Limerick Heist
By Pace Smith
Limerick Heist does impress,
its story impresses no less.
I thought I was smart
but then must restart,
finding myself in a mess.
6 Likes
Randomized escape
An Interactive Fiction by Yvan Uhlmann
Randomized Escape did mostly not make any sense, as even the descriptions seem randomly generated. Still, it tries to be scary, and that is noticeable: There is some thing, in some fog, and some blood. However, as long as passages such as “This van is very dity. Maybe I should limit my examination to visual perception. And you did.” and “You cannot see any obvious issue through the fog. There is no time for hesitating.” appear, it’s hard to become immersed in the horror. The introduction recommended drawing a map, but I found that to be difficult and not very useful; many rooms have the same name, and the protagonist might suddenly run only to find themselves in a different (random) room. Still, despite not being a particularly enjoyable game, it’s interesting to see an experiment like this.
transcript.txt (26.0 KB)
1 Like
And that was the last of the parser games I was practically able to play from this year’s IFComp. My next post here will contain micro-reviews for the rest of the games I have played.
1 Like
Abandon Them
By Alan Beyersdorf
The metaperspective was kind of neat. The font made it hard to read. Very short.
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Arram’s Tomb
By James Beck
After two minutes, I’m either dead or on my way back.
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Bad Water
By Waking Media
FMV. I didn’t get the reference. Tedious interface.
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Black Sheep
By Nic Barkdull and Matt Borgard
A difficult murder mystery.
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A Blue Like No Other
By Dan Cox
Mimics a broken learning module. I did not get this at all.
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Break Stuff
By Amy Clare Fontaine
Cathartic, but also very serious. Not suitable for escapism.
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The Chieftain
By LeSUTHU
Primitive and repetitive resource management game. I won quickly by throwing a party every day.
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Chuk and the Arena
By Agnieszka Trzaska
Quite original. Would have made a very nice parser game.
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De Novo
By cyb3rmen
Really nice graphics, but you have to kill two people every day. Didn’t seem reasonable.
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Dull Grey
By Provodnik
Very peculiar fiction and beautiful illustrations. Very low on interactivity.
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Dungeon Detective 2: Devils and Details
By Wonaglot
Not my kind of humour. Too much scrolling.
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Each-uisge
By Jac Colvin
Horse-choice. Quite serious.
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Eldritch Everyday: The Third Eye
By Norbez
Curious contrast between the seriousness of the story and the pulpiness of the presentation.
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Eye Contact
By Thomas McMullan
I didn’t really get the story. It was nice with images, but they should have been preloaded to avoid delays.
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Faerethia
By Peter Eastman
The colour and font shifts were heavy on the eyes. I liked the futile lemonade stand.
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Flygskam Simulator
By Katie Benson
Doesn’t have anything to do with shame. Bus ride simulator would be a more apt title.
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For the Cats
By Lei
All cats are beautiful.
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Girth Loinhammer and the Quest for the Unsee Elixir
By Damon L. Wakes
Funny RPG parody.
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The Good People
by Pseudavid
Very pretty design. Not my kind of story.
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Heretic’s Hope
By G.C. Baccaris
So much work has gone into this I almost felt bad I didn’t enjoy it more.
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Iamb(ici)
By Jo Lourdez
Quite nice chatroom simulator. Comments on the role of technology and poetry simultaneously.
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The Legendary Hero Has Failed.
By Tom Martin
Constrained interactivity and lots of waiting. Its lesson didn’t reach me.
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Lucerne
By Dimitri Kaviani
Very short. No interactivity.
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The Milgram Parable
By Peter Eastman
Funny twist then brutal war. Disconcerting.
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The Mysterious Stories of Caroline
By Soham S
A realistic and brutal story. Too much for me.
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Night Guard / Morning Star
By Astrid Dalmady
Quite original, but somewhat messy as a story. It would have been nice to actually see the paintings.
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The Ouroboros Trap
By Chad Ordway
The game seems metaphorical. The choices seem arbitrary.
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Pirateship
By Robin Johnson
The hybrid point-and-click/parser concept doesn’t appeal to me. Otherwise decent.
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Planet C
By Mark Carew
Good premise, decent story. The grey font on white was hard to read.
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Rip Retold
By Hipolito
Made me sleepy.
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Roads Not Taken
By Doug Egan
A big and serious story with good writing.
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robotsexpartymurder
By Hanon Ondricek
Excellent implementation with a very nice sci-fi feel. The score is great too.
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Saint City Sinners
By dgallagher
A primarily very funny murder mystery.
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Slugocalypse
By Charlotte
Quite cute, despite the abundance of slugs.
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Summer Night City
By ghoti
Very philosophical. Not an easy read. I don’t think I got this.
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The Surprise
By Candy Meldromon
Predictable, but sweet.
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The Sweetest Honey
By Mauro Couto
Quite nice, though the translation could have been better.
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Truck Quest
By Donald Conrad and Peter M.J. Gross
Very repetitive, but ends interestingly.
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URA Winner!
By Carter Sande
Seems to be a parody, but not of anything I have experienced. Hence, I didn’t get it.
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Valand
By Ann Hugo
Cute story, but it doesn’t seem like the choices affect it very much.
7 Likes
FMV? Fun May Vary?
You sure have managed to play a lot of games from the Comp though. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. Being prone to stuckness, I’ve found the transcripts really useful: being able to look over your shoulder as you play has helped me a lot. Thanks!
1 Like
I’m very happy that my transcripts were useful 
DOH!
Of course.
I was thinking of YMMV (your mileage may vary) you see.
1 Like
Thanks for the review of House on Sycamore Lane. Firstly, sorry for the typos! I’ll go through and clean those up. I’m a horrible editor and can’t see my own mistakes if they hit me in the face.
I’d love feedback on the bugs and rough edges you found. I started way too late and was in a rush to finish it, so I didn’t get to clean stuff up, and develop the story more.
Glad you enjoyed it despite the rough edges.
1 Like
I’m afraid I didn’t take many notes during the playthrough. I’ll be happy to play it again later, but for now all I can offer is my transcript (linked in the review).
I’ve updated the game. Fixed 117 things! 
Mostly typos and most of those were its vs it's. But also a few verb clarifications, and improvements.
1 Like
Pas De Deux
Linus Åkesson
I realised that I actually forgot to review one game. Pas De Deux is the second full game made in Dialog, and one that seems to offer hidden depths aplenty. I really wanted to immerse myself some more in it and discover these depths before the review but never found the time. What I did find was, as with Linus’ previous offering Tethered, an excellent implementation in a new and exciting development system. Being also particularly fond of music myself, I’m sure I will appreciate further playthroughs. My first one was simple, quick and somewhat unrewarding I’m afraid, though I still got the sense that there is something great in Pas De Deux, if I can just give it the appropriate effort. As it is, that will have to be after IFComp is over.
2 Likes
I find it really helps if I export my text to another format. For some reason that just makes all the times I’ve been typing between the keys really stand out!
1 Like