Clusterflux
Something Weird by Marshal Tenner Winter
Clusterflux is truly an ambitious project, and a much larger game than initial appearances would suggest. It’s actually impressively huge, especially considering it’s a one-author game. Described as a “weird mystery”, it’s also right up my alley, and I enjoyed it immensely. It did, however, take me six hours to get through it and I had to consult the walkthrough twice. I think it would be hard for most to finish in under two hours, though the first two hours were just as enjoyable as the rest. Well, perhaps apart from the half-hour I spent banging my head against a specific puzzle.
In general terms, I would like to describe Clusterflux as a modern self-conscious style puzzle IF, where an everyday protagonist enters absurdity as if it were the most natural thing in the world – not too dissimilar to Bill Lindsay’s excellent Bullhockey games.
While the plot is more than solid enough, and its absurdity intriguing, the puzzles are what makes this a great game. They are always clever, but generally not too clever, and solving them provides proper satisfaction. I was planning to stop after two hours, but this is the kind of game I can’t put down until I have finished it.
With a game as big and ambitious as Clusterflux, there will likely be several small bugs persevering even rigorous beta-testing and I did meet a few of these. Still, it is impressive how polished it is, with thorough descriptions for almost everything. The large gallery of autonomous NPCs made certain scenes a bit confusing, but useful conversations are limited by a topic list which made it manageable.
A tremendous amount of work has gone into this game and I’m immensely grateful for it. I will definitely try Marshal’s earlier games once I have recuperated from this IFComp…
transcript.txt (528.1 KB)
Bugs and notes for the author (contains spoilers)
- I was stuck for a very long time trying to go east from Top of Stairway and/or figuring out what’s with the music. I had gotten the hint to push the amp, but it never occurred to me to push it south and east.
- Later, I was stuck with the basement door and wondering what to do with the podium. The description of the door mentions a battering ram, but rather hints that even that wouldn’t help.
- When in West of House I probably mean the large bush and not Gef when referring to “bush”.
- “an a rip in time and space” can be picked up.
- When referring to “house” I probably don’t mean the scarf.
- When in the cell (and also outside it) I probably don’t mean the photograph when referring to “man”
- Smells are referred to in the descriptions but not implemented for Spacious Living Room, Shed, and Unclean Kitchen.
- In the end message, I’m told I encountered 18 out of 16 people.