Spring Thing 2003 - Ced's reviews
These are my reviews of the entries in the Adam Cadre's 2nd Interactive Fiction
Spring Competition.
The Cross of Fire
Inevitable
Puddles on the Path
Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures
of Venus
This didn't seem half as much fun as the IntroComp. The idea of spending a
lot of Easter playing IF, wrapped up and mildly delirious because of a prolonged
cold, should have appealed more than it did. The cold probably doesn't help
but maybe neither did the relatively short timescale. And while having stories
pre-tested should theoretically save players from having to deal with too many
bugs, in fact the remaining aggravations are less fun than the occasional piece
that should have been held over for a year or three.
These reviews are presented in the order I played the stories. There may be
minor spoilers concerning the shape of the narrative, but I hope not of the
overall ending or of specific puzzles.
The Cross of Fire
Maybe it was just me or the mood I was in, I don't know. Nevertheless, the
first adjective that came to mind when describing playing this piece was 'laborious'.
While I didn't find major bugs, getting the program to respond the way I wanted
seemed like a time-consuming chore. For example, I like the way it provides
a method of giving orders, 'tell x to y'. But it doesn't also allow the standard
form 'x, y'. Then there's the whole pre-title sequence:
'Everything is right here in front of you: the syringe, the bottle [of cocaine],
and the needle.' Hah, looks like it's on rails, so now I've got the joke, let's
get it over with:
>fill syringe
What do you want to fill the syringe with?
>cocaine
You can't do that.
OK. So even though we had the punchline at the beginning, we need to go through
the mechanics of it. 'Pull plunger' works, great. But then:
>put needle on syringe
The bottle is in the way.
>take syringe
You have it already.
>inject drug
You can't see any such thing.
>inject cocaine
You intend to, but you will have to prepare the syringe
and then use it to inject the cocaine.
>prepare syringe
That action isn't necessary for your inquiry.
>remove syringe from bottle
You can't see any such thing.
>remove syringe
(first taking the syringe)
You have it already.
>take needle
You have it already.
>put needle in vein
Not until it's attached to the syringe.
>attach needle to syringe
The bottle is in the way.
>x bottle
The glass bottle is empty, but still attached to the syringe.
>detach bottle
What do you want to detach the bottle from?
>syringe
You pull the empty bottle off the syringe and discard it in
the desk drawer, with the others.
>attach needle to syringe
You put the needle on the syringe, nearly pricking your
finger in your hurry.
>squeeze plunger
You achieve nothing by this.
>push plunger
Not yet!
>inject cocaine
You intend to, but you will have to prepare the syringe and then
use it to inject the cocaine.
>inject syringe
You have it where you need it.
>put needle in arm
The needle slides into your vein. You catch yourself holding
your breath. You need this drug.
Urgently.
Well, if it's so urgent, why's it taking so bleeding long? The PC's supposed
to be an experienced drug user, so surely it should be more natural than this.
And this is the edited transcript. Any shock value is completely dissipated
by the time we've performed the simplest of tasks. With things like this, and
a scarcity of clues about what the PC's motives are after a particular point,
I quickly went to the walkthrough, removing most of the fun.
Face it, there's no way of talking about the main part of the game without
a mild spoiler for the preceding text. This is an adaptation of 'Sherlock Holmes
and the Four Orange Pips', one of Conan Doyle's earliest and shortest Holmes
stories. It becomes increasingly apparent that it is in fact a rather twisted
adaptation focussing on the grimmest interpretation of the characters and plot,
although also with a sense of levity (this is an adventure game) that may or
may not seem misplaced.
Now Holmes is not a particular hero of mine, but he still is for some, and
I was disappointed by the way the story went. In both Conan Doyle story and
game, Holmes makes a serious mistake, and the natural tendency is to want to
go back remedy this, which one can't in real life or most fiction, but might
be able to in IF. But no matter what I try, I cannot alter the course of the
most important events; in one case, an NPC's objection is based on the aforementioned
syringe, which in fact was concealed from his sight (also attempting this, I
found the author's knowledge of London rail termini is a little confused). But
had I been able to alter the course in this respect, I would not have been able
to take part in many of the events that are 'off-screen' in the story, not recorded
by Dr. Watson.
Some of these puzzles are in keeping with Conan Doyle. 
