info/dumb_reviews2.txt

                          Reviews - Vol.II
                          ****************


                      By Quentin.D.Thompson,
             Infamous Author Of Interactive Fiction,
                Using the Adventure Game Toolkit
             To Conceal his Congenital Inability to
                Write A Decent Parser by Himself.
        Author of the stirring tale of medical malpraxis,
                        "A Bloody Life".

                              :-)

(The opinions below are purely my own, and are inclined to be - as Mike
Marqusee said about Rowland Bowen's cricket books - cranky, obsessive,
and pedantic in turn. This said and done, they are meant mostly for fun,
and as a guide to some of the text games I have been lucky or unlucky
enough to take a bash at.
Another word by way of apology. In case anyone reading this has been
(un)lucky enough to try one of my games, you're welcome to review it
as offensively as possible if it makes you feel better. Just make sure
you mail me a copy, so that I can remove all the bugs for the next
release.)

Disclaimers:
===========

1. I am fully aware that, to some people, my games may be as irritating,
   annoying or bad as some of those I latched on to in this file. Well,
   opinions differ. So, don't be too bugged if I've taken a crack at
   your fave game, or praised your personal bugbear.

2. Not being a 'classical' adventure player, I tend to prefer detective
   adventures, etc..over the classic twisty-little-maze games. This, again
   is not to belittle the latter, but merely my own warped taste.

Rating Systems:
==============

My rating system is rather funny. Each game gets a primary rating which
can be one of the following:

BOMB - A total washout. Worth playing only to make fun of.

WUSS - A weak game. Might appeal to certain people, but not me.

* (This rating has been introduced only in Volume Two.) - Has features of
  interest, but the weakness outweigh the good qualities.

** - An average game. May contain intriguing, rather than
     genuinely interesting, features.

*** - A good game.

**** - Wow, I really enjoyed this!

X - Tough, and not much fun.

X**X - Good game, but damned tough/tricky to crack. This rating was
       invented solely for the works of Graham Nelson.

Besides which, gameplay, conversation and descriptions all get ratings out
of 10. (I'm rather big on conversation, as some of you who've played my
game - A Bloody Life - might know.) When a game does not feature
conversation, the rating is CX, not C0.

There are separate 'Grouse', 'Nitpick' and 'Notable' headings for
further details.

A separate heading - QDT4 - deals with what I call the Quentin.D.Thompson
4-Letter Word trap. In other words, how does the game respond to four-letter
words? The best response, so far, was from Graham Nelson's "Curses".
Surprisingly, though I gave Christopher Huang's "Muse" hell (see volume 1),
its QDT4 was among the best I've seen. And some of my favourite games
had no QDT4 to speak of. 

In this edition I have introduced another heading, Non-Violence. Many
of the more elaborate adventure games object to violence, and some of
their replies are worth mentioning.

If you like these reviews, be sure to check out my other collection of
reviews, Dumb_Reviews.txt, also available at the IF-Archive.

For comments, modifications, suggestions, flames, and basically anything
under the sun concerning the games, the reviews, or anything to do with IF,
drop me a line at : philip@giasmda.vsnl.net.in, or FluffyQ@hotmail.com.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

           "With the eyes of the mind, one sees everything...."

            - Hercule Poirot (from Agatha Christie, CARDS ON THE TABLE.)

1. The Murder of Jane Kranz (AGT) (*** G9 C1 D7)
   by Christian Andersen.

One of the lesser-known gems of the AGT arsenal, (it's available only as
source code, in the directory /games/source/agt/) this game, like "Mop
and Murder" (see issue 1 of these reviews), proves that AGT can actually
be used to produce excellent detective games. The clues are logical, the
puzzles are not too difficult, but require some careful thought, and the
replies to the player's silly commands are amusing enough. However,
conversation is kept at a disappointing minimum, and none of the game's
characters do anything - only one of the hundreds of questions you could
think of asking will actually help you. For that reason, solely, I have
withheld the maximum rating of ****. However, for the Agatha Christie
buff (like myself), this is sometimes be far more enjoyable than the
Raymond Chandler-style games which appeared in issue 1 (Gumshoe, The
Hollywood Murders). Good job.

