IFComp 2008 - A Date With Death

[cobaltnine]

I managed to end the week with a game that doesn't have me swearing that much. Also, I only recently realized that the technical limit on the games is two hours, not one. It ain't gonna be two on work-nights, kids, and I can't see it to be held as a requirement, not when I say 'Goddamn it let me 'x' things you fucking parser.'

Frankly, I'm a little tired and rambly because work consisted of dealing with patients at the fortnightly free TB clinic, and then I ended up googling a grammar issue and then got distracted on wikipedia, so this may be short.





First off, apparently it's not set in stone any more, but I vastly prefer 'hanged' to 'hung' when speaking of ex-people. There are a few typos here and there, but nothing that remains with me other than the hanged/hung bit. There is, as has been said, a lot of writing. I think it's only borderline too-much, personally, because Y HELO THAR there are characters here. Actual characters.

Now, let me say two things that pissed me off:
1. My guards either all died when I wasn't looking, and/or one of them died and kept showing up again. I was a bit confused on this part, and because this was actually my first ADRIFT game of the Comp, I forgot I have to turn on transcript before playing.

2. Guess the Verb does make a show. As does 'Guess the Noun,' a much rarer variant, but seemingly only in the context of the Information Point. This is also my first time finding 'Guess How To Get the Walkthrough,' which, by the way, I could not find using google, groups.google, or yelling/playing depressing music at the computer a bit. Also, the author's website hasn't been updated in a year, so good luck finding 'more recent versions' there.

TRUFAX: The bell is on the table that doesn't appear until you sit on the chair in the big room, which you were dissuaded from doing.

I could not figure out the syntax for the servant to fetch someone for me. This was at hour 1.5 or so, at which point I decided to quit. (If anyone knows how, please feel free to tell me in the comments. It's something like 'Igor, (verb) (noun),' but 'Igor, get probably important character' didn't work, nor 'fetch' nor 'bring.')

Now, as for things I like - a new section on these reviews:
1. The Information Point. I wasn't too familiar with that form of conversation menu, so I was OK with it. I liked the way it handled things, personally.

2. Physically small and no goddamn mazes. I started off thinking, "Oh, no, let's get a new page to map," which I did need, but it turned out to be covered in phrase or words that seemed useful to look up at the Information Point.

3. So you died...you can keep going, to a point. I just hit 'restore,' myself, but it was an interesting quirk of the game.

There was a little too much writing, but I found the game by and large interesting. Still, I'm rating it a 6. On reflection, I feel like I haven't solved any significant puzzles in the game, but I decided on a 6 before I realized that. I will likely go back to this game in the future, assuming I find out how to ask for the things I want, or to do the things I want to do.

Comments

[twobirds.livejournal.com]

Actually, you're supposed to ignore the command given, and use "Servant, (character)".

Also, I thought 'ring bell' worked, but doing anything other than that refused to even acknowledge the bell was there.

[imrihamun.livejournal.com]

Oh, as written? I think I thought that was a generic command form that one should use with all servants, subbing their name in. But I see - I'm too snooty for names!

Ring bell worked, but I never tried anything else - it only worked after I found the bell, which was something I didn't think I'd have to find, reading the hints.

[kinfae.livejournal.com]

What were you able to get him to do? I could get him to do absolutely nothing in any format.