Calm down. All you have to do is write a thousand words and everything will be fine. And you have all day, except it's already noon. [blurb from IF Comp 2008]
I loved the level of interactivity and the amount of things you could play around with. However, the storyline is kind ridiculous. It makes you go back and forth so many times, including if you forgot to do something. Especially dealing with Violet's annoying personality, the nagging to this extent is unbearable, but I guess you have to be able to make it so that everything is executed in chronological order, but still ridiculous. Otherwise, great game!
The writing and puzzles were clever and I enjoyed the responses to actions, but some puzzles just seemed straight ridiculous. Idk to this day what that rubber square was or how the hell it was used the way it was. Some objects weren't listed when examining things so I didn't even learn of their existence until using hints. By the end of the game, I wanted nothing to do with Violet. Literally thought "screw her dude" before I could get through the game. (and then the end confirmed my disdain for her).
This game is alright but I've played a lot better. The premise is interesting and some of the puzzles are cool, but it can also be really frustrating as well. The first two hours of the game (about how long it took me to solve the first two puzzles) were probably the best two hours, which explains why it was able to win the IFComp, considering the competition is solely based on the first two hours of play.
I found the "get the pen" puzzle to be particularly frustrating and inane. It requires you to do something that seems completely unrelated to getting the pen. In all fairness, there actually is a hint regarding this puzzle that I must have read very early in the game and then forgot about. I wouldn't fault anyone for typing HINT here if they've been stuck for a considerable period of time. I don't normally like taking hints because they make me feel lame and they spoil the game, but this is one case where I was relieved.
Part of the problem with this game is that it's very "Don't do that! I wouldn't do that if I were you! You need to be writing, not doing that!". The way things are worded, it makes it sound like you can't do certain things when actually, you CAN do them, but just not at that particular time. Luckily, I'm stubborn and I tend to try things over and over again until I'm satisfied that I can't do something. This aspect was unusually misleading.
I was actually quite sick of Violet by the end of the game. Maybe she's just not my type. Overall, the game was very well polished and well-written. In my opinion, the main flaws are in the design, and some of the puzzles are just not that great. On the other hand, there wasn't exactly a great deal of design space, considering the entire game takes place in a single room, so maybe the puzzles are as good as they could be. There's an awful lot that takes place in that room! I started to get really claustrophobic after a while and just really wanted to get out of that stupid room.
I want to give this game a 4, but it just falls a little bit short. I would encourage a dedicated IF fan to give this a try, keeping in mind the things that I mentioned. You should be able to solve all of the puzzles without any hints, except for the "get the pen" puzzle, which seemed a bit out of left field. I feel like some of the solutions I tried for that puzzle should have worked and actually made a lot more sense. As mentioned, the "i"/"inventory" command causes the game to crash and the save function doesn't seem to work. If you want to play this game, follow these instructions for downloading it, courtesy of ifdb: http://ifdb.tads.org/dladviser?id=4glrrfh7wrp9zz7b
The game was ok. I had to try like 12 or more times, but i was surprised when i got to "inform", and many other verbs, that would work, and so, i tried so many things that i was there for ages. it fantastic tho i figured how do itt
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