Notable : A lot of detective-like verbs. SEARCH (of course), EMPTY,
          LIFT, and what have you. Interesting story line. And the
          solution will have you groaning with laughter (if you know
          the old murder-mystery cliches, that is.)

Grouses : As I said before, there's very little conversation (or rather,
          AGT Standard Level Conversation, which isn't very instructive.)
          There's one more grouse, regarding the solution, but if I were
          to mention it here I would spoil your fun.

Nitpicks : There's a little too much padding in the game, such as the
           bathrooms, the kitchen, etc. On the other hand, one could argue
           that such things make the game more realistic.

QDT4 : As in most AGT games, this one has absolutely no QDT4 value; just
       "I don't understand <swear word> as a verb". However, try getting
       romantic with the dead body....

       What Now? KISS BODY

       You pervert! You necrophiliac! Don't you understand that Jane
       is already dead??????

Non-Violence : One puzzle in this game (as in "Curses") does involve the
               use of violence. However, if you try killing a character...

               What Now? KILL DOCTOR

               What a sick idea! You are supposed to catch a killer, not
               become one yourself!

               And try smashing up mirrors - the ending is great!

Final Word : Worth it? Definitely. Worth it to a Poirot and Holmes fan?
             Absolutely. One of the few detective games that don't involve
             driving around in cars, bullying people and getting drunk;
             extremely playable.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                 "And I feel dirty - all the way down,
                  I feel dirty, baby - like this dirty town..."

                              (Don Henley, "You Don't Know Me At All".)

2. Hotel Notell (AGT) (*** G7 C6 D9)
   by Richard Baribault.

Quite a well-known game, this reminds me a great deal of Ed McBain's novel,
"Vanishing Ladies" (with a few differences). Basically, you wake up in
a strange hotel room, and go on from beating your hangover to cleaning up
the corrupt administration of a town. Quite a flight of fancy. Very, very
unAGT-like (you can look under objects, look down, etc..).

Notable : Good gameplay (though rather difficult at times) with some
          innovations : the slot machine, the roof, etc. Nice descriptions,
          though a little grim. The storyline does sound rather improbable
          and inconsistent at times, however (see Grouses, below), and it
          is fairly easy to shut oneself out of a win. Lots of laughs.
          Check out Roscoe's T-shirt, or the Puzzle of the Crying Baby.

Grouses : Unfortunately, there are quite a few - which is a pity because
          (being rather a McBain fan) I liked this game....

          (1) Guess-the-verb. I think a law should be passed forcing
              every programmer to declare his guessable verbs clearly
              at the outset of the game. Of course, this often makes it
              easy for the player - but some of the verbs are quite
              hard to find (not as hard as the 69 in Stiffy Makane - see
              issue 1). In particular, listen to this gem:

              The baby keeps on crying! You wonder what to do.

              What Now? MAKE TOY WITH CONDOM

              (If you were able to crack that with ease, you're a better
              man than I.)

          (2) Inconsistency. For a man who's trying to clean up a corrupt
              town, the idea of you gallivanting with call-girls sounds
              a little far-fetched, unless you're the two-faced kind. Of
              course, one could try to explain this by saying that you
              only start your clean-up mission after meeting Eve Savage,
              but it's still rather jarring. I mean, McBain and Leisure
              Suit Larry don't mix very well.

          (3) Abuse of the verb USE. USE, to me, belongs solely in
              the cheesy adventure games written by Michael Zerbo
              (of "Child Murderer" and "Inner Demons" fame - yargh!).
              As a digression, let me state here that Zerbo's only
              decent game was the one reviewed in Volume I -
              "The Hollywood Murders". (I haven't yet played "Dames
              Are Trouble", and I'll get back to it when I do.)
              Perhaps USE TOILET and USE CAMERA sound good, but one
              still doesn't expect to find them in a professional-level
              game.

