IFComp09 reviews: The Hangover
In a way it's kind of refreshing that I managed to get 2/3 of the way through the comp before finding a game this bad. I'm sure some of it is ADRIFT 3.9's fault - in particular, a number of actions the walkthrough suggests only work when phrased just so thanks to ADRIFT's horrible non-parser - but I'm actually inclined to give it a pass given the various other issues:
- In a crowning glory of world modeling not seen since Detective, objects are listed in the room description with 'you'd better take this' and are of course still there and still something you'd better take even after you've taken and used it.
- In fact, every object basically does this. "A meter maid is here. You should ask her about quantum chromodynamics."
- Well, except that example is funnier than anything in the game.
- Also, better spelled and punctuated.
- The author is apparently unaware that "women" has a different spelling when used in the singular.
- There is a filing cabinet, with a plot critical item inside it. OPEN FILING CABINET however pushes it aside revealing a secret passage. The only way to actually, like, open it is to use the command OPEN CABINET FILE, a phrasing that appears nowhere in the game and is only casually mentioned in the walkthrough.
- At one point you are locked in a room with an NPC you must give something for a plot-critical item as well the keys to leave the room. However, from this point on, giving anybody anything simply gives the reply "You can't give that here!" which means the game is now unwinnable.
- But you aren't locked in the room; you can just walk straight through the wall because the author never bothered to implement locked doors.
- But it's still unwinnable because the final winning move is to give somebody something, and you can't give that here.
I'm pretty sure I spent more time writing this review then the author spent writing the game in the first place. Learn to use your tools, dude. This includes the English language. Normally I'd suggest writing in something like I7 instead of ADRIFT, too, since it is a superior free tool that runs more broadly, but I'm not convinced that the author can write coherently enough for the I7 compiler to accept his text.
Then again, maybe "capable of writing sentences acceptable to the I7 assertion parser" is a good minimum bar to clear for your writing before you submit something to hundreds of hostile critics, hm?