First game I’ve played in Spring Thing 2021 (and probably the longest).
The Weight of a Soul
Great game! Action-packed story-focused IF with a well-defined protagonist. Set in an alchemypunk world. (Yeah, I just made up that genre just for this game.)
I like the premise, but it would take a serious amount of shaving, sanding and polishing to successfully show the comedy that’s hiding somewhere in there. I cringed too many times while playing this iteration to enjoy the funny situations.
An exploration of how to escape depression or emotional standstill. It reads a bit too much like a list of what needs to be done than it lets the player actually feel it.
I was talking about the response to BUY: “Nothing is on sale”.
On sale means that a product is being sold at a lesser than usual price. (20% off, for example). What you were looking for I think is for sale, i.e. being sold, available for buying. (and “nothing is for sale” would of course still be untrue in a convenience store)
BTW, my review may sound a bit harsh, but I really intend to play (and review) a post-comp release. I liked the characters (I was especially intrigued by Ranbir), and I could feel there was good comedy underneath.
I wondered about this so did a couple of DuckDuckGo searches. Do you think your strict distinction is more American than universal? For example: Welcome to Macmillan Education Customer Support
I learned much of my English by watching movies and tv-shows with subtitles. The majority of those are American.
Thanks for the correction.
@bitterkarella ; I was wrong, your use of “Nothing is on sale.” is correct after all. I jumped at it too soon because it didn’t mesh with my American-English prejudices. Sorry. I’ll go change my IFDB review now.
It could have been longer and wider in scope, but I really liked the development of the story into darker terrain. It also has a cool gang-of-youngsters-against-the-bad-guys vibe.
(I just realised this is the first Twine I have finished. I had looked at some others, including Bogeyman , but I always kept putting off playing them for real because there were so many parsers still on my list. The Spring Thing context pushed me out of my comfort zone. Which is nice…)
(I quit Hand of God after a few pages because I found the writing somewhat bland. It’s possible that there is a good game there. If so, shame on me for not being patient enough.)
Next up: So I Was Short Of Cash And Took On A Quest.
Next up: Wearing the Claw. Yes, the 1996 IFcomp 8th place game. I’m yearning for some oldschool parseriness. I’ll return to all this new style modernist clickity-clack after I got my fix of GET LAMP.
(Ah… That was fun. Nothing like vanquishing an evil curse to rejuvenate oneself. Wearing the Claw hit the spot.)
Eleanor
I didn’t get far in this game. What I did get was a very unnerving experience. You descend into a kind of dreamy/nightmarish underworld to recover your dead lover, or at least see her once more.
The sparse, almost featureless locations, the eerie background noises and the pop-up pictures work well together to create a surreal atmosphere. The obstacles however are so obscure that I only got “down” two levels.
The help-feature nudges you in the right direction with an associative image, but I would have liked an actual explicit hint after running into the timed awakening/end of game half a dozen times.
Great atmosphere, needs more work on playability. I’ll hold off on an IFDB review.