The Legend of Blackbrook Village by OurJud

Review by Something Moving Under The Bed

This one is a real shame - It has a lovely style & interface, including great sound & other effects enhancing the atmosphere (though sound volumes seem to differ a lot). The writing is good (despite some spelling errors) and the story seemed genuinely intriguing leaving me really keen to see what was going to happen...

I like the way the author doesn't feel it's necessary to describe *everything* in room descriptions, just the impression pertinent to the story. Although, it could do with more descriptions of objects that can be examined, to make immersion richer. They have attempted to get away from using n-e-s-w directions, though oddly only for indoor locations.

Sadly though it has several game-breaking errors. In some places the directions seem to break leaving you unable to progress. Some players couldn't even get past the car at the beginning; I tried the browser and downloaded versions, and from comments on several sites couldn't find anyone who had been able to progress further than the village garden.

Less seriously there are some errors where you can answer the same phonecall twice or 'open' doors already caved in; error messages appear for some unexpected commands and it reacts very badly to commands like 'look in'. It's also VERY picky about which verbs work- For a sheet over an object you cannot 'take' 'pick up' 'look under' 'move' or 'lift' the sheet - though you can 'remove' it! Other situations are the same.
Some room descriptions are different the second time you enter with different directions available, which the game doesn't respond to... whether this is intentional and part of the eventual storyline I can't tell.

A lot of time was put into what seems like a really engaging story; but as it stands it's sadly a tragic testament to the importance of error-testing afterwards... I hope someday a version comes out where it can be played fully!