IFReviewed by
Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 08:14
(Very tempted to start this review "I was really screwed by the author in this game." Nah.)
So, this is where everyone says, "Whoa, the author sure put in lots of accurate detail from his own experience." Which is true. You wander around a wilderness, full of, well, everything. With a guidebook (nice touch.) More detail than you can shake a stick at, once you get the stick. This is great to play but very brief to review, so I'll talk about something else.
There is an NPC, Bob, who is -- well, more detail than you can shake a stick at. Goes through this whole routine, drops golden nuggets of wisdom, reminisces about everything, talks to you, listens to you, offers you lunch. To be completely honest I wanted to throw a brick at his head. But that's just me. He's a very well-done NPC.
There are a few puzzles, which rated fairly high on the obscure-ometer for me. (I didn't understand the egg thing at all.) Again, the detail problem; there's so very much around that it's hard to examine the right things. For example, there are very specific "You can't go that way because..." messages; most of them are scenery, but some are solvable problems. There's no good way to tell which is which.
I relied heavily on the dynamic hint system, anyway.
(Footnote: I did in fact throw a brick at Bob. He said something patient and sad and forgiving. Grrrn.)
(Footnote 2: "stalagtites"? Those are the ones that stick out from the wall? :-)