For choice based murder mysteries in this comp, it's difficult to see past what Erstwhile achieved - it really elevated the form - searching for clues, re-living moments, entering people's heads, linking clues together - all integrated into a very satisfying playing experience. It makes it tough to review other whodunnit games without at least … Continue reading Murder at the Manor →

After a lengthy Preamble, which is a bit "tell'y" and dense to be honest. "Your name is Mananuiva and, since the day of your birth, the wet season has come and passed seventeen times." it tells us....hmmm - there are better ways.. "Hey, Mananuiva," says Sarah Exposition, "come on, you're seventeen now. Isn't it about … Continue reading Within a Circle of Water and Sand →

Potential spoilers ahead. Alright! 1940's/50's pulp space opera parody parser game. Nice. One of my favorite Infocom games back in the day (aside from Trinity of course) was Leather Goddesses of Phobos, which, in some ways this game reminds me of. To be effective, this needs to be done well, and Dynamite Powers does it … Continue reading Dynamite Powers vs. the Ray of Night! →

An odd coincidence! I've literally just finished reading The Gargoyle (a book I did not particularly enjoy), when I started to play this game. Let's talk about the elephant in the room. This choice based game is presented in a blackletter Gothic script that is hard to read. With my failing eyesight, very hard. I … Continue reading Abbess Otilia’s Life and Death →

Oh, I kind of feel bad for this game. It's come up on my personal shuffle directly after Cannery Vale - a game which immediately leapt into my top 5 choice games and has one of the most mature choice interfaces I've seen in the comp. Careless Talk on the other had uses the standard … Continue reading Careless Talk →

"Gosh, what you must think of my character," someone says at one point. She's speaking to three people. You, the player, the protagonist of the novel that is being written and the author of the novel, who is also you, the player. It's a complex and very clever thing, this game. Potential spoilers in the … Continue reading Cannery Vale →

I like the way this game starts and is structured. On opening, we are in the middle of a conflict situation - we are not sure why we are there, but the first action we are required to take leads into a series of vignettes that eventually put us back to where we started with … Continue reading Pegasus →

I found this to be a compelling experience. It's difficult to put my finger on exactly why. On the face of it, it's a relatively simple narrative of two people on a train who are returning from visiting the 'city of the future'. They discuss aspects of this world, their own pasts and futures. The … Continue reading Railways of Love →

There is a Ray Bradbury short story called 'There will Come Soft Rains" which this game, at first, very much reminds me of. It's early Bradbury, written in 1950 so the prose hasn't yet become so self-consciously 'Bradburian' that it hurts. I've always liked it. In this game we play as a house-cleaning robot - … Continue reading They Will Not Return →

The vampire Viscardi turned you into a thrall! I'm not entirely clear how, but you've been turned back. You're still a vampire, though. Only one thing left to do - find Viscardi and exact your bloody revenge! What follows is a shortish choice game wherein you explore the dungeon and catacombs of Viscardi, finding all … Continue reading Into The Lair →