Nitpicks :(1) If you (the first-person player) find the call-girl such a
              slob, why are you so keen on making time with her?
          (2) Floors 2 and 4 of the Hotel Notell are sheer padding.
          (3) The police station does absolutely nothing for the game.
              As I stated in my review of "Jane Kranz" above, I have
              few objections to 'dummy' rooms as long as they make the
              game more interesting, or more playable, or more realistic;
              but a do-nothing precinct with a sergeant who knows only
              two words ("Beat It!") is hardly a worthy addition to any
              game.
          (4) Why code for a KISS command when it's never used in the game,
              not even as comic relief?

QDT4 : As I said, this game is not your average AGT adventure; it DOES
       have a QDT4 meta-command:

       "You WOULD try and <swear word> the <object>, wouldn't you?"

Non-Violence : One puzzle in this game necessitates the use of force,
               and other acts of violence merely give you a "Sorry, you
               can't do that...." message.

Final Word : If you can hold your nose long enough to solve the $20 puzzle,
             this is quite a well-written and playable game. Keep your
             guessing caps on, though.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
              "You know, Jesus, he never let me down,
               Jesus used to show me the score....
               Then they put Jesus in show-business,
               Now it's hard to get in the door...."

                                (U2, "If God Will Send His Angels")

3. Christian Text Adventure - 1 (GAGS/AGT) (BOMB G0 CX D0)
   by Bob Nance.

I must confess to being biased in this review, because I have never been
a great admirer of Bible-thumpers, or, for that matter, fundamentalists
of any denomination. Having said that, I still consider this the worst
perversion of the AGT game engine ever written since "Stiffy Makane".
GAGS-style gameplay, juvenile, preachy dialogue (which the author has
the gall to describe as "humorous comments on today's world"), total
absence of puzzles, and an anti-humanist, reactionary stand that I find
quite revolting go on to make this the worst game ever to occupy space
on my hard drive. If I had played this putrid piece of junk before playing
"Muse", I would have been much, much kinder to the latter - because,
though "Muse" had a cheesy, stereotyped storyline, it had class, originality,
and a level of gameplay sadly absent from this exercise in futility; and
though "Muse"'s protagonist was a clergyman, it still had absolutely
no militant Christian-soldier content. CTA-1 is, then, a very poor man's
"Pilgrim's Progress", recommended only for Sunday-school teachers in
redneck colonies. And "Muse"'s admirers may consider its rating increased
to *.

Notable : It's very rare to find a game as consistently stupid and
          GAGS-like as this one. 

Grouses : If you have to ask......

          (1) Useless gameplay. Killing monsters, opening doors, and
              going places using AGT SPECIALs are the only moves
              required to finish this game.

          (2) Pathetic attempts at humor. Bob Nance tries to write
              a sarcastic piece on cigarette-smoking and television,
              and falls flat on his face. Extracts are appended below:

     "A team of archeologists with which the author is associated recently
uncovered a capsule near the mouth of the Mississippi River which contained
some interesting artifacts.  Our computer dated the material in the capsule
to have been produced during the year of our Lord 1984.  Among the find,
which was in surprisingly good shape, was a small package which contained
20 "cigarettes".  A cigarette is a small amount of tobacco rolled up in a
piece of paper.  Our analysis and laboratory tests showed it to contain
an addictive narcotic.

     I know this is hard to believe, but apparently, from the information
contained in the capsule, people from that era lit one end of the "cigar-
ette" and drew smoke into their lungs by sucking on the other end!

     Why did they do this?  No one knows.  The package itself contained a
clear warning from the Surgeon General that it was dangerous to use them.
However, according to the experts on that era of history, there was a
tremendous amount of stress and peer pressure during that time period,
apparently caused by the widespread humanist religion that was practiced
then.  Thank God that the Spiritual Revolution, which actually started
during that era, brought us back to God and began destroying humanism."

