Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder by Zan and Xavid
Seasonal Apocalypse Disorder is a parser game of a relatively classic variety: you walk through sparsely described rooms, collect assorted items, and solve puzzles with them. There’s even a combination lock! And it’s a very competent example of such a game: polished, with good and often funny responses for strange actions you may want to take, and a parser one mostly doesn’t struggle with. (I found “steady ladder” a bit of a reach, and the fact that “hook hat” was required and “fish hat” didn’t work actually got me stuck until I consulted the walkthrough.)
So far so standard, but Zan and Xavid spice things up with the titular seasonal approach. The game takes place across the four seasons, which means that you can traverse the same geography at four points in time. As you progress, you will first open up all the seasons; then you will gain the ability to switch season anywhere (which is a pretty well thought-out way to open up a few new locations); and you finally acquire the ability to take items with you through time. This approach lends a theme to the game’s different puzzles, and the leaps of logic required to exploit your time travel abilities are the most satisfying moments in the game.
As a fiction there’s less here – I never got a very clear sense of what this cult is up to, and didn’t feel much need to try out other endings after I had escaped destruction by jumping through a fiery pentagram. Still, this is a solid and sympathetic puzzle game, and I enjoyed my time with it.