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DELRON
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Tenebrae Semper Reviews
Author: Seciden Mencarde
Date: 2010
ADRIFT 4.0
Reviewed by David Whyld
This began with a frustrating little puzzle that
prevented me leaving the start location until I had all my stuff, while quietly
remaining silent on exactly what I needed to take with me. It was a puzzle made
worse by ADRIFT’s buggy item carrying limits that prevented me picking up
certain things – like a pen – because my hands are full. Oh, and if you pick up
a pen, then drop it (as I did when experimenting with what items were
necessary), you can’t pick the pen up again. Nasty “puzzle”. I ran into the same
problem later on in the game when I returned to the room and then was prevented
from leaving because one of the required items was no longer in my possession.
There were other annoyances – items listed in the room description not being
examinable, typos, misleading exit messages, guess the verb and the like – but
it’s easier to forgive these considering the three hour time constraint imposed
by the comp. Nicely written, too, which was an added bonus.
Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out most of the time what I was meant to be
doing. Even with the Generator open and actively cheating, it was difficult to
guess what my next move should be and often I’d be left stranded in one location
with no idea of what I was meant to do next. On the occasions when I did manage
to make progress, this was usually done after trying every single thing I could
think of doing. Not so much solving a puzzle as hitting upon the solution by
sheer persistence.
Overall this seemed a little too ambitious for a three hour camp and the rough
edges really showed.
2 out of 5
Reviewed by J. J. Guest
SCORE: 5
Comments: This is quite a large game for a three-hour comp, and I feel that some
of the time put into creating rooms and scenery objects might have been better
spent in playing through and testing, particularly in making sure the game was
well enough clued. Unfortunately I had to turn to the generator several times to
find out what to do. I didn't get very far, but I'd be very interested in
playing a more polished version of the game. Verdict: over-ambitious but
promising.
Reviewed by Wade Clarke
SCORE: 2
Comments:
This is currently a disaster that never clues the player as to what they should
do. I definitely would not progress this game any further until this demo has
been improved to show that it's going to work.
Problem one - When we wake from our dream, we do not know what class we are
about to go to. This is the only knowledge which would indicate what books we
should take with us to prevent the "You haven't got all your stuff get" message.
So we have to randomly guess which combination of books and items we need to
take with us, boringly picking up and dropping different combinations. This
problem needs to be fixed no matter what, but I would suggest the author
considers removing the inventory limit from his game anyway. Almost nobody
appreciates having one in IF.
I was annoyed when I looked at the calendar, as I did not get the only thing
from it I wanted - a message telling me what class I was about to attend.
Problem two -Whenever we automatically move to a new location, the new location
description should be printed out automatically. We should not have to type
'look' again.
Problem three - when we get to class, there is no indication as to what we
should do. No chair is even mentioned, so 'sit in chair' will not occur to
anyone.
Problem four - Again, when we get to Lauren's room, there is no clue that we
should examine her bed. The character demonstrates no surprise at finding that
his book has teleported beneath the bed sheets in a room with no people in it.
If we stand outside the room and type 'exits', it says we can only go north,
which is untrue.
Summary: the idea of playing a student and getting ready to go to class in some
detail, and beginning to find mysterious things, is a good one, but this demo
fails to exhibit the most basic IF design common sense and thus is completely
aggravating.
The writing absolutely has to guide the player as to what might be expected of
them at each point in the game, and the appropriate objects must be present and
also made apparent in the writing. (E.g. a chair to sit on in a classroom). I
hope the failings are just the result of being rushed for this competition,
because while the detail of the game world has increased, the game execution is
a big fall from what had been worked up in the Forest House games.
Reviewed by BlueMaxima
SCORE: 5
Comments: First room seems buggy (had to drop and pick up the pens). Endings
unreachable, should have been, really. Good writing, more or less, but spoilt.
Reviewed by Eric Anderson
SCORE: 0.47
Comments: could not get out of the room. The dream sequence too short and not
separated from waking up. Examine failed several items. Started to "fix" some of
the code, then decided against as author might have other
things in mind, just incomplete programming.
Reviewed by Duncan Bowsman
This year, I've decided to associate a song by Rush with each game along with
its score.
SCORE: 4 shadows out of 10.
Song: "Subdivisions"
Comments: -No hints.
-I assume I'm supposed to wait for class to start at 12:30? Unfortunately, the
clock is broken so time is stuck between 12:00 and 12:09.
-Being stuck in a time bubble with no clear idea of what to do, no escape, and
only a college algebra textbook is suitable enough for horror, but unfortunately
the game just feels incomplete.
-Apparently one must only sit on a chair to escape that.
-The author requested a transcript from me, which contains most of my complaints
about the game. In all, it should be considered more an open beta than a
finished work. Players be warned. Below are some of the most
salient issues...
-It's possible to get stuck in one's dorm after returning to it (don't have all
of your things).
-Inventory limit is far too small.
-Science Hall and the later Forest Path are inaccessible as it stands (Science
Hall cannot be gotten back to after returning with the notebook).
-The writing is all abstract and overly cryptic, which makes it hard to
understand what exactly is going on. Lack of understanding of conflicts,
motivations, and general reasoning of things in some places makes it hard for
the writing as it stands to be very compelling.
Reviewed by DCBSupafly
SCORE: 4
Comments: great tone, great eerie feelings, especially enjoyed the clocks, but
trouble navigating and trouble determining how to advance story.
Reviewed by Mel Stefaniuk
SCORE: 5
Comments: This game has a lot of promise but I think it just might have been too
ambitious for the three hour time limit. Room descriptions are well done but
there's still a lot of instances of not being able to examine objects that can
be seen in the room. It's also vague as to what you're supposed to do a lot of
the time, I had trouble simply getting out of the dorm room at the start and
eventually had to look at the generator to figure out what exactly I needed to
be carrying to be able to leave. It has an intriguing story but I think more
time than 3 hours is needed to really achieve everything it's trying to do.
Reviews should be considered copyrighted by their respective authors.
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