           (3) Juvenile, nauseous, cheap idealism. If Bob Nance thinks
               that the tithes of a few hundred Christians are going to
               solve poverty, racism, and the drug trade, he's either
               a fool or a schizophrenic. I mean, just look at this
               piece of passionate prose:

               CONGRESS DISCONTINUES WELFARE PROGRAM

(API)   Congress today unanimously voted to abandon the Welfare program.
"Since Christians across the nation have begun to tithe again, churches have
had the funds to provide food and medical care to ALL the needy people in
their communities", said Congressman John Stennis, III of Mississippi.  "It
is no longer necessary for us to tax the population in order to provide these
services, therefore, there will be widespread cuts in income tax."

                "Destroying humanism". "Abandoning welfare". This game
                should have been called "Fascist, Bigoted, Fundamentalist,
                Mentally Retarded Text Adventure".

            (4) Most adventure games just give you a README (or sometimes
                source code) along with the story files. Bob Nance, however,
                is such a missionary that he includes piles and piles of
                tracts (his own retellings of famous Biblical incidents)
                that are so badly written, with such clumsily obvious
                intentions, that they are impossible to read. Notable
                ones include a 'detective' (???) story about Cain and
                Abel, and a moving piece on Eli.

Nitpicks : None. With grouses like that, who needs nitpicks?

QDT4 : Absent. But that didn't prevent me from swearing at the game
       about once in every five moves.

Non-Violence : This game is extremely violent. Obviously Bob Nance, for
               all his "Christian" talk, doesn't believe in turning the
               other cheek. The only gameplay in this game involves killing
               very originally-named monsters ("Lust", "Unbelief", etc.)
               with very originally-named weapons ("Sword of the Spirit",
               "Staff Of Righteousness".)

Final Word : <expletive deleted>.
             By the way, I heard a rumour that Bob Nance had two more
             games in the works - for those interested, they are:

PUBLIC MORALITY TEXT ADVENTURE - In this online game, you play a district
attorney trying to convict the President of the United States, who's
cheating on his wife. Your job is to write a 4000-page report that would
outsell "Playboy", "Hustler" and "Penthouse", and publish it on your
website. NB - all resemblances to real characters are coincidental.

CRUSADE ADVENTURE : BIG CHRISTIANS KICK THE HELL OUT OF INFIDELS! - In this
game, you play Bob Nance himself, as a US Air Force pilot who wants to
bomb Iraq, Kuwait, India, Pakistan, China, Japan... - basically, all the
non-Christian countries. Available at a discount from the KKK Retail Store.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

               "One slip, and down the hole we fall...
                It seems to take no time at all....
                A momentary lapse of reason,
                that binds a life for life...."


                          (Pink Floyd, "One Slip")

4. The Lady In Green (AGT) (** G7 CX D8)
   by D.F.Stone.

This is another source-code only game (there may be a compiled version in
/games/agt by the time this comes out, but I haven't seen one myself) which
is, in spirit, a Gothic tale par excellence. Basically, you are a travelling
salesman (or a travelling businessman, I forget which) who, on stopping
at a hotel, gets sucked into a seafaring town of the 18th century.

What strikes me here, most of all, is the fact that, with a little more
work, this could have quite easily been Standard AGT's answer to "New
England Gothic" (NEG).The room descriptions, the moving painting, the holding-
a-hand puzzle, and the descriptions of the 18th century suite are rather
well done, in my humble opinion, and carry far more of a "Gothic" flavour
than anything in NEG.

Unfortunately, that's where it all starts to fall apart. There are
regrettably few objects, few verbs beyond the standard AGT vocabulary,
and the whole eerie atmosphere seems to degenerate into second-hand
Dickens or Baroness Orczy once you leave the Lady's rooms and enter the
seafaring town. The puzzles are fair enough and sometimes quite well
thought out, especially the rescue of Lady Sarah's son from the galley,
but this game is still far too sketchy, and leaves one wondering : "What
was the point of all that?".

