Recommended IFs
"No matter how small an Adventure you write, it will take far, far more time and effort than you thought it would."--Peter Killworth
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NOTE: My sampling of IF has been by no means comprehensive. I've mostly played games available in Z-Code, as Inform and frotz are readily available for Mac OS X (among other platforms). I had a TADS interpreter on my machine at one point but didn't have as much time to sample offerings. (Then came hard drive crashes, and I never reinstalled it.) Hence all games reviewed currently are Z-Code.
Also, I'm a terrible puzzle-solver and am therefore not reluctant to resort to hints and walkthroughs when I'm stuck, particularly with games rated "cruel" (or worse). However, I have endeavored not to give spoilers, just tempting tastes.
Delusions (C.E. Forman, 1996-97)
Reality is so...unreal.
The tangle of observations woven about it, humankind's utter lack of consensus, phases it to fit individual desires. Becoming and unbecoming, back and forth eternally, as it paradoxically coexists with and within infinite variations of itself...
Sf. The opening premise is that you're in the process of helping to debug a VR simulation. As it turns out, the situation is stranger than you imagined it to be. Once played through, the structure of the tale is stunningly well-knit, if ambitious; the density of ideas was such that I was getting actively exhausted. I'm tempted to write an analysis of the story with spoilers, although I imagine it's been done.
There is a fairly thorough hint system accessible through a menu, which is fortunate, as certain puzzles are difficult. (The electric violin comes to mind.) And even so I ended up resorting to a walkthrough, eespecially for the later stages.
For a Change (Dan Schmidt)
The sun is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock.
My sister was blown away by this opening. So was I. It is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the game entire, wherein you are in a strange land attempting to bring down the High Wall, and therefore bring sunlight. The world is quirky yet conveys a remarkable self-consistency through its language, which the player ony partly penetrates, and its objects (or are they sentiences?) such as anchisels, toolmen, and the rock "(humble and true)." The pacing becomes someewhat hurried toward the end, but explorations and experimentation are by no means arduous.
I confess I whined about the puzzles to my sister, even though there's an extensive hint system available via menu, and up until the endgame it's very difficult to put the game in an unwinnable state. Most definitely worth the ride.
Metamorphoses (Emily Short, 2000)
A formless place, such as you have often seen before; where dreams end and tasks begin. The floor is uneven, cupped like the palm of your master's hand. The walls shimmer with the artifice of your sending.
An austere, lovely work wherein you have been sent to a strange, stark place to fetch the elements at your master's bidding. Medieval alchemy and symbolism are beautifully evoked, and the puzzles make use of a few recurrent and clever devices.
There are no hints, and few ways to put the game in an unwinnable state, as the nature of the puzzles invites experimentation. That being said, I used a walkthrough when I unwittingly discovered one of the few ways to put the game into an unwinnable state, so what can I say.
Pytho's Mask (Emily Short, 2001)
A small room. Three men; you recognize only one.
"You, Soteria," says the leader. "I understand you have an invitation to the Celebration of the Night of the Comet."
A fantasy romance (written for SmoochieComp, in fact) set in a courtly world with a detailed and consistent cosmology. The King is ill, and a secret society has sent you to attempt to find out what's wrong with the world. Along the way, of course, you are courted by a masked man, whose identity you do not know. Ample time is given for exploration and conversation; the latter drives much of the game. An unusual menu/topic-based conversation-system is novel and, in most cases, effective (there are a few noticeable glitches).
There is no hint system, although some explanation is given of the conversation system. However, I found the game quite forgiving of my blundering around, and managed my way to the ending with only a little prompting.
Rameses (Stephen Bond, 2000)
I am standing on the platform of a railway station--it's miserable, it's damp, and all the seats are taken by stuck-up grannies and biddies and ghastly yacht-clubbers. While waiting for the train, which is taking ages, I peer over to the opposite platform, and notice a familiar figure. I can't believe it! It's Daniel! After all these years!
Despite a genuinely exuberant beginning, this tells the pitiable and ultimately even tragic, in a Walter Mitty-esque way, tale of a college s tudent who has too little spine to stand up to his obnoxious roommates or even make much in the way of friends. Instead, he lives on fantasies of a reunion with a childhood friend, Daniel. There's some clever metacommentary within the game, using IF and Burgess's The Clockwork Orange to point out the futility of the protagonist's protests that he is, in fact, "free."
People easily offended by vulgarity should avoid this, and the plot is extremely linear, told in the first person. On the plus side, the character's adamant willingness to do anything (much) is thoroughly, if depressingly, believable. No help is available other than some brief background information and an explanation of the game's conversation system (which you can figure out in the game itself) and none is necessary.
