Hedge by Steven Richards (Inform)
One of many games in the IFComp I played for the most part with the walkthrough to one side of me. Maybe I’m just getting worse at these kinds of games, but when I’m faced with trying to get inside a nightclub and the bouncer won’t let me in, asking him about proof isn’t something I’m likely to try. (Yes, that’s a spoiler there but if you get any further in the game than its first location, it’s likely you looked at the walkthrough so I’m not really giving much away.) Then again, even with the walkthrough I’m not guaranteed an easy ride. The second command listed doesn’t work.
A puzzle later on, getting through a gate in some kind of war zone (how I got from the inside of a nightclub to a war zone, I’m not entirely sure) seemed to involve waiting a specified number of moves in a different location then rushing back to the gate before it closes… although how I’m supposed to figure that out I can’t imagine. This is the kind of game that makes me think looking at the walkthrough isn’t cheating as such, but a necessity.
Unfortunately, keying in commands one by one with the walkthrough to one side of me isn’t a lot of fun. I persevered to the end of the game just to see if things improved, but as the ending, where I was moved from the nightclub to a highway for no apparent reason, just confused me more I decided I’d have been better off not bothering.
2 out of 10