IFReviewed by
Ron Newcomb on 2007-02-09 09:35
Varicella is the Groundhog Day of interactive fiction. The game ends -- meaning you die --at a set time interval, which you RESTART the game from the beginning and go forward again, every play-through bringing you closer to the perfect series of actions that wins the game. Even the main character is a prick, just like the movie! Varicella is one single, resettable puzzle to be solved. Fortunately, the writing is good enough and the characters believable enough (in an archtypical way) that repetitious and inevitable death isn't all that bad.
Cabbages, anyone?