I particularly liked searching through records, usually an unglamorous part
of investigation. In later parts the PC seems to work against the common understanding
of the plot; although some of the PC's motivation is casually mentioned, it
is hard for the player to accept, or to work out the peculiar strategy you take
in the game. In other words, the puzzles were largely unintuitive. The writing
is not bad, a lot of it of course lifted directly from the original text, and
manages to keep the new material roughly in character with the old, disrupted
by references to 'sidewalks'. Such lapses, when they do come, seem like major
clangers (just to be clear, I mean noticeably incongruous, rather than belonging
to Major Clanger from the BBC children's programme.)
There are some nicely ironic scenes here, particularly in the 'optimal' ending
(which I defy anyone to get without the walkthrough), and it achieves these
without making Holmes out to be a bumbling incompetent. It is also lightened
by some IF jokes, e.g. there is a reference to a ship, the 'Augustinian', captained
by one 'Connor MacLeod'. But the difficulties in game play, the amoral subversion
of the PC, and the often perverse puzzles meant this was not overall an enjoyable
experience. 4
Inevitable
This was a different kettle of fish, generally idealistic and well-structured,
and only once so frustrating that I asked for a hint (there was no walkthrough).
Your motives are well-defined (you start with a pouch containing your orders),
yet simultaneously the PC is likeable and has complex and interesting feelings
about said orders. Some of the larger plot comes through in memories that are
triggered whilst exploring. These flashbacks - which are cut-scenes so as to
avoid the changing-the-past problem - necessarily come through in a random and
fragmentary sequence. However, there was just enough detail for me to get some
idea of what had happened by the conclusion of the game, although I would approve
of slightly more explicit context and clearer motivations of NPCs. Also, the
lack of structure in these incidental details is compensated for by structure
in the exploration; a series of object-manipulation puzzles in a science-fantasy
world. These form a secondary motivation that, unlike the one in Cross of
Fire, seems natural and right and is introduced with little teasers that
make it obvious that the player is on the 'right' track.
There was one exception to this for me. The puzzles come in three strengths:
'easier', 'normal' and 'harder', a setting which can be chosen at the start
of the story; a nice idea which increases replay potential. The 'harder' setting
isn't that much harder, and possibly it would have solved a little problem at
what for me was the low, directionlesspart of the game. The bit that had me
stumped was down to a mismatch in the difficulty of two different puzzles in
the same location; one was very well-clued and made sense from the perspective
of comprehensible present-day technology; the other involved some peculiar science
that I still didn't fully understand by the end of the story, a disguised item,
and no obvious clues. Unfortunately, the 'harder' one was meant to be done first,
or the player is left having apparently achieved something, but with no idea
what's next.
The default failure messages are replaced in an interesting way that usually
doesn't break mimesis: 'After a moment's thought, you realize that you can't
go that way' means that even a mistyped command feels like it's advancing the
story. Similarly when trying to take a large object, 'You laugh at the thought'
works if the object has been fully described, otherwise it puts a wedge between
player and PC. One that didn't work for me was 'Your voice trails off after
saying you were wanting to fill' - neither the PC nor the player should be using
their voice in this situation. It's a different class of error when a command
is not recognized from when it is successfully parsed but can't be completed
because of restrictions in the story world.
The location descriptions give a good sense of atmosphere. A dramatic landscape
is in keeping with a dramatic story:
Rocky Terrace
You cover your face with your arm while fighting to keep your feet against
the swirling winds. To the north, a flight of stone steps ascends through
more terraces, although rain obscures all but the first few. To the
south, the terrace terminates abruptly, plunging straight into the sea.
These direct but powerful images continue throughout the game, making an interesting
but not over-ornamented exploratory experience. Also notable were the large
number of alien objects that glowed blue. Things glowing blue are always good.
'Babel' had them aplenty and they are an underestimated factor in that game's
popularity. So, a tip to new authors: include a good measure of blue things
in your story, preferably glowing.
There are a few minor inappropriate messages and misspellings, but on the whole
I found this the most satisfying experience of the Comp. 9
Puddles on the Path
I've really enjoyed previous productions by the author of this piece, written
in ALAN. They're kind of the IF equivalent of family entertainment; safe and
fun for kids, but alsowith enough to keep adults interested. Unfortunately this
one is a bit less polished in terms of playability than 'The Chasing', my favourite
game from Comp01, although it's set in a similar pastoral,
fairytale world. All the same, it should appeal to anyone who rated 'Tookie's
Song' highly.
