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1 Star IFReview Rating Koan

IFReviewed by Andrew Plotkin on 2006-06-25 09:40 

Game Profile

Author
Esa Peuha

Idiom
English

Authoring System
Inform6

Release Year
2002

IFR Overall Rating
2 Stars IFR Overall Rating
Separator
"Inform v6.14 Library 6/4"? Come to think of it, The Temple was "Inform v6.15 Library 6/2"... Come on, people, it's not like the current version is a recently-released beta. The older libraries have bugs and Z-code errors. Update!

Okay, the game. This is a one-puzzle, no-plot game: it wants me to get a pot off a pillar without breaking it. But wait, even before I touch the pot, the game says it's cracked. Bug or clue?

I shall look at the help. Oh, it's a bug. Well, that pretty much spoils the game, doesn't it? If there's only one important object, and its description is wrong, we have a problem.

A note about design theory: One clue says, "This is a computer game; The rules of reality need not apply." But that's silly. I have nothing to start from but the rules of reality. If I throw those away, I might as well start typing random strings of characters.

Now in fact, the Clever Idea of this game is pretty clever, and one could set up a scenario in which that sort of surreal manipulation is a good puzzle. This scenario, however, is not it.

Andrew Plotkin Profile

IFReviewer Rating
9 Stars IFReviewer Overall Rating

Name Andrew Plotkin
Gender Male

Also IFReviewed by

Jacqueline A. Lott
Paul OBrian

This IFReviewer IFReviews

- 1-2-3...
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- Ad Verbum
- Aftermath
- Alien Abduction?
- All Roads
- All Things Devours
- an apple from nowhere
- Arrival, or Attack of the B-Movie Cliches
- Asendent
- At Wit's End
- Aunt Nancy's House
- Babel
- Bane of the Builders
- Beat the Devil
- Bellclap
- Best of Three
- Blink
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- Blue Sky
- Breaking the Code
- Calliope
- Carma
- CASK
- Castle Amnos
- Castlemaze
- Cattus Atrox
- Chaos
- Chicks Dig Jerks
- Chronicle Play Torn
- coffee quest II
- Color and Number
- Coming Home
- Comp00ter Game
- Constraints
- Death to my Enemies
- Delusions
- Desert Heat: A Romance Of Sorts
- Dinner with Andre
- Downtown Tokyo, Present Day
- E-Mailbox
- Earth and Sky 1
- Earth and Sky 2: Another Earth, Another Sky
- Earth And Sky 3: Luminous Horizon
- Elements
- Enlightenment
- Enlisted
- Erehwon
- Eric's Gift
- Evacuate
- Exhibition
- Fear
- Fifteen
- Fine Tuned
- For a Change
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- Four in One
- Four Seconds
- Friday Afternoon
- Fusillade
- Glowgrass
- Goose, Egg, Badger
- Got ID?
- Grayscale
- Guard Duty
- Guess the Verb!
- Halothane
- Happy Ever After
- Hell: A Comedy of Errors
- Human Resources Stories
- I Must Play
- Identity
- Identity Thief
- In the End
- In the Spotlight
- Informatory
- Jacks or Better to Murder, Aces to Win
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- Journey from an Islet
- Jump
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- Letters from Home
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- Lomalow
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- Muse: An Autumn Romance
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- My Angel
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- Symetry
- Tapestry
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