Robert DeFord

This is a hypertext interactive fiction game where you are presented with a block of text with one or more links under it, each of which leads to another block of text. Without the freedom a command parser, I expected the game to be shallow and boring. I was wrong.

 

The game exposed me to a world that I was only dimly aware of, a world where a young woman, even from a wealthy family, is essentially a piece of property belonging to a man, and unlikely to escape that fate. On my first play-through, the game had the same fascination I feel while watching a newscast about some terrible disaster, a fascination I can easily live without. Consequently, I almost didn't try another play-through because the game's cluing was so subtle that I didn't think a satisfying ending was possible.

 

But the game was short enough that I did give it another try, many tries actually. I lost count of the different endings, maybe six? While none of these endings redeemed Pakistan's repressive culture in my eyes, some of them left the protagonist in relative happiness. However, the game makes it clear just how difficult and risky the choices are that a young, pretty, wealthy woman living in rural Pakistan must make if she is to escape the grim alternatives offered by this culture. Left unsaid is the fate of a young girl trapped in a life of poverty. Dismal indeed, is all I was left thinking. Dismal indeed.

 

In retrospect, I found that the limited choices offered by hyperlinks made the game's narrative to move much faster than a parser-based game of the same scope. In fact, the story unfolded as fast as conventional linear short story, which gave it an entirely different feel than almost all the traditional IF that I've played.

 

In a way I liked that speed, but in a way I didn't. Basically, I play an IF game for a different reason than I read conventional linear fiction. I just love the idea that a computer allows an author to create a simulated, virtual reality that I can interact with and explore at will. Yes, linear fiction does give the sense of being in a different reality, but the willful exploration and interaction with that reality it is impossible. I believe that hypertext interactive fiction, even at this game's high level of craftsmanship, is still a little disappointing in this regard.

 

To do due diligence to the game in this review, I must say that the game's well-written English prose had a slightly foreign feel to my American ear, but I enjoyed it all the more because of that. I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches in either the programming or the text. The story just sort of glided along, effortlessly unfolding as I clicked on link after link. Each play through the game seemed to last about five minutes, but that's just a subjective measurement. (It's that kind of game.) Your experience may vary.

 

One of the goals for the game expressed by the it's two authors is to expose the plight of women in Pakistan to the outside world in the hopes that such exposure will speed that culture's evolution towards gender equality. I for one will begin speaking out at every opportunity, so it did succeed for me, and I suspect it will for you as well.