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Foreign Soil's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Rating | #3 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Story (Plot, Setting & Objective) | #4 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
| Puzzles | #5 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Presentation (Text, Graphics & Sound) | #6 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Writing (General Quality) | #6 | 3.850 | 3.850 |
| Implementation | #8 | 3.300 | 3.300 |
| Help, Hints and/or Instructions | #14 | 2.650 | 2.650 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Overview of Game
Foreign Soil is part sci-fi, part surreal story about - well, about what, really? Probably you can judge that better than I can. If it were a film, it would certainly be a French-Korean co-production.
The puzzles in the game are not very difficult (if you can call them puzzles at all).
Although not particularly serious overall, the game is NOT suitable for younger children, as there is swearing at times and references to alcohol consumption. And you can die in about 10 different ways. Even though it's not permanent, it's usually described in very unpleasant terms.
Requirements to Play
To play this game you need an interpreter.
I personally recommend Lectrote (by Andrew Plotkin), which is available for Windows, Mac and Unix:
https://github.com/erkyrath/lectrote/releases
If you want to play on your mobile phone, you can find suitable apps here:
http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Mobile_apps_for_downloading_or_playing_IF
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Comments
Well, that was a little odd and more than a little thought-provoking. I enjoyed it a great deal. There's some excellent writing in there, particularly the rather visceral opening sequence which, I think, is the strongest part of the game. The ending felt a bit abrupt - I'm not sure if there might have been more that I could have done before I got there. Perhaps I'll replay and find out. At any rate, this feels like something that it would be worthwhile expanding.
I ran into the same problems with the bottle that kenped reported below: trying to fill it underwater also produces the same response. Also, a spacing error here (I don't think I was actually trying to clean the suit but anyway, this was the response):
“attempt to cleanthe protective suit is in vain”
Excellent atmosphere! The puzzles are light and easy, and mostly serve to drive the exploration. Good use of puzzle elements (like time constraints) and character goals to raise the stakes.
The worldbuilding is subtle and fascinating. It could stand to be explored a bit more, but it’s also fine as it is, and it’d be easy to ruin the surrealism by overexplaining.
I hooted like a monkey at the end when I found out that the game keeps track of something I didn’t think it kept track of.
What I’d most like to see added is even more immersion: actions that don’t advance the plot but express character, and player-character descriptions that change over time.
I’m not too sure about the viewpoint change, it felt too Tethered-ish.
I got confused by the description of the pyramid’s layout — maybe the number of levels could be made clearer.
Ending a very high-stakes and poetic sequence with a mere towel felt rather bathetic (heh, BATHos from a towel. I’m clever), and I was surprised the towel had no use later on e.g. to collect objects into.
I’ve only played through once so far, and definitely want to find all the possible deaths. Planning to send you a transcript when I’m done.
Thank you very much for the good review!
I haven't played Tethered yet, I'll have to catch up as soon as possible.
Now that you say that about the towel, it's so obvious to me that I'm annoyed I didn't put another nice use for it....
Hi, I like this game but I am stuck and it appears to be a bug in the game. Perhaps I can use another command that isn't bugged or I will have to wait for a bugfixed version?
Here is my problem, encoded with rot13 (Decode at www.rot13.com):
V unir fpnaarq gur obql naq V nz gbyq gung gur crefba vf qrulqengrq. V unir na rzcgl obggyr. V tb gb gur "Ybjre Punzore" nf gurer vf n gnc jvgu jngre. Vg fubhyq or fvzcyr gb r.t. SVYY OBGGYR be SVYY OBGGYR JVGU JNGRE ohg abar bs vg jbexf. V trg fgenatr erfcbafrf fhpu nf:
>svyy obggyr jvgu jngre
(gur obggyr (rzcgl))
Gung'f hggre abafrafr - ubj ner lbh tbvat gb svyy gur obggyr (rzcgl) jvgu gur obggyr (rzcgl)?
Fb V arrq n pbzznaq gung vf jbexvat sbe chggvat jngre va gur obggyr.
V nyfb gevrq:
>k gnc
Gung'f n cerggl abezny gnc. N znpnebav-guvpx wrg bs jngre ehaf tragyl bhg bs gur gnc, gur jngre frrcf vagb gur fnaql fbvy. [Gur gnc vf ba, fvapr V ghearq vg ba - gung cneg frrzf gb jbex]
>k jngre
(gur obggyr (rzcgl))
Gur obggyr vf genafcnerag, yvxr tynff, ohg zhpu yvtugre naq nccneragyl zber fgnoyr. Vg vf rzcgl.
>chg jngre va obggyr
(gur jngre gnax va gur obggyr (rzcgl))
Gung jbhyq or dhvgr haultvravp.
>chg obggyr haqre gnc
V qvqa'g haqrefgnaq gung fragrapr.
>ubyq obggyr haqre gnc
V bayl haqrefgbbq lbh nf sne nf jnagvat gb ubyq gur obggyr (rzcgl).
Thanks!
Hi Kenped,
sorry to hear that!
Yes, it's a bug and I have a fix but it is not well testet. I'll upload a new version as soon as possible.
For now you can use:
svyy obggyr ng gnc
Thanks for your feedback!
Olaf
Thanks, that worked :)