when trying to unlock a door) a tone which some have found hostile (I never felt truly insulted) and what seems like a lack of hints (you have to type walkthru). And yet, overall, I really enjoyed myself here.
There’s also a bunch of pausing.
Pause.
For emphasis.
Pause.
Or humor.
Pause.
Which wears kinda thin.
Pause.
And yet it adds something to the pacing of the game which really works. (Especially in the slapstick bits, which I would not have thought could be done well in IF, but which I found rather amusing.)
I liked the helpful hamster and the writing (the paragraph about the cool kids at school was great) and didn’t mind so much going from one random puzzle to another. And while IF is not the place I’d expect to find a game like First to 100, I was impressed with the coding and liked playing it. Eventually I did tire a bit, finding the food and drink puzzles dull and the finish pretty bland.
The game could easily have been called Toybox, since it’s basically a collection of toys/puzzles you can pick up and play with randomly before closing it all down when you’re done. If you accept it for what it is you may just have fun with it. I did.[/spoiler]
[size=150]Snowquest[/size]
A game by a known author… I’ve been looking forward to this one.
[spoiler]Ah, to be in the hands of a competent writer! I knew going in that whether I liked the game or not I would find it decently coded and polished. There I was not disappointed. With the story, however…
I got the feeling that the author didn’t know what he wanted this game to be. It starts out as an adventure, then gets a little quest-y, goes for an artsy vibe while bringing in some sci-fi, and ends up being just plain weird. While there are some nice images and moments, as a whole it doesn’t really all hang together.
In addition to not buying the story, I also found the puzzles unnecessarily hard. As in, I knew what I had to do and yet could not accomplish it. (Like, I thought I had already broken a twig of the branch, but I hadn’t. And I was sure what I needed to do with the bone, but didn’t come up with the magic rub word. Also, I knew I had to move the snow off the cockpit, but didn’t think to just clean it. And in the end I thought I had the gun when I didn’t, and couldn’t see why I wasn’t able to shoot it.) These frustrations could have been helped with some better descriptions and/or some alternate verbage implemented in there.
Some random thoughts as I was playing…
A unicorn dream? Am I a replicant?
Help us nameless IF adventurer. You’re our only hope.
Wait a minute, is this just another CAVE game?
The body is me? Hang on, am I Starbuck?
IS the FBI equipping its agents with mind-bending crystals?
I really didn’t like that the only way to get the “good” ending was to make what turned out to be wrong choices along the way. Add this to the earlier “it was all a dream” bit and it just felt like the game kept cheating. I don’t like being jerked around by a game unless there’s a point to it all. Here, there wasn’t. Next time I hope Eric Eve uses his powers for good, not evil. (Ok, evil’s a strong word. But you know what I mean. Don’t waste your talent on half-baked ideas.) (And chill, out, man. Some people can be trusted!)[/spoiler]
Re. Snowquest:
Glad I’m not the only one who thought of that.
[size=150]The Duel That Spanned the Ages[/size]
Three left, and I’m getting tired.
[spoiler]Begins with an infodump, then a bit in a bar, then a suspenseful bit with your squad, and then it’s a race for survival! I think, anyway, as I didn’t play much beyond the zombies attacking me.
This is certainly an ambitious game, Episode 1 of who knows how many, but I was let down by all the introductory stuff that didn’t seem to matter. Like, I think I was just wasting time at the bar, no? And I wasn’t really attached to the squad, but then I got them all killed. And I can’t be sure, since I didn’t play it through, but the rest of the game seems like a lot of escaping and shooting and so forth, which doesn’t really interest me.
(Truth be told, I was more interested in finishing the other two games on my list before the comp time ran out…)[/spoiler]
[size=150]Broken Legs[/size]
The first thing I do when the comp games come out is open each one to read the intro. I was dying to get back to this one.
[spoiler]Even if this year’s comp wasn’t filled with duels and caves and quests and snow, this game would still stand out. The unique premise is this: You’re Lottie Plum, a spoiled, unsympathetic Broadway hopeful who’s just flubbed an important audition. Your only hope now is to sabotage all the other girls waiting to try out. Mean? Yes. But also pretty entertaining.