To get to the point, the idea here is that common English proverbs have a magical
power and several are indeed puzzle solutions. I'd very strongly recommend typing
'help' as the first command; somehow I forgot to do this, and so was struggling
on, occasionally referring to the walkthrough (which shouldn't really be necessary
with 'help'). It's satisfying to have a parser that responds to commands of
more than two words, and in this case it responds to ten-word sentences. Unfortunately
this means that you need exact wording for some of the proverbs (which is in
fact given, if you check the help command). I felt the answer was in most cases
clear because of obvious clues, but getting the wording to match what was required
was hard - in one case I misrembered a proverb; in another I think the form
required was not the usual one in the UK; while the final one I'd never heard
at all before seeing it on the list.
It's quite a short game, yet somehow doesn't hang together that well - a lot
of different environments are provided and a realistic motive (get home to family),
but the constraint of having to find uses for the proverbs makes the whole thing
a bit surreal. Also English is presumably not the author's first language and
occasionally this shows in the use of idioms - however, the writing is pretty
direct, and the grammar better, alas, than that of many Britons. Overall, pretty
bug-free and playable. 7
Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot
Creatures of Venus
Ah, another superhero parody. After three Frenetic Fives, two Earth
and Skys, The Adventures of Helpfulman and so on, these are beginning
to lose their appeal for me and Max and Doris need to do something a bit different.
Technically, perhaps they do - their adventures are composed in TADS 3 with
a few specially drawn cartoons (by J Rob Wheeler), and a Pytho's-Mask-style
conversation interface. Even better, you can choose which of the two characters
to play, being able to switch between them at times, which is a great idea.
Unfortunately, the conversation menu, however smart it looks, is rather underused
if it doesn't contain particularly good conversation options. The relationship
between the two heroes is of a kind that was hackneyed even before Harrison
Ford and Carrie Fisher. Further, the choices of quip are fairly similar and
don't seem to really influence the story. Indeed that story is all on rails,
as is shown by the first two sequences where the heroes are introduced; two
scenes which are also a bit too similar to each other. And the general tone
is more light-hearted than gut-wrenchingly funny as if the genre really is running
out of steam, despite some very amusing footnotes. While we're on positives,
the 'Venus' of the title is quite well imagined: an advanced parrotoid civilization
populates the planet with huge trees (when, as we all know, Venus is really
nothing like that, being entirely water with a surface of gigantic lily-pads).
Somehow I just didn't get into the rhythm of playing. If you didn't do the
right thing at the right time, the messages may make it plain that the action
hasn't been implemented, but they don't always give a good reason for why you
can't do what you want to - it really feels very constrained. And I hit what
seemed to be a couple of major bugs.
I decided to play as Max, experimented with his James Bond-like gizmos, and
doing so got an error
[Runtime error: invalid comparison]
Then I seemed to be fundamentally stuck at the first puzzle, consulted the
walkthrough, and found out that it was exactly what I was supposed to be doing
that was producing the runtime error. Unfortunate. So I had to restart, was
a bit more careful, and got through it. Then easy puzzle, hard (timed) puzzle,
easy puzzle… oh no, what on earth is this? It's a ridiculously
complicated machine with far more knobs and dials than it reasonably should
have. I'm sure it's great fun to code such a simulationist puzzle, but I just
wasn't in the mood. Yes, I can see what the aim is, but I'd just cracked the
incidental substitution cipher and this seemed far harder because there were
so many variables and a slight slip-up ruined the whole thing.
So, since the voting deadline was approaching, I went to the walkthrough again.
Copied-and-pasted it in fact. Then what? The obvious action got
[...] You can't move that through the .
and I was completely stuck. So this is the one I never finished. I may try
again as Doris [update, Easter Monday evening: I've done this, but got stuck on
an optional path as either PC, despite reading the walkthrough and everything carefully.
I don't know what the matter is, maybe I'm coming down with psittacosis].
I rarely give up on games I'm trying to review, but somehow
this one didn't motivate me. Sorry.
There are some other problems which may be down to the TADS 3 library. The
response on HTML TADS was frequently slow or jerky, and I get the error 'Multiple
objects aren't allowed with that command.' in several inappropriate places.
Where are the multiple objects in 'stand on machine'? Why does 'turn lever'
not work when 'set lever' does, while the response to 'move lever to x' is even
stranger? It would be nice if the whole thing just flowed more easily.
I think this just goes to show that even experienced authors sometimes release
things that really need more work. Fortunately it looks like there's going to
be a second release anyway (with feelies), so I'd wait for that. 5
Thanks go to Adam Cadre for organising the Comp, and to all the authors.
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