Overhearing the Earl of Hamcester (I'm assuming, pronounced 'Hamster'..tee hee) summoning a noted psychiatrist down to his pad, you, as the notorious 'Magpie', gentleman burglar, manage to take his place, in order to try and steal a priceless Egyptian scarab. But it's not quite that simple. Cue a plot that takes in stolen scarabs, prize … Continue reading Alias ‘The Magpie’ →

Very similar in scope and tone (and text to be honest) to the Stanley Parable, Shackles is a very short, re-playable choice game with many endings. I played through a dozen or so times. The Stanley Parable is one of my favorite short game experiences and the similarities of the two games is hard to … Continue reading Shackles of Control →

Spoilers ahoy. I recommend you play this game before you read this review. A lengthy choice game, this is a much bigger game than it first seems, with a set of sub-worlds to explore, each of which has quests, achievements and tasks. Exploring the whole thing definitely fills up the 2 hours and potentially more. … Continue reading Adventures with Fido →

A choice base game, the blurb promises that it is 'Longer than 2 hours.' Hmmm....this is something, in a competition for sub 2 hour games, that is probably not advisable to advertise up front. However, I'm going to give it a couple of hours and see where I get to! The protagonist, Sandra, a research … Continue reading Lux →

Spoilers ahoy. I recommend you play this game before you read this review. First of all, this is the second time a Ford Fiesta has made an appearance in an Ifcomp game this year already! and I'm only a fifth of the way in. That must be a record, surely. This game is written in … Continue reading Addicott Manor →

A choice based game implemented in Texture. I have played for a good 2 hours now and still don't think I have seen all the text this has to offer. It is a text that attempts to demonstrate to the reader through use of the author's experiences, and impressionistic surreal text, the significant impact chronic … Continue reading Tohu wa Bohu →

OK - so readers might have noticed that reviews have been going up at a pace over the last couple of days - that's simply because I've been playing the games since day 1 of the comp and have only just got around to writing up my notes. From this point on, I'm all caught … Continue reading Intermission #1 →

Spoilers ahoy. I recommend you play this game before you read this review. I tend to approach Arthur DiBianca's games with caution and not a small amount of trepidation. There is no doubt that DiBianca is an absolute master of the complex puzzle box. I love the way that he takes the parser game and … Continue reading The Temple of Shorgil →

Spoilers ahoy. I recommend you play this game before you read this review. Are we watching the birth of a new IF development platform? Given that this game was developed in Dialog, the author's own 'rule-based IF language' it feels like it. And...well..is it just me, or has the author chosen to implement a modernization … Continue reading Tethered →

Ugh - my Anti Virus really doesn't like this one. "TextAdventure.exe is not safe and has been removed." I guess I could get around this, but it feels more like I should pop a review placeholder in place and return to it later in the comp to see if anything has changed. It's a shame, … Continue reading Nightmare Adventure →