I'm not aware if D.F.Stone has written any other games in the same vein
after this, but if he did so they would definitely be worth playing, only
to see if he (or she, I don't know) has been able to improve on what was,
sadly, only latent in this game.

NOTABLE : For a game that is essentially romantic in premise and construction,
          we are spared much of the literary excesses of games like "Muse",
          and even the kissing scenes that Simba felt obliged to include
          in "NEG" are, mercifully, absent. There's a fine use of disguise
          and clothing, which leads one to wonder if the author is a fan
          of historical romances - but, once again, there's too little
          happening in the game. Some people might enjoy the ending, but
          I found it ambiguous; you can either choose to remain, or treat
          the whole incident as a dream. And (as I said already) the
          room descriptions do a better job creating an atmosphere than
          "NEG". A similar game, that I haven't yet got through,
          which has rather similar-sounding room descriptions, is
          "Legacy" by Marnie Parker; but, since it's in Inform, I shall
          not attempt to compare the two.
          In addition, attempting to repeat an action does not give you
          a "Sorry, you can't do that..", but a "You've already done that"
          message - clear evidence of good coding.

GROUSES : It's too short! The story is, regrettably, bare-bones, and in
          what should rightfully be one of the most important scenes of
          the game, all the author found fit to say was:

   Suddenly the Lady turns towards you. "Thank heaven you came" she says,
then bursts into tears.

    After wiping her eyes you learn that the Lady is called Sarah. You 
ask her about the portrait. "My husband, a few years ago now...(her voice
goes very faint).... commanding his regiment in France".
    
    There is a short pause "You must help me find Richard, my son, he is
only 13, and he never returned from town yesterday" . She pauses, gets
up slowly, and looks at you imploringly.  "Excuse me", and she picks up
her Bible ,drops it in a panic, and rushes upstairs.

          Of course, all the usual AGT bugs are there : if the room
          descriptions mention a Bible, or a nightdress, all you get
          on EXAMINEing them is : "I don't understand NIGHTDRESS as a noun",
          or so on. Not much guess-the-verb (when you take the hand that
          is held out to you from the picture, TOUCH and HOLD work equally
          well, for example) which is fortunate.

NITPICKS : Lots of them, but nothing specific. Oh, yes. A KISS verb is
           mentioned, but never coded. 

QDT4 : Absent. But since this is a stately sort of game, it might be
       better. 

NON-VIOLENCE : Standard AGT reply : "Hostility requires a target"

FINAL WORD : I wish D.F.Stone had taken a little more time about this one.
             Then I could, in all honesty, say that here was an AGT game
             that made "Muse" look silly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "When a movie becomes famous for its special effects, you can be
     sure it's bad."

                    (Isaac Asimov, ASIMOV ON SCIENCE FICTION.)

5. CATTUS ATROX (Inform) (BOMB G-1 C0 D0)

"Cattus Atrox", its author kindly informs us, is a not a game for the
faint-hearted. It is also, quite simply, the most unplayable game ever
written using the Inform parser (or any other parser for that matter).
The situations, dialogue and plot seem to be a bad imitation of any
modern-day psychopathic thriller, the commands are atrocious, and the
whole thing is merely pointless. Anyone who can crack this without
a walkthrough should be investigated for telepathic powers. 

Oh, yes, the game. The whole game consists of moving north, south, or up,
sleeping, staring at streets, gallivanting in sewers, killing lions - and
it isn't even funny. Quentin Tarrantino meets Infocom here with disastrous
results. Leave Hollywood to the Hollywood boys, I say.

NOTABLE : This is the first game to be awarded a -1 in gameplay, but
          it is well-earned. This isn't interactive fiction, this is
          your average Saturday night video-store rental. Even
          Freddy Kruger would spit on this.

