(I managed to avoid reviews and spoilers for this game for 15 years, since I first learned about its existence. I knew something was mindblowing about it, but I had no idea what. I do now. Spider and Web - Details (ifdb.org))
The unreviewable game
The first part of Spider and Web plays an intricate game with the expectations about the relations between player, protagonist, narrator, parser-voice and non-player character. It culminates in a cathartic intuition-bomb.
The second part of Spider and Web is a fast-paced, high-stakes escape-run to the end.
I just finished Andrew Plotkin @zarf’s Spider and Web for the first time and was impressed.
Man, though, it is relentless with its guesswork. There are red herrings from the start, combined with Chekov Gun items that you know need to be used by the end of the game, but kind of wish weren’t dumped on you almost immediately even though the structure of the game necessitates it.
The two-part structure also took me by surprise. I wonder if it would be possible to make the game end on a high point with the climactic puzzle that is about currently halfway through the game. But in order to do that, the information that makes the puzzle so good would need to be withheld from the player in a different way.
There is a book in the Culture series by Iain M. Banks called Use of Weapons that uses a two-part structure that is kind of like this. The difference is that it has one timeline going backward, and one timeline going forward, and both timelines are interwoven chapter by chapter. IIRC it pulls off two huge twists, one of which involves an important object, in the last few pages.
(A few Christopher Nolan movies use non-linear structures kind of like this, too.)
Spider and Web is a highly enjoyable game in any case, with a good number of intuitive puzzles despite its difficulty. I couldn’t imagine playing it without a walkthrough or frequent saves though, despite Andrew Plotkin’s assurances in the help file that you can play the game straight through .
It’s also a concept I couldn’t have come up with…and with Andrew Plotkin’s status as an IF veteran I have to admit that haven’t done justice to the game’s deeper meaning or its ending with this brief review.
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