Jota's snarky IF Comp 2006 comments THESE COMMENTS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE 2006 IF COMP GAMES BEWARE! MANY SPOILERS! They are also *not* reviews. They are just random thoughts that I felt like jotting down while playing. They are generally not *nice* thoughts (most are actually rather unkind), nor are they necessarily likely to be of much benefit to any of the relevant authors. Remember that I am much more likely to feel the need to gripe about things I didn't like than things I did, and these comments reflect that. The number after the name is the base score I gave the game. If I was leaning one way or another, I added the other score I was considering after a slash. The number in parentheses is the rating I actually submitted, after normalizing the numbers a little bit to make better use of the full 1-10 range. Games appear in the order I played them. Later commentss may allude to earlier ones. (Or they may not: I forget.) ----- Fight or Flight - 3 (4) I can't ask or tell or talk to anyone about the noise or accident. I can't make them follow me, regardless of what the ABOUT message says. And the only way to inform anyone about the decapitated body is to rip the hood off the truck and carry it in with me? Nuh-uh. You lose. Tentellian Island - 3/2 (3) Oh, joy. A homebrew system. Puzzles that could have been better implemented on a MUD. And hints that don't make it clear what to do next, or even whether my current problem is an illogical puzzle or an implementation failure? You lose too. Made me wish I'd rated FoF higher so this could be lower without scraping the 2's this early in the judging. Manalive I - 5/6 (6) Noise? You mean nose. Yes! I just lost due to hatlessness! Abodes? Isn't that abides? Needs more verbs: bow, introduce, etc. And now it's not clear what to do to progress the plot. And a Guess The Verb. Kinda buggy. Mostly decent writing, though. Eeeagh, multi-megaton textdump! Simple Adventure - 2 (2) PAP. I don't think I really need to say anything else here. Lawn of Love - 4 (5) Followed by Santoonie. Oh boy. Aunts and Butlers - 7/6 (8) Wow. Surprisingly unsucky for a homebrew. Maintains an entertaining tone reasonably well. Until it gets, um. Weird. But not necessarily a bad weird, I think. Primrose Path - 6 (7) Making me lose the game because I try to get immersed *before* dealing with plot hooks isn't nice. And you've got to earn the right to use the defiant PC schtick. Also, buggy. And the reflected apartments are infuriatingly similar. And I don't see how I could have solved the ending without just trying random stuff. Requiem - 5 (6) Secretary or assistant? And why's a private detective on a salary? Also, is it just me, or does this feel an *awful* lot like an Adrift game from an earlier comp? Having your PC tell me how unenthusiastic he is does not do much for my own enthusiasm. Also, feels like a high-tech CYOA. And why can't it keep the character's name straight? Apocalypse Clock - 6 (7) Silly. Inoffensive. A couple bugs, but otherwise not much to complain about. Pointless, but more fun than Primrose Path. Carmen Devine: Supernatural Troubleshooter - 4 (5) Not much depth. Geography seemed to exist just to take up space. Why couldn't I ask the wolves to help move the rocks at the cave? Who's the injured lone wolf and why? Why the silver knife? Why suddenly a fox-spirit? Game seemed to end without going anywhere. Pathfinder - 3 (4) I left my keys at work, but I'm not allowed to leave my front walk? And the mailbox/van code is buggy. Did this have any testers? Why the $#&% do I want to get in a strange car just because a random parcel tells me to? Has anything so far indicated my gender before giving me a love interest? This whole thing is dumb. Has the author ever seen a pine needle? Inventory limits!?! Madam Spider's Web - 8/9 (10) Yes! A good game! Woohoo! Finally something that's better than just "not bad" (or worse). And the melody is the perfect foreshadowing, cluing the player in to what's really going on. Sisyphus - 2/1 (2) A joke? If so, it's at the player's expense. No thank you. If it's not a joke, then it's a completely opaque read-the-author's mind puzzle. But without indication to the contrary, I have to judge based on the former. Delightful Wallpaper - 4 (5) The fact that I had little notion of who I was and less of what I was supposed to be doing didn't bother me at first, but it's becoming very tiresome as I wander around this puzzle-box house *still* not knowing why I should care or what kind of goal(s) I have. Should be notified when new notes are taken. Walkthrough is little use for actually figuring things out. Visocica - NR Not only is it apparently in German, but it is also apparently too large to fit in memory. Unauthorized Termination - 3/2 (3) I have not even selected "Play Game" yet, and already this is shaping up to be a terrible, terrible IF experience. And incidentally: > x circular badge Which badge. Your square id badge or the circular id badge? > circular That is still ambiguous! > x zeta's badge Which badge. Your square id badge or the circular id badge? > screw it (circular id badge) The circular id badge which, is both an id and security pass, reads "Zeta-Theta, Head Examiner". "An unauthorised termination is not unusual but is fairly rare"? Huh? I could say more, but why? PTGOOD - 2/1 (2) Hey, a game apparently designed to suck. And it succeeds! Tales