GROUSES : Glum, depressing scenario. Pointless story. Unappealing
          characters. Lousy puzzles. To say more would be needless.
          Play it and see for yourself.

NITPICKS : Is this an adventure game?
           (Tough question, though - see the review of 'Photopia', below.)

QDT4 : There is a QDT4, but it's as unappealing as the game.

VIOLENCE : This game is notable for its total neglect of the teachings
           of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

FINAL WORD : It stinks. I could say more, but real adventurers
             don't use such language. Besides, what would the Bishop say?
             After games like this, both Mercy and Muse rise slightly in
             my estimation. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
               "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

                    (Kurt Vonnegut, SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE)

6. PHOTOPIA (Inform) (**** G5 C9 D9)
   by Adam Cadre.

Listen:
Interactive Fiction has come unstuck in time.

Though this game is absolutely linear, can be finished even by Doom II
addicts, and involves little puzzle-solving, it's definitely the best thing
I've seen out of the IF Competition '98 so far. Actually, it's a story told
in two threads; one in real life, one a sort of SF fantasy.

NOTABLE : I LOVE THE COLOURED TEXT! Even though my monitor only works in
          monochrome, and the Sea-Blue level gave me eyestrain, I totally
          agree with Baf's review : this is a game where colour comes off
          very well. The game? Extremely, extremely original. Like reading
          a short story on your computer; you type in the commands and
          the pages turn. Does tend to veer towards the moving at times,
          but also has a sense of humour. Reminds me of comic books,
          "Back To The Future" movies, and so many other things that I
          can't list them all here. Besides, I can't help having a soft
          corner for any game that uses the TALK verb as well as this
          one did. And, though this is a short story, it works excellently
          without illustrations. In fact, graphics would merely take a lot
          of the fun out of it. An excellent example of how text adventures
          are superior to graphical shoot-em-ups, provided you have a little
          imagination. I am strongly tempted to suggest that if Epic
          MegaGames (famous for platform games and shoot'em'ups) had had
          a story of this calibre to use for their (boring) graphical
          adventure, "Dare To Dream", it would probably have been one of
          their best works. Oh, well, what if.....

          Afterword : After finishing this review, I knew I had left
          something out, and it bothered me. In retrospect, what was
          on my mind was the fact that strand one of the story was
          told in non-chronological order (so that a character who's
          dead in one scene reappears as a baby in another). Sort of
          reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" - I wonder
          if Adam Cadre was inspired by it?

GROUSES : It could've been a little longer. OK, so competition entries
          aren't supposed to be long. But this isn't a complaint, more
          a compliment to the author's ability to arouse the player's
          interest.

NITPICKS : Perhaps the next time a coloured-text game comes out, the beta
           testers could try it out on a Monochrome monitor. I mean,
           Sky-Blue was torture for my myopic (as opposed to photopic)
           eyes.


QDT4 : This game does not recognize QDT4 verbs; and it's yet another tribute
       to "Photopia" that I never once felt like even TRYING to QDT4 it,
       even though I played it through twice.

VIOLENCE : Non-existent.

FINAL WORD : Is this IF? Or is this what hyperfiction should really be,
             instead of branching stories? Make up your own mind - but be
             sure to try it. Colour monitor recommended, however. The
             fact that this won the '98 Competition shows that awards
             aren't ALWAYS that bad. (See previous issue.)

POST-SCRIPTUM : If any of you need a little laugh after playing this
                game, you can try the IF-A-Minute version of "Photopia".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

         "There's an exception to every rule."

7. Hotel California (Homebrewed parser) (*** G8 C7 D8)              

Fundamental Rule Number One of Text Adventures : Self-made parsers are
an utter disaster.

Fundamental Rule Number Two: "Nothing is so disturbing as the upsetting of
a preconceived notion." (Josef Conrad).

Though it's been quite a long time since I played this game, I still
remember it quite well. It was written in BASIC, by an author who's
admittedly "nostalgic about Infocom (yawn)" and provides a rather entertaining
hour or two of gaming.

