IFReviewed by
Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 09:34
Seems to have two introductions, a long one and a short one, both of which want to be the first introduction you read. Should be sorted out.
It's a traditional little cyberpunk scenario. Really I didn't find it very satisfying. Events run on rails; you only have a couple of opportunities to make real decisions. Yes, you have cool toys, but their use is very straightforward -- obvious, not revelatory. The original problem, finding the datachip, is a nice puzzle; everything after that is fairly dull.
The storyline wants to be nifty and cyberpunk, but you never have a reason to feel involved. Stuff happens, but it happens in front of you, not to you -- that's what it feels like. Anyway, it sticks too close to the Gibson base scenario.
This game has bad guess-the-noun problems. Many commands (I noticed "ask X about Y" and "show X to Y") require a particular word, even though the object in question has several synonyms which should work. I wound up having to go to the walkthrough just to learn the correct phrasing of what I wanted to do.
On the other hand (hah), the author did make some effort to make "obvious" actions happen easily, without any low-level fiddling with details. That was great; I wish that level of care had extended to all the commands in the game.