Games - 2009 (8 result(s))

Remaking Privateer... many have tried, quite a few have succeeded. Yet, Ascii Sector stands out even from the group of good ones. The selling point: The whole game uses the the ANSI (ironically, not actually ASCII) character set (in 16 colours) to create the graphical environment the player moves in. This is because the game takes place in another part of space: the Ascii Sector. Like the Gemini Sector found in the original Privateer, the Ascii Sector consists of four quadrants, numerous star systems and many planets. Just (obviously) not the same ones from the original game.

Although the annual IF competition is a great event, there is one big problem: Usually, the number of seriously buggy and broken entries is high. That leads to many reviewers' threshold for believing a game to be broken to be very low. Which means that sometimes, a game will be considered broken which really isn't. A trap which Byzantine Perspective fell into until word got around that what it made appear broken was in fact a big puzzle. In the end, the game placed in midfield, but it was a lot more popular with the other authors (who, by definition, are probably willing to put more trust into a fellow author's work), taking third place in the so-called Miss Congeniality contest (voted by the authors).

There's probably not much to do living on some asteroid in deep space. Grounded in Space's protagonist, a teenage boy, decided to spend his time building a rocket. Anxious to test it, he takes it outside and... it destroys his mother's garden! To finally learn some responsibility, learn about the hardship of life and learn to appreciate hard work, he is sent out to a mining belt in a spaceship - all on his own. The journey is supposed to be automated, so our hero has some time to read and familiarize himself with the basics of space mining. Things take a nasty turn soon enough, though, when he encounters pirates and a damsel in distress...

Sometimes, it's best to let a game's author to use his own words to describe his game: "Interface was conceived in about 1984 by a 14 year-old boy who wanted desperately to work for Infocom. [...] That boy grew up to be me. [...] To be true to my childhood delusions of grandeur, I have coded up the game as an exercise in 'what would it have been like' and to surprise a few fellow-gamer friends of mine. [...] Thus, you find before you a throw-back/relic delivered with care. While I don't pretend this to be a work of art, I do feel it's an honest attempt of which my 14 year-old version of me would have approved; warts, plot holes, and all. I hope the 1984 version of you, if applicable, enjoys as well." If that isn't the kind of game this site was made for...

Who would have thought that, of all things, Curse of Enchantia would become the role model for the future of the Adventure genre? Maybe the general idea wasn't so horrible after all, just the older game's execution? Or maybe tastes have changed? Thinking back a little more in detail, it may not be such a huge surprise after all. The short trend of embedding puzzles into a narrative, i.e. them originating organically from the world and the progress of the plot, was squashed by the huge success of Myst. A formula to combine sweeping, complex plots with sensible gameplay elements was never truly found, either; resulting in ridiculous 'interactive movies'. So, going back to brazen puzzle fests only thinly veiled by only halfway discernable motivations and only semi-believable locations might have been a logical step.

You start out in a snowy wilderness on some sort of quest. What this quest is and how it is motivated, you don't know. First, there are more pressing issues, like finding a place for the night and not freezing to death. And then finding something to eat and drink. Every time you manage to temporarily solve one of these issues, the game rewards you with a flashback or a dream sequence which will tell you more about yourself, your mission and your life. Or it will confuse you even more as a unicorn turns into a woman who turns into a flower. Or as you encounter a wolf who behaves like a dog, but really seems to be human.

The Duel in the Snow (A Tale of Old Russia) is a positive example of a new breed of text adventures: storytelling over gameplay. It is a mood piece, soaking with melancholy: Victor Pavlovich wakes up with a hangover. The memories of his wife Natasha leaving him are slowly creeping back. And then there is this nagging in the back of his head... ah, yes, the duel with Gronovskij who, according to Victor's best friend Kropkin, is an excellent shot.