IFReviewed by Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 07:13
Ghosts in a dark Scottish manor. I like it. The atmosphere is almost perfect -- very monochromatic, grey and black; my only complaint is that it wasn't really very scary. Just quiet.
The puzzles fit very smoothly. I didn't get all of them without hints, but I've gotten rather lazy after, what, fourteen games played now. I'm resorting to hints faster than I should. I didn't find any solutions that were actually illogical, although some of the actions were pretty obscure. Not obscure in what you're supposed to do; they made perfect sense in terms of the situation. I mean obscure in that I was never inspired to think of them, or think that the goals they accomplished were important. (Is that too obscure? Uh, getting the rug was the biggest example. That and finding the crypt key. Here's a better way to put it: the useful items didn't stand out from the scenery very well. Because, I hasten to add, the scenery was so nicely detailed.)
(Come to think of it, all my complaints are that "Maiden" is too well-written and well-designed! Gonna have to up my rating or something.)
The finale is very tight on timing, but I'd have to be pretty hypocritical to complain about that.
I like the title effect. The author gives the same information elsewhere in the game, as a nudge, but I'd already gotten it by then.
Oh, it's after midnight now. Halloween has started. Good timing.
