- Child's Play, by Stephen Granade: Cute, but forgettable. Score
7.
- Mechs, by Allan Crain: I couldn't finish this,
short as it is. Note to authors: Include a walkthrough, always. Note
to Introcomp organizer: Tell authors to include a walkthrough,
always. Score 4.
- Nothing But Mazes, by Greg
Boettcher: At first, I was quite excited over the game's multimedia
aspects and plausible cryo-freeze introduction. But then the game got
contrived, and more contrived, and more and more and more
contrived. It became a gigantic in-joke for IF geeks, and extremely
heavy on exposition to boot. I was so off-put by that phase of the
game that I didn't last long with the (potentially far more
interesting) virtual reality coding environment phase. Score 3.
Who Created That Monster? is largely contrived and in-jokey itself. My bad, there.) - Sabotage, by Felix Plesoianu. Well, yay
walkthrough! This game wasn't quite my cup of tea, though. Unrated.
- Southern
Gothic, by Mordecai Shinefield. Has potential, but there's not much
going on in this introduction. Score 7.
- The Art Of
Deception, by she's long gone. Fun, campy spy-story setting. I had
problems finishing, however, even in beginner ("Rookie") mode and
making copious use of hints. Some bugs or usability issues with the
context-sensitive hints, I think. Score 7.
- Unyielding Fury, by Michael Pruitt. Evidently an
enthusiastic young author. This game-intro is a werewolf story that's
far, far over-the-top. My guess is the author used a spell checker
(which is quite commendable) but has not had much experience of having
his writing critiqued (which can be remedied).
My early front-runner for Wacky Moment of the Year in I.F. for 2006 comes from the opening scene in this game:
The sky is perfectly clear save for the aforementioned moon.
This reminded me of one of the runners-up in the 2004 Lyttle Lytton contest:
"Tasty waffle?" Jim suggested alluringly, prodding me with the afore-mentioned breakfast food.
Score: 2.
This article copyright © 2006, N. B. Horvath