cobaltnine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cobaltnine) wrote2010-10-25 08:31 am
cobaltnine) wrote2010-10-25 08:31 am
Entry tags:
IFComp 2010 - One Eye Open
One Eye Open, by Colin Sandel and Carolyn VanEseltine
Above the Fold - I will admit, I did skim a few of the other reviews before writing mine for this, because I wanted to verify something non-spoilery: that this game is really huge and I'm nowhere near an ending at the two hour mark. After reading reviews, especially Em Short's, I can feel assured that yes, yes it is. I was starting to get to the point where I was beginning to believe it was me - that I was becoming the slowest player in the world. But no, I think the 'randomize games' button gave me a few of the longer ones at onset.
Also, I'm writing this while on the bus. More below:
I've seen a bunch of people write 'oh no horror game bye.' I'd much rather play a well-written horror game than more didactic pap. Also, it's October! Halloween time! And I'm about four weeks behind on Dexter anyway, so I might as well fulfil my gore quotient.
It's not quite Dexter level gore, or at least, it is, in volume, but it's not the same. The closest analogue I can come up with is Thomas Ligotti. It's a wet, organic horror, biology gone wrong, and madness. White, lumescent, liminal scenes mixed with the black, nigredo organic decay, and no flaming ascendency in sight. Then again, after corpse #3, I'm not really horrified. I wasn't really shocked with corpse #1, to be honest. I was expecting it. I know what dead bodies look like, and feel like, squish like, and smell like. So that didn't scare me. Yep, shove that body out of the way, good work. Wear the wet, bloody clothing. Yes, gooey horror, moving on.
Then I find out the fire ax is missing.
Also, I'm playing at nearly midnight.
As for fairness, there were a few insta-deaths, mostly things that, well, weren't instant. The game was pretty good at asking me if I was sure I wanted to go into the horrible dark chompy looking places, and I died because I was all 'sure why not!' There was one prolonged death that I dealt with via a well-timed save file. (The autopsy lab-morgue death.) (I'm going to go ahead and say 'the first...' because I fully feel that I haven't died in all the possible ways yet.) Given the nature and theme of the game, though, I actually have no problem with dying a bunch. It's almost expected.
A few notes on technical aspects: I see other people hit some worse problems with regards to errors, but I found a few that were aggravating, but not problematic. I didn't have a problem with the keycard, but I did hit some object errors - what was being referred to was odd, and a command to 'sit' immediately after examining a chair decided to refer to a door. I've had door and sitting problems in games before, in both glulx and z-code games. I found the notes management annoying, but I don't know if there is a better way to handle them, so I'm not counting this against it. I went through a few iterations of commands to try to use the keypad, though, and found 'press 1 key' 'press 2 key' a bit non-intuitive.
All in all, I really want to go and spend some time with this game. At night, with Fantomas's 'Delirium Cordia' or some other experimental music in the background. High marks.
Above the Fold - I will admit, I did skim a few of the other reviews before writing mine for this, because I wanted to verify something non-spoilery: that this game is really huge and I'm nowhere near an ending at the two hour mark. After reading reviews, especially Em Short's, I can feel assured that yes, yes it is. I was starting to get to the point where I was beginning to believe it was me - that I was becoming the slowest player in the world. But no, I think the 'randomize games' button gave me a few of the longer ones at onset.
Also, I'm writing this while on the bus. More below:
I've seen a bunch of people write 'oh no horror game bye.' I'd much rather play a well-written horror game than more didactic pap. Also, it's October! Halloween time! And I'm about four weeks behind on Dexter anyway, so I might as well fulfil my gore quotient.
It's not quite Dexter level gore, or at least, it is, in volume, but it's not the same. The closest analogue I can come up with is Thomas Ligotti. It's a wet, organic horror, biology gone wrong, and madness. White, lumescent, liminal scenes mixed with the black, nigredo organic decay, and no flaming ascendency in sight. Then again, after corpse #3, I'm not really horrified. I wasn't really shocked with corpse #1, to be honest. I was expecting it. I know what dead bodies look like, and feel like, squish like, and smell like. So that didn't scare me. Yep, shove that body out of the way, good work. Wear the wet, bloody clothing. Yes, gooey horror, moving on.
Then I find out the fire ax is missing.
Also, I'm playing at nearly midnight.
As for fairness, there were a few insta-deaths, mostly things that, well, weren't instant. The game was pretty good at asking me if I was sure I wanted to go into the horrible dark chompy looking places, and I died because I was all 'sure why not!' There was one prolonged death that I dealt with via a well-timed save file. (The autopsy lab-morgue death.) (I'm going to go ahead and say 'the first...' because I fully feel that I haven't died in all the possible ways yet.) Given the nature and theme of the game, though, I actually have no problem with dying a bunch. It's almost expected.
A few notes on technical aspects: I see other people hit some worse problems with regards to errors, but I found a few that were aggravating, but not problematic. I didn't have a problem with the keycard, but I did hit some object errors - what was being referred to was odd, and a command to 'sit' immediately after examining a chair decided to refer to a door. I've had door and sitting problems in games before, in both glulx and z-code games. I found the notes management annoying, but I don't know if there is a better way to handle them, so I'm not counting this against it. I went through a few iterations of commands to try to use the keypad, though, and found 'press 1 key' 'press 2 key' a bit non-intuitive.
All in all, I really want to go and spend some time with this game. At night, with Fantomas's 'Delirium Cordia' or some other experimental music in the background. High marks.