IFReviewed by
Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 08:30
Another one for authorial telepathy. Well, it wasn't that bad: the magic command seems to be "ask person about thing". Pretty much every time I checked the hints, that was the answer.
Puzzles aside: the scenario was cute, but it's been done before. Somehow the "Build my college / office / house" approach never fails to turn me off. (Except of course in "Kissing the Buddha's Feet," which only goes to prove that I'm open-minded.)
The gameplay had some irritating holes: I tried several ways to call people on the telephone (dial 123-4567, push 1, dial phone, call 123-4567) before I checked the hints and tried "call fred". Not that "call fred" is an unreasonable way to handle things -- it's actually a good solution; but none of the others told me that "call fred" was sufficient.
The time limit, though very long, was still something of an irritation. I never actually hit it, but the warnings made me feel like I shouldn't experiment, which drove me to the hints faster.