of the Traveling Swordsman - 8 (9) Hey, another game that's not half bad! Actual hints would be nice. Decent NPCs. Good use of descriptions. Excellent use of scoring, even of the author thinks it's not really a score. Ending feels slightly cliched (which is odd, since I didn't feel that way about the other game with a similar ending). Legion - 7 (8) Hmm. Weird, but in a good way. Learning what I can and can't do is tricky; hints were required. Hints were also required to find interesting endings. But still, it's an intriguing idea and not badly implemented. A Broken Man - 3 (3) MacGuyver, I am not: if the hinge is on the outside, why can't I remove it with the knife? Two objects in the room respond to "ceiling"? Why's the chandelier lit if no one's here? Rooms feel like lists of contents. But I "see nothing unusual about" anything. What fun! But this line sums it up: "A piano squats evilly in the corner." Ballymun Adventure - 1 (1) I dearly hope this isn't a teacher. The apparent level of competency with the English language is reasonable for a high school student, but appalling for an instructor. Lots of pointless, empty geography. And rooms you need to type the name of to enter. And food -- please don't tell me a hunger daemon is running... but the broken map is the last straw. Tower of the Elephant - 5 (6) Writing's not bad. But it feels awfully linear. I guess both are not surprising, given the game's origins. Not a *bad* game, I guess, but pretty enh. Also, it doesn't always say which direction exits lie in. And "say yara" doesn't work. "Which do you mean, the heart of the elephant or the elephant's heart?" Fetter's Grim - 1 (1) Oh, look. It's this game. Again. But worse than usual *and* rather offensive to boot. Beam - 1 (1) The game doesn't seem to understand anything I type. This is either a terrible IF system (I forget, is Quest a terrible IF system?) or else a sign of insufficient beta testing. This is about as boring as Sisyphus. What the... I just looked at the hint file. What the $&%@ does any of that have to do with where I'm stuck with this &%*#ing tree? OK, got past there, and the rest of the game sucks too. After playing from the walkthrough, I'm reducing it from a 2 to a 1, because I apparently have to sit and wait for the game to get around to doing something *in real time*. Hedge - 5/4 (6) #2, #3. At first this game looked really neat and kinda fun. Then I realize I couldn't find more than a few interesting things to do. The few things here (like the bouncer) ought to respond to more stuff. I was hoping for another PUTPBAA, but I was disappointed. Came back the next day: found an avenue for progress, but got stumped when it was diagramless. Despite the ABOUT, hardly any of my foolish or creative ideas were anticipated. (Checked walkthrough. Wha? I don't get it.) #6, #8. Wow, the lack of understood syntax for solving the flaming pillar is impressive. #15, #18. Xen: The Hunt - 4 (5) Let's see if it's any better than the first one... Still has inconvenient geography. East/west confusion for track exit. Somone offered me money, but the game didn't let me take it, so now I have to solve a puzzle to get money instead? Pfft. "Which signs do you mean, the neon signs, or the neon signs?" Yay, sudden and unclued insta-death for doing something that appears logical, I say sarcastically! And then an apparent bug that prevents the game from progressing. Mobius - 6/7 (7) The name and the phrase "temporal anomalies" got my interest right off the bat. Cool concept. Certain aspects of this started out annoying, but are beginning to be less so as I figure out how they work. I love the suicide option (as a spectator). Too bad I can't walk through walls. So: cool puzzle, but *really* anti-climactic ending. Because of the way it's written, I spent a while assuming I had missed something in the last scene, trying to figure out how to win. A real shame, since I was having fun up to that point. Another Goddamn Escape the Locked Room Game - 6 (7) Amusing concept. Love the XYZZY response. Insufficient flexibility for the safe's syntax. Headache's annoying; it's a shame this had I'm wearing isn't implemented for doffability. Disambuiguation for BREAK seems broken. Also, wrist description seems to assume I've treated it before I have. Also, PUT BAND-AIDS ON... should work. Anyway, fun game. Not an objectively *good* game, but definitely fun. Game Producer! - 3/4 (4) All the excitement of a blank, featureless, empty room, but none of the mystery or intrigue! >SALLY, HI 91 doesn't respond. And yet another game that presumes to know which direction I'm facing -- when even *I* don't know which compass direction is "in front of" me. And it doesn't really get any better, apparently. Star City - 4/5 (5) Not much of the scenery is described or even implemented. FLIP, SWITCH, TURN ON, and PULL are all verbs which are *not* implemented for this switch. There is rather little cool stuff to play with here for an "explore the space artifact" game. I can't really muster up any strong emotions for or against this game. Elysium Enigma - 8 (9) Not a bad start. Gives a clear direction, but doesn't appear to punish me for taking the time to get to know stuff. Nice SF toy in my belt. It'd be nice if more stuff responded to pointing at, but that's OK. It'd also have been nice if more conversational topics had been made to work with ask/tell too (in addition