Category: Reviews

Introcomp Works: Tin, Three Princes

I meant to play and review all the introcomp games this year, and then other aspects of life intervened. So I didn’t vote and didn’t write up comments on most of them.

However, there’s no reason not to post the comments I did make:

Three Princes: Argh, I can’t get into this one at all. I can’t figure out what to type, and there’s a woeful lack of responsiveness to lots of basic attempts to type on the keyboard.

Tin: This is kind of awesome. Admittedly, subversive re-tellings of classic stories are nothing new, but I took a certain sick pleasure in the way this particular one went. It was also among the most polished of the entries and felt solid throughout. That said, I’m not sure how well it meets the “do you want to play more?” criterion: I feel like the premise might not bear the weight of a full-length game. It makes for a great short diversion — the length of this introduction, e.g. — but I don’t know that I want to play another hour or two or five of it.

Recent Plays

Yesterday I played Mondi Confinanti’s “Little Falls”, a Glulx horror/thriller game. It’s short (less than an hour to play once), with few puzzles, largely relying on atmosphere; it provides full illustration and sound effects. I had mixed feelings — fuller review to follow — but I was impressed by the polish and effort, and probably would have found it more effective if I hadn’t gotten stuck on something stupid for quite a long time. If you enjoy horror or are interested in multimedia IF, it’s worth a look. There’s a page on the game and a download page.

A few weeks back, I played and enjoyed Jon Ingold’s “Dead Cities” from the Lovecraft Commonplace Book Project. I’ve yet to try anything else from that set, partly because “Dead Cities” was so cool I wanted to just let it stand on its own for a while. Wonderfully atmospheric, with some creepy, visionary elements.

Also worth a look: Eric Eve’s “Blighted Isle” (Zip file here). I beta-tested, so will not be reviewing it, and a few things may have changed since I tried it. But it is a sizable historical piece with multiple endings, a large host of characters, and the care and polish you would expect from Eve.

Chocolatier; lushness; Dreamhold

The other day, in search of something to do while I was feeling under the weather, I downloaded Chocolatier on a recommendation from Jay Is Games. Despite not thinking it was that brilliant a game, I wound up buying the full version; and thinking about why I did that has led me to some other thoughts about the appealing aspects of IF.

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