NOTABLE : Good parser, though some of the most standard verbs (LOOK AT, for
          example) are missing. Puzzles scrupulously fair except for
          guess-the-topic-of-conversation with the lady dancing in the
          courtyard. Nice online hints that aren't too obvious (the two
          books in the library, for example). And finally, being a longtime
          Don Henley and Eagles fan, I cannot help but appreciate a game
          called "Hotel California", which is actually based on the song.
          Good sense of humour, too. Challenging.

GROUSES : As mentioned above, ASK LADY ABOUT LOVE isn't a very fair puzzle
          compared to the others in the game. The parser's weakness shows
          later in the game, when you have to deal with objects such as
          a "stickybroom" and a "litcandle". Guess-the-verb on a few
          occasions, as well as problems with verb synonyms, spoil the
          fun a little.

NITPICKS : Sketchy room descriptions. A little more attention could have
           been paid to atmosphere.

QDT4 : Humorous reply, based on the characters in the game.

VIOLENCE : Why is it that almost every text adventure requires you to
           smash a pane of glass, or a mirror, or something? Of the 
           games in this volume, I can already count three that involve
           glass-smashing. Do TA authors hate windows, or what?

FINAL WORD : Well, it's not the world's greatest game - I agree. But
             give it a shot, anyhow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            
8. Theatre (Inform) (**** G9 CX D8)
   by Brendon Wyber

Let me begin with a disclaimer: Supernatural stories unnerve me. Call me
a rock-hard rationalist if you like, but I find nothing even vaguely
interesting about entities on the astral plane, and mysterious ritual
sacrifices, and guff like that. Sorry, but that's the way I am.

And now the review. I loved this game.
Sure, it's called "An Interactive Night Of Horror". But I think 'mystery'
would be a far better word than 'horror'. Most of the fun in this game
comes from its puzzles, which are among the fairest I've seen - I only
needed a little help on one of them, the drowning of the rats, because
I didn't read the description to 'pull lever' carefully enough :)

The story? You're a theatre executive about to make his way home to join
some friends at a show, but need to find your pager somewhere in the
theatre. (Trying to explore the rest of the theatre before you've
played through part one is not allowed, which jars just a little - some
reviews have been fairly hard on this, but then, a lot of adventure
games make you play through 'formalities'.) On attempting to leave, you
find your way blocked by a raving thug, and are forced to return within
the Theatre, which has somehow, strangely enough......changed.

NOTABLE :
* I found picking up the diary pages and gluing them together kind of fun.
  Someone (I forget who) has commented that the prose in the journal isn't
  too literary, and reminds him of "Adrian Mole". Never having read "Adrian
  Mole", I can't answer that specifically, but if I were a greenhorn,
  slightly stupid architect(as Eric Morris was supposed to be in the game)
  I would probably write exactly like that.

* Good puzzles. Some of them were fairly standard (unlocking a safe using
  a stethoscope), some original (the Pied Piper of Popcorn), some
  imaginative (A corpse? Looks like good monster chow!) and some
  almost slapsticky (Tarzan!). The only two puzzles that I found
  irritating were with the dagger and the statue - putting coloured
  stones into eye sockets does little for the game.

* Nice atmosphere. Good gameplay, too, and it's not easy to shut oneself
  out of a win.

* A nice little transcript on how to solve some of IF's more irritating
  puzzles, and a short story, are also packaged with the game.

GROUSES : None, really.

NITPICKS : 1. The idol puzzle (see above).

           2. The ending. It's a little too rushed, like Michael Crichton's
              novels ("The Terminal Man" and "The Andromeda Strain", for
              example) and doesn't really resolve everything.

QDT4 : Very, very original....
       "I don't think the <object> is ready for a relationship."

VIOLENCE : Hey, it's all in self-defence.

FINAL WORD : One of the best puzzle games I've seen.

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