IFReviewed by
Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 09:00
Er, well. This is about as bare-bones as a game can get. It's supposed to be modelled after the Scott Adams games, but Adams somehow managed to cram some juice into his three-word sentence fragments. Here, every room description is of the form "Exits are south, east and north", and it's not in aid of any particular gimmick.
There are only three puzzles, of which one is (surprise) the fifteen puzzle. I'm afraid whatever tolerance I had for Old Standards was exhausted after the light-toggler in "Dilly"; fortunately, the author provides a cheat. The second puzzle (a kitten up a tree) is reasonable. The third is a good puzzle idea, except it's built in a maze. The maze is exactly as interesting to look at as the rest of the game. It's easy to map, but come on.
This isn't a disaster. It's about two good ideas from some not-yet-written game, and they don't stand up on their own. On the other hand, it didn't get boring either; the extreme brevity slid me through to the end before I threw it against a wall. That may not sound like much praise :-) but I mean it: when there are only three bits, and two of them work ok, that's above average.
But room descriptions are still considered good.
