IFReviewed by
Emily Short on 2006-08-01 04:38
House or Office:
Office. And maybe more besides, but I don't know, becausePlayed to completion?:
I quit when we landed in the modern day.Rating:
4Here is the train of thought with which I played this game.
On seeing the title: Oh, boy! Maybe it's a historical game set in late antiquity! That would rock! That would kick ass!!! It's about time! Godiva truffle amidst the peanutty nougat thingies, I have found you at last!
On reading the opening text: Oh, hm. Well, okay, it's not set in northern Africa and it's not 4th century, but it is still a historical. This'll be good.
On beginning to play: Hunh. This is off to a kind of nondescript start. But no doubt it gets better. We're going to find something or experience something interesting.
On continuing to play: Yowgh, this is a kind of unpleasant combination of melodrama and ugliness. And there is a lay/lie error. But we have to motivate our PC... hmm. And this looks like a maze... but I can get through it by typing random directions for a while... Now wait a minute, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Why is there a pit of lava hidden under a secret passage in a castle? This doesn't seem very plausible. Plus, I never seem to be in charge during the interesting parts of the action. I the player get to control the carrying lunches and the wandering around, but the author gets to be in charge when it comes to yelling epithets at the vile scum who killed my family. I'm allowed to use some fighting commands, though it's never really clear to me why some of them should be successful while others lead to instant death.
But I did not actually quit until I reached the following text, after an inexplicable jump cut: "Monday, 4:30 PM... You sit in front of a computer screen in a typical office."