My main problem with this game was that it’s insanely hard. As in, I never would have finished without the walkthrough. I don’t mean in two hours for the comp, I mean ever. Even with mommy’s help (cool hint system) and a couple of playthroughs, I was pretty stuck. Maybe I’m thick, but some of the puzzles (like the foam one) seemed a bit out there. And some important objects (like the motet) could definitely have been clued better.
I did love being able to type who or what is whatever, as well what happens when you don’t answer y or n to a yes or no question, and the awesome option available on replay after you win. (I was feeling a bit of uncertainty about the final action in the game, but in the context of the ending, I’m ok with it.)
Overall, the game’s strong voice/character, custom messages, technical quality, and unique story outweigh the crazy hard puzzles. I hope this game does well. I would help it take down some other games to place higher if I could.[/spoiler]
[size=150]Resonance[/size]
Possibly my favorite cover art of the comp.
[spoiler]The author of this game says he was inspired by Nightfall, and it definitely shows. But where Nightfall managed to suck me in and creep me out, this game fails. The whole thing just feels a bit off, a tad overdone. The inconsistent tone made me never quite sure if it wanted to be taken seriously or not.
I ran into some errors which did not help my game immersion. One was a runtime problem when trying to look into a cabinet (I hoped there wasn’t anything important in there) and another was an issue with conversation topics which led to me having this exchange with my (dying) brother:
“Hey Steve (dying), I really don’t have more to say or ask.”
“No problem, Jimmy. If you have any more questions, let me know.”
Way to break the mood, bug.
While we’re on the subject, I wasn’t too keen on the conversation system here. I’m not opposed to picking from a list, although it’s not my favorite option, but the numbering was annoying. (Here’s your topic choices: 2, 5, or 0. Wait, what happened to 1, 3, & 4?) I also didn’t like seeing all those things in parenthesis telling me stuff was (empty) (open) (dead) etc. My brother being an in-game tutorial irked me. I didn’t like having to repeatedly go out and in and in and out, and the travel just seemed unnecessarily slow. The atmospheric messages never quite worked for me, either, since there weren’t enough and they lost impact on repeat usage. And then there were the riddles. Sigh. I guess little puzzles like that work in some games, but man, when it’s life or death someone’s-trying-to-take-over-the-world time, it’s just unrealistic and silly to run into random riddles.
I’m sorry to be so negative on this game, but that was my experience with it. I never quite got it, or got into it. I do appreciate the fact that there are apparently 3 paths through the game. Perhaps I would have enjoyed another one better, although I was doing my best to follow where the clues led. With less bugs, stronger writing and a consistent tone, things could have been better. Instead, this is the way the comp ends for me, not with a bang, but a whimper.[/spoiler]
[size=150]Final Thoughts[/size]
Yay! I made it through all the games! Just a few final thoughts before I vote.
I think I will remember this year as the hangover/duel/cave/quest/snow/space comp. (Someone should write a game with all those things as an homage.) Overall there weren’t a lot of really bad/buggy games here, although more than once I wished for more creativity, better motivation, and/or just more fun!
My favorites this year:
Duel in the Snow (although I liked my imaginary ending best)
Broken Legs (despite the insanely hard puzzles and perhaps because of the annoying PC)
I also enjoyed:
Snowquest (well, up until the end)
Beta Tester (despite its random nature)
Interface (cause I dig nostalgia)
GATOR-ON, Friend to Wetlands! (for fun more than for technical merit)
Other games that I thought were good:
Rover’s Day Out (but I didn’t like repeating the same dull actions)
Byzantine Perspective (although I was too thick for the main puzzle, I thought it was cool)
Gleaming the Verb (nice for a quick word-puzzle diversion)
I recognize some other games were technically good, but just not my thing. Usually if I just don’t like a game I won’t rate it, unless I’ve played it all the way through. So I may not vote on all the games even though I tried playing them all.
My guesses for top three:
Rover’s Day Out, Broken Legs, and Snowquest.
(But I’d love to see Duel in the Snow here. And I’d be mad if I saw Resonance here.)
Congrats to all the authors for getting your games done and entered! This was fun, let’s do it again next year. 