IFReviewed by
Emily Short on 2006-08-01 08:31
Early in playing this I encountered the phrase "out of place as a boat in a
dessert." This is unfortunate because the phrase amused me more than it really
should have, and because it led me to expect more technical flaws than I
actually encountered. In fact, there was clearly a lot of work put into crafting
the items in this game, as I discovered as I continued to poke around.
I was a bit baffled, though. This game is more puzzle-oriented than I generally
expect of an IF Art piece (or at least, I assume it is; given that I never
actually *solved* any puzzles, it's possible that there's just a lot of taunting
going on.) Obviously, there aren't a lot of hard and fast rules about the
precise degree of puzzlehood permitted in an Art Show piece, so it's not in
violation of anything. I just didn't know what to do. I poked around, examined
everything, drew a few preliminary conclusions about the elements of the puzzle,
and set things up in a way that (I thought) should guarantee my success in the
near future. And waited. And waited. And waited.
Obviously what I was trying to do didn't work, but there wasn't any feedback
about *why* it didn't work or what else I might be intended to do -- which may
be an accurate reflection of what it's like to try to get a rabbit out of your
yard, but is kind of daunting in an IF piece.
So, er, I'm stuck. Hrm.
This piece does feature a pretty accurate representation of the Stuff Inside A
Garden Shed, though. And I got to exorcise my frustration by sawing a lot of
stuff up with a chainsaw. That was fun. I need more opportunities for sawing
things.