to 'explain imperial visits', why not allow 'tell woman about imperial visits' too?) Some minor bugs, but a good game. (Heh, typo correction for "seduce leela".) Moon-Shaped - 5/4 (6) Oof. Typo in the first room. But writing and implementation seem decent so far, so I'll try to ignore it. But then we get to the non-interactive text-dumps. And really, "Little Red-Cape"? C'mon. And then: Stack overflow. And this game suffers from the restore -> trace bug. And why can't I call for help in the woods? And now I seem to be in a kind of open maze, or at least that's what it feels like. Catching fireflies is woefully under-syntaxed (as are other things later). I don't get the clock puzzle. Or the cave one. *What* witch? Hints are inadequate when you can't find the puzzles they appear for. Wumpus Run - 1 (1) What a novel idea for an IF game. And the author chastises me for looking at things. Poor implementation, as expected. And, of course, the insta- death. And randomized geography. Sigh. I didn't even like HiD that much. Labyrinth - 6 (7) Fortunately, I don't dislike puzzles. Although a bit more rationale to tie them together wouldn't hurt. Navigating the landscape is a bit annoying. And the puzzles are cliched. But like I said, I like puzzles. Oh, and I suddenly realize the game didn't have horrible implementation issues or terrible writing or anything. So, cool. Manalive II - 3/4 (4) It's not starting out especially well: I had trouble finding anything I could interact with at the very beginning, despite all the long introductory description. Is my coat green or red and white? Unimplemented stuff seems discouragingly common... Man, this is awfully railroady. It's like there's only one interesting action I can take at any time, and that just gets me a new textdump. And accepted syntaxes with the revolver are still needlessly restricted. Part I was better. The Sisters - 4/3 (5) Tum-te-tum. Another one where the beginning probably tells me all I really need to know to judge it. This seems to be proving itself true. Also, telling me repeatedly how spooky your game is does not make it any spookier. But the twist at the end wasn't bad. Bible Retold - 7 (8) Surprisingly non-offensive, at least to start. Shame about the stack overflow early on in the synagogue. Otherwise seems decently implemented and written. Numerical navigation's a bit annoying, and requiring literal Aramaic for that one puzzle seems a bit much, when English works fine for everything else. OK, so there are a couple bugs. Was there supposed to be a tablet for the bleeding woman? Middle/ending need work, but not a bad game. Floatpoint - 8 (9) Interesting scoring system(s?). Nice environment. Randomly weird things I am trying are actually working. Why can Liam talk to me, but not vice versa? Some minor bugs. Lots of detailed stuff to examine and fiddle with, which is enjoyable, but that eats up a lot my two-hour time limit. It would have been nice if "scan" etc. had been implemented at least to tell me they were unnecessary (re: computer). Nice multiple endings. In the end, penalized for length, but otherwise a good game. Green Falls - 2 (2) Y'know, I'm getting tired of this game. How about one where you play a magic-user next time? Polendina - 2 (2) Um. I'm sure the author means for this to all be significant and foreboding or symbolic or something, but it feels like just another Your Apartment game from where I sit. One in which the author keeps pointing out all the stuff he didn't want to bother implementing. Two rooms, one sink? Generally poor implementation. And the game calls me a "moron". How nice. Screw you, author. And minus another point for disabling "quit". Enter the Dark - 2 (2) Argh! No X, no L AT, no LOOK AT. And nothing in the room description is implemented. My patiences is already approaching the breaking point, and I haven't passed move 1 yet! And this is *not* a walkthrough! Terrible implementation. Writing's not much better. Walkthrough's next to useless. I've no desire to keep playing. Strange Geometries - 5/6 (6) Long intro. Made me laugh, but probably wasn't supposed to. Also, the prose is littered with mechanical errors (its/it's, "once and a while", run-ons, "the lack people"). Dunno if it's this game or just the fact that I've already played over 40 of them, but I'm feeling pretty uninspired here. Executions *twice a month*? How the $&#@ does this small town maintain its population? [comment deleted] A shame I can't tell the nurse about the corpse I discovered on the sanitarium grounds. OK, all of a sudden this game rocks. That scene just earned it back a bunch of lost score. Now I'm rereading old descriptions just to see that they fit. Unfortunately, the object inside the box is pretty buggy. And then I needed the walkthrough for some unclued actions. And the author apparently ran out of time for testing/debugging. Initial State - 3 (3) Why must you torment us with your homemmade IF systems? No X, no L AT. If I type "verbose", I can no longer see room descriptions, even if I type "look". Another game that tries its best to make me depressed to be playing it. But I have the knowledge that this is the last one to buoy me through! Man, it's even buggy. SUMMARY: Best game: Madam Spider's Web Other highly recommended games: Tales of the Traveling Swordsman, The Elyisum Enigma, Floatpoint Also recommended games: Aunts and Butlers, Legion, The Bible Retold