Robert DeFord

This was a short game full of rhyme that served to pass the time.

 

For a while at least, 'cause the game's a snack not a feast.

 

So don't expect more, or you're gonna be sore.

 

Okay, so I am not much of a poet but this review had to show it. <smile>

 

All I can say is that I'm glad the game was short. If it had been any longer, I think that the poetry would have started to make me twitch. But I have to admit that there was a certain light-hearted feel to the writing that was enjoyable. Not quite enough to completely redeem the game in my eyes, but enjoyable none the less.

 

Now, let me point to the puzzles. There is nothing to this game but the puzzles, so I have to point to them. So if you like puzzles, but don't like narrative in your IF, you will be happy with that aspect of this game. However, once you figure out the gimmick that the puzzles are based on, they are easy, too easy actually. If you love a puzzle fest, I sure part of that love stems from the challenge they present to your cleverness. I doubt that you will come away from this game with the feeling that you were challenged.

 

And then there is the ending. The game ended abruptly. Yup, I said abruptly, and I meant it. All I wanted was a little paragraph that would explain it all and leave me with a feeling of accomplishment, but did I get even that paltry reward? No, I did not.

 

And then there was Quest. This was the first time I've played a Quest game, which seems to be mainly a point-and-click kind of game platform. As I pointed and clicked my way through the game, I never seemed to get that immersion into a virtual world I so enjoy, nor was there the illusion that I could use just about any command I wanted to affect the game world. True, the guess-the-verb irritation was totally absent, and that's a good thing, but so was the excitement of open-ended poking around to explore the simulated reality, and that's a bad thing. While I don't think that Quest is inherently that limited, this game sort of made it feel that way.

 

So, I have to ask if my feeling was due to the inherent limitations of the Quest game platform, or was it due to the way the author choose to implement his or her game concept? A little of both, I think, but I need more experience with Quest games to make any kind of definitive statement in that regard. For example, there was a command line down at the bottom of the screen. I didn't use it except when the game asked me to enter my birthday. A waste of time as far as I'm concerned because that information was not used for any real purpose in the game world. But can the Quest command line be used for more that this triviality? Only time will tell.

 

Oh, before I forget to mention it, the game has in-game hints and walkthrough that were well done.