Spoiler-free review
A short game with fantastic writing and an evocative world. I know nothing about the original novel and probably missed a bunch of references, but I sure liked what I saw.
Contains psychiatric violence, with the worst of it in the intro and some mentions later.
Most of the plot is set in an ordinary house, which I think was the wrong choice: it’s the most overdone IF setting, and pales in contrast to the gorgeously described future.
The game is full of red herrings, and Cruel on the Zarfian scale. It’s not only possible, but slyly encouraged, to get stuck permanently. I keep waffling on whether that’s a good or a bad thing: I think some tricks feel like part of the world and make the game deeper, but others feel artificial and frustrating.
The hints are very complete, and help alleviate this. I really appreciated them.
The implementation is somewhat buggy (and no testers are listed in the credits). I assume the author ran out of time — I wish ParserComp deadlines were longer.
Detailed feedback with spoilers
Softlock & red herrings
I don’t mind the possibility of getting stuck, but the two causes of it seem unfair. Mrs Watchett suggests that we put the watch on the desk. Once this is done, it becomes fixed in place, even though there’s no reason we couldn’t pick it back up. The default “That’s hardly portable.” message is also inappropriate here.
Even if we could go back to fetch the watch, the fuse burns out after one round trip. This is more justified, but still, fuses can be bought (even in 1895), or we could even short it with the metal key in a pinch. This problem would work fine as a puzzle, but as a permanent lockout condition, it’s unrealistic.
I very much enjoyed the tunnels and the chandelier, those feel like natural parts of the world and they’re fun to explore. The controls in the machine are in the middle: they’re interesting scenery, but it’s frustrating to try to guess the verb and realise that everything except one button is decorative.
Bugs
It’s possible to take the coals out of the fire. They’re listed in the inventory as “a coals”. The description still says they provide light, but they don’t.
The river-things are missing a description.
Unimplemented objects:
- horses drawing the ambulance
- dome/portico/building/column
- people/figures seen from the balcony
- bushes on the river bank
Unimplemented actions:
- push/pull panel
- press switch
- hit [something] with [something]: the action exists but the response is empty
- going up from the top of the shaft: should be synonymous with going out
Typos:
- unclosed quote in description of the player
- “Imperceptabley”
- “That really woudn’ accomplish anything productive.”
- “I don’ see”
- “The entrace”
- “Wells” story”
- “prescence”
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