This is a great little game. I'd like to give it a 4.5 , but there isn't an option for that.
It would get a five but for a few niggles I have with the game, which I'll explain later however these are just niggles and should in no way suggest you don't try the game.
First, with the positives. I've not played a text adventure in about a decade, but I played a good few half dozen before then and have being playing puzzle games of one variety or another since, and so I think I've got a fair bit of experience under my belt. For the game to have held my interest as it did is a sure sign it had good puzzles, which were well paced with intrinsic rewards set out at appropriate intervals.
Now, onto the niggles, which I hope are taken as 'positive criticism' , and as I've yet to play Mansion 2, maybe Nick's already addressed such issues.
First, and this may be a part of the Quest engine rather than the game design, some of the word usage was inconsistent, for example , sometimes I'd seemingly need to use the entire name of an object, and sometimes only part. I'd guess this is because sometimes there are several variations of an object and the engine would need a way to distinguish which variation I meant. Having said that, it did seem capable of offering me a choice of object if my text was ambiguous.
When using 'look at stairs' which seems to be the only way to use the stairs, the game would double check if i wanted to go up (or down) the stairs. This is just plain annoying, I don't think I ever wanted to just look at the stairs. It would have been far nicer if I could 'use stairs' ,' go up stairs' , or just plain 'go up' . Again this may be more engine than a game design issue.
Things 'magically' appearing in rooms. On the whole, the game is wonderfully logical, with clear, yet devious, puzzles. It does let itself down in a couple of places when thing's appear, just because you know they should be there (I think I'm getting my meaning across without spoilers).
Another possible issue with the engine, rather than game 'design' is the shutters, it appears that a room warp or something was used to implement the shutters, eg. close shutters, drop object, open shutters, object has disappeared, close shutters again , object magically reappears. Perhaps this isn't all that bad, but as it occurred when I was just starting the game, it made me wonder if the whole thing was really buggy. Thankfully I only saw something like this manifest itself in one other place( try going south from the most easterly spot in the attic).
Anyway, to finish off, I'd like to say that the above are just niggles, and I really enjoyed playing the game, if Mansion 2 keeps the same standard , then I'd happily donate a SMALL payment to making sure we get a mansion 3. Keep up the fab work Nick.
(oh and I want to write a game now, and I'll have to practice what I preach!)
