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cobaltnineToday's Game: The Bible Retold: Following a Star, by Justin Morgan.
Today's Diversion: Job's Syndrome. Job's Syndrome is the catchier name for hyperimmunoglobulin E (hyper IgE) syndrome. I mention this mostly because 1. I, your friendly but occasionally cranky neighborhood atheist, once had to explain the name to the doctor I was working with who was treating someone for it and 2. we started the immunology section of my pathophysiology class today. It's called that because it generally presents with recurrent skin infections, like the boils of the Old Testament story. Per the original Lancet article, they also named it that because their initial patients looked, and I quote, 'pitiful.'
Bonus warning: Sweary!
I'm going to admit, I groaned when I saw this. Zero interest in playing a catechism. Then I considered the possibility that it was going to be subversive. And then I decided to just consider it like any other folktale - I wouldn't be all 'oh, come on, another Cinderella adaptation...'. So here we are, folktale.
One of my initial impressions of this game was that the play, despite having the glulxy graphical navigation arrow on the bar to the left (which I didn't really pay attention to at first), was very traditional. I'm having container issues (with those #^%$ing figs), and I've got this happening within the first ten or so turns:
Oh, dear. I haven't seen any clay tablets at this point. There's some inventory issues, and the above, that I think might be avoidable with better naming, or less stuff. The game's a bit crowded with stuff, and, during some of the more farcical scenes near the end, with people.
Here's what I like: this was relatively well built as a traditional game. The navigation puzzle was...interesting, but I'm not entirely pleased with how it was implemented. This is definitely a note-taking game. I liked the frankincense puzzle, but maybe that's because I'm an avocational but classically trained archaeologist and I find Near Eastern trade goods fascinating. (Of note, this made the Latin puzzles frustrating for me. A working knowledge of Latin + playing by half-assed Latin rules = graaah.)
Here's what I don't: it has all the annoying shit of a traditional game. The aforementioned inventory issues. The humor even seemed old. And then, to top it off? A maze. I think, technically, two mazes. I hereby order Mr Morgan to watch 'Get Lamp', specifically the segment on mazes. Mazes are the Metamucil of IF: tasteless pap that gives you bulk, and in the end there's a lot of shit.
I won't be replaying this to get the 20 odd points I didn't get. I really just finished it out of frustration.
Today's Diversion: Job's Syndrome. Job's Syndrome is the catchier name for hyperimmunoglobulin E (hyper IgE) syndrome. I mention this mostly because 1. I, your friendly but occasionally cranky neighborhood atheist, once had to explain the name to the doctor I was working with who was treating someone for it and 2. we started the immunology section of my pathophysiology class today. It's called that because it generally presents with recurrent skin infections, like the boils of the Old Testament story. Per the original Lancet article, they also named it that because their initial patients looked, and I quote, 'pitiful.'
Bonus warning: Sweary!
I'm going to admit, I groaned when I saw this. Zero interest in playing a catechism. Then I considered the possibility that it was going to be subversive. And then I decided to just consider it like any other folktale - I wouldn't be all 'oh, come on, another Cinderella adaptation...'. So here we are, folktale.
One of my initial impressions of this game was that the play, despite having the glulxy graphical navigation arrow on the bar to the left (which I didn't really pay attention to at first), was very traditional. I'm having container issues (with those #^%$ing figs), and I've got this happening within the first ten or so turns:
>ask gaspar about message Which do you mean, the clay tablet or the message? >message Which do you mean, the clay tablet or the message?
Oh, dear. I haven't seen any clay tablets at this point. There's some inventory issues, and the above, that I think might be avoidable with better naming, or less stuff. The game's a bit crowded with stuff, and, during some of the more farcical scenes near the end, with people.
Here's what I like: this was relatively well built as a traditional game. The navigation puzzle was...interesting, but I'm not entirely pleased with how it was implemented. This is definitely a note-taking game. I liked the frankincense puzzle, but maybe that's because I'm an avocational but classically trained archaeologist and I find Near Eastern trade goods fascinating. (Of note, this made the Latin puzzles frustrating for me. A working knowledge of Latin + playing by half-assed Latin rules = graaah.)
Here's what I don't: it has all the annoying shit of a traditional game. The aforementioned inventory issues. The humor even seemed old. And then, to top it off? A maze. I think, technically, two mazes. I hereby order Mr Morgan to watch 'Get Lamp', specifically the segment on mazes. Mazes are the Metamucil of IF: tasteless pap that gives you bulk, and in the end there's a lot of shit.
I won't be replaying this to get the 20 odd points I didn't get. I really just finished it out of frustration.