Savoir-Faire (Emily Short, 2002)
The beautiful life is always damned, they say. As for you, you've overexpended yourself: fifteen years of prominence, champagne, carriage rides in the Tuileries, having your name whispered behind manicured hands, getting elegant ladies out of elegant fixes--and you're in debt. Bound by oath and honor to a pack of scoundrels. Your father, old peasant that he was, could have warned you against their type.
A historically grounded mystery and puzzle: having returned home to ask the Count for an advance on your estate revenues, you find him and your foster-sister Marie absent. What follows is a splendid romp through the mansion, using the nobility's especial magic--lavori d'Aracne, a means of mystically "linking" objects so one is affected by the properties of the other--to figure out what's happened, in the process uncovering truths about your own past. Not only are the puzzles charming and clever, Short's writing is, as usual, excellent. In aprticular, the protagonist's epicurean tendencies are whimsically and imaginatively incorporated.
There are only a few brief pointers instead of a hint system, as seems typical for Short's works, and the game is unabashedly rated cruel. Fortunately, a walkthrough is available for those like myself who are overmatched by the puzzles but wish to appreciate the ride.
Shade (Andrew Plotkin as "Ampe R. Sand," 2000)
Odd, how the light just makes your apartment gloomier. Pre-dawn darkness pools in the corners and around the tops of walls. Your desk lamp glares yellow, but the shadows only draw your eyes and deepen.
It's been said in other places that anything you could say about this brief game would give it away, and it's pretty much true. You're in your apartment getting ready to leave, and then things get surreal. The game is, however, perfectly paced with respect to the goings-on.
Despite some initial trouble I had finding things, the game was written in a way so that I naturally found myself doing what needed to be done. Honest. There are no hints and, given a little persistence, they are probably unnecessary.
Sins Against Mimesis (Adam Thornton as "One of the Bruces")
Pain. Unceasing pain. Ever since your lover Black left, something to do with a mysterious stranger and a time machine, your days have been a dull blur of gray loneliness. Perhaps you'd feel better if you got out and did something.
A short and unabashedly humorous/parodic game, which I enjoyed even without getting all the (many) in-jokes. It was a pleasant, if all-too-short (although understandably so), diversion while waiting for IFComp 2002 games to be released. And for the record, the spoof of Black struck me as female, although I'm not sure why. I really need to play Jigsaw.
There's an extensive HINT system that can be turned off for the masochistic. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on--my stupidity, not any fault of the game--but I managed to get through without too much prompting, and most deaths are well-cued.
So Far (Andrew Plotkin, 1996)
Hot, foul, and dark. How did indoor theater become so fashionable? Well enough in spring rain or winter, but not in the thick, dead afternoon of high summer. And though Rito and Imita looks very fine, shining with electric moonslight in the enclosed gloom, you're much more aware of being crammed in neck-by-neck with your sweaty fellow citizens.
Damn the crowd, in truth: your mood was hot, foul, and dark when you sat down. Aessa was supposed to meet you here. She's made excuses before, and you don't think about what it might mean. Try not to think, rather. Just watch the story. One of your favorites. But it's miserably hot, and you just aren't caught up in the play.
Plotkin calls this "an Interactive Catharsis," which is better than any description than I've been able to come up with. The play may portend dire things for your relationship with Aessa, or it may not; in any case, you find yourself inexpicably journeying through the seasons, not only seeking your original time and place, but the ever-elusive Aessa. Moody, vastly described, and sometimes inexplicable, with multiple layers of symbol that a wiser head than mine will have to disentangle.
There are no hints, and the game is rated cruel. I got through it with a walkthrough. (And no, "moonslight" above is not a typo.)
Spider and Web (Andrew Plotkin, 1997-8)
On the whole, it was worth the trip. The plains really were broad and grain-gold, if scarred with fences and agricultural crawlers. The mountains were overwhelming. And however much of the capital city is crusted with sqsuat brick and faceless concrete hulks, there are still flashes of its historic charm. You've seen spires above the streets--tiny green parks below tenements--hidden jewels of fountains beyond walls. Any bland alley can conceal balconies wrought into iron gardens, fiery mosaics, a tree or bed of flowers nurtured by who knows who.
An unusual sf work that takes the form of an interrogation, interweaving memory-replay sessions with face-to-face questioning in the here-and-now. Of particular note is that conversation, despite consisting only of YES or NO on your part, works quite well due to the context.
There are no hints, but Plotkin suggests playing the game straight through by using UNDO after several fatal mistakes, which are immediately obvious. I did resort to a walkthrough after having trouble with some of the technological gewgaws, which are far more customizable than I realized. A more persistent and astute player could probably manage it as suggested.