[spoiler]Blurb:
Straightforward, clear, and with a bit of a mysterious hook. I’m into it.
General Impressions:
I had fun with this game! It was well-written (though it took me a minute to get used to the fact that it was written as a diary, sometimes dropping articles and prepositions) and the story itself was fun. I especially liked that though there were big things happening, the focus was on the personal goals of a space-schlub rather than on world-shaking events.
The Good:
- The diary/log format. It was unique and interesting. It certainly fit the mood and plot of the game.
- The writing. It was funny and gave a very good sense of character.
- The level of interactivity. I’m not one for puzzle-fests, much preferring story-driven works. That said, I don’t want just a narrative with a “Next” button. This game managed to avoid both extremes. I especially like that you could always advance; even if you gave a wrong answer or made a bad choice, you were never blocked from the next bit of story. You simply had to deal with the consequences of your answer or choice. It makes it a coherent and whole narrative rather than a series of truncated experiences and one (or a few) “real” narratives.
- “You found X of X endings” is something I absolutely prefer over “Wrong choice. You died.”
The Bad:
- I kind of wanted a little more. It’s a very short game. I appreciate that there’s a lot of replayability (I played through a few times to get different endings), but I still wanted something a bit more substantial.
- Some scenes make more sense when arrived at by certain paths. That is, sometimes, you get references to things you didn’t learn about earlier. (For example, a reference to “Cyndee’s solo” when you get there by a path where you’ve never heard of her). It still works (I just assumed that my character knew more than I did about the performers), but it stood out on a second playthrough.
- There were a couple technical faults. Clicking “xgf” on the second screen goes to an explanation, then back to the first screen. You need to do the “eliminate the word” puzzle over again and return to the second screen. I also came across what looked like an unclosed header tag at one point. Neither of these issues impacted my enjoyment of the game in any way. I just mention them so that the author knows about them, and has the chance to correct them if they choose to do so.
Conclusion:
As I said, I enjoyed this game. It was an interesting format and it was well-written - I even found myself laughing a couple of times. It’s worth it to play more than once to see which endings you can get. Solid entry, I think.[/spoiler]