Frankenfingers by Charles Moore
Flavor: to quote the subtitle, “A Gothic Tale of Love, Redemption, and Dismemberment” in parser-puzzler form
Playtime: 1 hour 19 minutes
A delightful puzzler where you play as a disembodied hand exploring Frankenstein’s manor. (More the pop-culture Frankenstein—Igor is there—than the original book.) I got a big kick out of the concept, which was creatively implemented, and came with enough gameplay restrictions to add some spice but also a tongue-in-cheek sensibility (how can I . . . see anything. Do not ask these questions).
Entering a new location generally triggers a description in rhyming verse (in contrast, action responses and some item call-outs are not in verse). For reasons that pre-date this game, I am not always the hugest fan of rhyming poetry, but this didn’t bother me at all—it did add a sort of playful-gloomy atmosphere and I didn’t find myself having to work too hard to parse the meaning.
I really enjoyed the puzzling. Generally it was fairly straightforward, with a universe of items that was comprehensible, and I generally felt that as the map was expanding or I was encountering new challenges I had ideas about how to solve them. All of the puzzle solutions worked well and I didn’t have any problems with fiddliness.
There are a few spots I would maybe smooth a bit more—(1) I had a really hard time coming up with the first command (I feel that perhaps “hit sconce with arm” should not yield the response “You can’t reach the sconce” if the intended action is “turn sconce with arm”, (2) I admit, I resorted to the walkthrough because I couldn’t figure out why my horse wasn’t going anywhere, and (3) I also think that perhaps "cut lid with hatchet” should not yield the response “The hatchet is too blunt for that” if the intended solution is “attack lid with hatchet”. Oh and look, I’m posting my transcript so I clearly do not stand on my own dignity, but yes, there may be an entire section I undo-scummed.
A medium-spoilery-but-not-actually-a-specific-spoiler that you may want to know before playing
There is at least one item in the game that doesn’t have any particular warning attached to it, but has consumable “charges” that can be depleted. Based on the author’s prior games I was not that shocked about this, and fortunately only used that item in one big chunk, but this could cause problems not easily solved by saves or undo if you spread out your use too much.
In addition to the puzzlers, I really enjoyed the plot / character elements. The game did a good job dropping clues early that motivated me (I have in my play notes after the re-animation sequence “gee, I sure hope I have some class consciousness with the creature,” which, slightly; and “this game better lead to me resolving something with my spouse,” which . . . ). A fairly warm story, in some ways (although [major spoiler about the ending]the ending surprised me a bit—I just roll over and die? I could be useful! I was imagining maybe we were going to have a very unconventional home life.)
Selected quote:
Probably my favorite by this author yet, and truly proves the old maxim: never give a dismembered-but-animate hand a trampoline!
wolfbiter - Frankenfingers - Copy.txt (187.4 KB)