Re: most Memorable Interactive Fiction Story?
Aaaagh! puzzles! that's why I don't play tradditional interactive fiction anymore, sinse I really disliked well written games that killed me for not realizing I had to sniff the dwarf to find out there was sulphur in his trousers which I could then use with the hollow rubber duck to make a bomb to blow the safe open .
I might be exaggerated here, but probably not by much . these days I prefer limited parza text adventure games like eamon or come to that like Inquisitor.
I can say though i had some distinct favourite If games back when I played If, I'll mention my top 5:
5: Pytho's mask by Emily short. This I loved for the conversation, and the fact that all the so called puzzles in the game just involved talking to the right characte rs about things, I never needed a walkthru or a hint everything in the game just flowed from what you found in the environment people told you which is my best recommendation of If. The world was also wonderfully artistic, with each character being distinct, there were even some awsome little side turnings including about 5 different endings each corresponding to a certain character.
The reason i rank this 5 and not more highly is firstly it's a short game (no puns on the author's name intended), and secondly while there were several endings which it was fun to figure out it was pretty obvious the author had one particular ending in mind sinse all the others ended with one paragraph while one ended with a couple of pages worth, ---- particularly irritating sinse the ending I wanted most was the romantic happy mariage ending which just ended with "so it begins" .
4: Wearing the claw by Paul Obrian. Again a short game hence my placing it here, and a much more tradditional If in terms of you being tasked to get rid of an evil wizard, however I can say this one again all the puzzles were wonderfully obvious, particularly sinse you got a little pointer in the right direction should you head off the wrong trakc. I also liked the fact that towards the end you have an npc who can freely identify items which was fun.
3: Lash by Paul Obrian. This one I did need the hints for because it is a big and rather complex game, and has a number of side turnings and puzzles, heck there are some puzzles I didn't solve myself. what I liked however was the fact that though the game started as sort of a post appocalyptic treasurehunt, it soon became something else, something quite historical and fun. I also loved the way the second person interface was made part of the game by suggesting you write commands to an intelligent robot, thi s also carried on the theme of slavery in the game. There were also some scenes that frankly made me cringe as well in this one, which you probably would regard as good or bad depending upon your sensabilities.
2: Dreamhold by Andrew Plotkin. I probably rank this one a little highly because it was the first propper full length if game I ever finished, also as a basic intro to if it has a lot of hints and logical puzzles. That being said, the setting, writing and puzzles to explore were lovely, I particularly liked the plot and backstory surrounding the game and the fact that playing an amnesiac wizard was made part of the plot, especially via little scenes you can interact with. I nearly added the game Babel by Ian Finlley to this list which seems very enspired by Dreamhold, amnesiac discovering past, objects you can touch for past scenes, even the climax being to make a potion recipe, but it lost out for a rather generic science love affair plot and a couple of pupzzles wher e I really! needed the hints.
1: My aboslute top if of all time has to be Worlds apart by Suzanne Britton.
This is, like Pytho's mask a game which involves a heavy amount of surreal fantasy and story and one which takes place in a society very different from our own, but it also has a main character you really come to respect, or at least I did, for all her society was rather different. I loved the ability to enter objects and explore them psychically, I loved the puzzles, I loved some of the random tasks you could do in the game and the way that the game's central environment only changed slightly throughout what was going on, apart from one trip elsewhere which has huge significance.
People complained in the reviews of this one about the puzzles, but to be honest I found them all fairly easy going by experimentation and working out the environment, albeit you need to rather get behind a lot of the society and how the world works. my only miner d owner on this is that the ending felt a little flat. The author did say she planned a novel to be a sequel to the game but I'm not sure if that ever got done (I really ought to check).
Either way there are my favourite if games ever!
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=176456#p176456
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