Desolation
An Interactive Fiction by Earth Traveler
A brilliant homage to certain classic works of IF, Desolation certainly lives up to its title, putting the player in a desperate situation with only one way forward. The pacing is excellent, feeding the feeling of running away from danger in desolate surroundings, emphasised by suitable bursts of real-time delays in the narration.
The puzzles are not too complicated, especially for those who have played the games Desolation pays tribute to, but delightful to tackle nonetheless. My only real criticism is of the ending, which came very suddenly and felt premature, like the ambitions had been cut short by a deadline. I’m hoping for a continuation.
Comments for the author (contain spoilers)
- Since I first couldn’t take the pickaxe, I tried to use it for digging without picking it up. That gave quite a frustrating response:
>dig water with pickaxe
You simply need to DIG NOUN.
>dig water
With what? Your bare hands?
>dig mountain
With what? Your bare hands?
>dig mountain with pickaxe
You simply need to DIG NOUN.
- The bag and rope are described after they’re taken:
>l
Middle of a Rocky Slope
You emerge from a gap in the rocks and find yourself in a relatively flat part of the slope, a small plateau before it rises again and meets what looks like a small rock wall way up at the top of the slope.
More interesting right now, however, is what’s on this little plateau.
Yet another skeleton is lying on the plateau.
Next to the skeleton is a bag and what looks like a rope.
>take bag
You already have that.
>take rope
You already have that.
- The rock should probably get a different description after killing the dog:
>attack dog
You flail with your pickaxe, now only wielding it with one hand. You manage to sink the point into flesh and the dog yowls in pain and finally gets off your chest. You sit up, pull the pickaxe out of its paw and without hesitation you slam it into its head and it yells again. Then a second time, and then a third, and then a fourth just for good measure after it twitches again.
You stay sitting there for a moment, breathing heavily. You stand up after a minute or two…
…and then comes the pain, stinging your left arm. You look down at your arm and immediately wish you hadn’t. The skin is completely torn up in several places, especially on your forearm, and on your upper arm the bites go so deep you’re pretty sure your actual bicep is showing - or it would be if blood weren’t pouring out of the wound.
You glance at the dead guy’s bag. Maybe he was carrying something that can help with…this.
>x rock
A small rock. Hopefully enough to scare off that dog.
- The path is described but not implemented:
Top of the Rock Wall
You drag yourself onto the top of the cliff and stand up. You look around a little. There’s the slope you just climbed up from, and there’s a dusty path leading down around a… either an ambitious boulder or a small mountain.
There is a stake embedded at the top of the wall.
>x path
You can’t see any such thing.
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