cobaltnine | IFComp 2008 - Piracy 2.0 (11/7/08)

This is a professional game, written by someone in the game industry. Does that make it ethically eh? Well, the Olympics stopped caring, so I suppose IF Comp can.

But there are advantages to professionalism: Spelling. Nothing's really broken. Most logical actions are accounted for, even if it's with stock Inform phraseology. My map isn't too terrible-looking. Puzzles are logical. Puzzles are kind of hard.

This is only the second or third game I actually spent two hours on, and I didn't finish it. This is because it is hard, or at least time-consuming. It's more time-consuming when you die a few times and realize your 'useful' save point is just one step too far beyond to actually by useful.

My biggest problem is that I have now explored most, but not all of the map, using restored games. You see, I keep getting shot. A lot. I'm sure it's got some random component to it, and I've pissed off the RNG.

There's one other thing. In the description of the game, the author mentions it is a re-write of something he did a long time ago. The original Piracy had a lot more HHGTTG references in it and so on. He took these out, and took out the humor which he believes was derivative. Unfortunately, when he took out the humor he didn't put anything in to replace it. There's no real atmosphere to speak of.

I wish there was. I wish the creativity would have expressed itself in two ways: the competent, which he obviously is, but also in the engaging - give us a hook. The same people who liked Violet will find this soulless. But so will the two of us who found Violet dreck, relegating it to the shattered pile of stomped-upon Napoleon Dynamite and Juno DVDs. Give us creepiness, or at least engaging description.

Score: very good.