IFReviewed by
Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 08:52
Now this is a one-room game. Ok, not a perfect one. But with this much attention to detail, I'll forgive much.
The gimmick is reminiscent of "Zero Sum Game": you've just finished a long dungeon crawl. Now there's just one damn troll between you and the exit.
The pre-history of the game is the funniest part, as it shows up in various offhand comments... try "places", "objects", or "full score". Or the false hints. Brilliant. Brilliant, I say.
Anyway, I won't give away the schtick, but you have to get rid of all your previously-acquired stuff to win. (Very reminiscent of "ZSG", yes, but it's really an entirely different gag. Don't get all hepped up about the resemblance.)
Now, as to the game itself, I had a lot of trouble playing it. There are lots and lots of things to fiddle with, which is good, but I actually underestimated just how much you can fiddle. I suppose I shouldn't complain (since I had the opposite problem with "Dilly") but I did have to hit the hints a lot. But not all the time. Plenty of things I got myself. Ok.
Anyway, I'll forgive hard puzzles for the cleverness.
One quibble... The line "noli illegitimati carborundum" is "don't let the bastards wear you down." Wear down. Like carborundum sandpaper. It's not a very good joke, but there it is. Don't screw it up.
Note: opcode errors.
Also, whenever you look or take inventory, the pronouns are all reset. There's a library option to not do this. It is my tireless mission to make every single Inform author use it. I'm sure you're already tired of hearing about it. But it's particularly bad this time, because when you take inventory, "it" is set to "the breach of copyright" -- damn confusing.
