A Light's Tale
Author: Zach Flynn (vbnz)
Language: TADS2
Score: 3
I wish I knew what to put here.
I get the feeling that the author was trying to convey something with
this game that just did not make it. The intro was confusing and
awkwardly written, mentioning an "unordinary" man. There are spelling
problems throughout the parts that I played ("unordinary", "flys") and
the tone is aggressive and antagonistic towards the player ("I won't let
you go that way"). The writing itself is coarse colloquial, which can
work if done well with a well-defined personality to represent the
narrator. Here, there doesn't seem to be one. If there's a story or
plot, I didn't find it before I gave up.
Besides lacking quotes around speech, the game seems to be rife with
invisible NPCs. First, Fernando's gang caught and killed me, even
though there was no mention of them entering or being in the same room
as me. One second I'm trying to take a mirror, then next I'm dead. The
same thing happened when I ran from Bob. He did not follow me around,
but he somehow managed to kill me anyway. I couldn't even interact with
him, since there was no actual NPC object in the same room as me.
Not fun.
The description of The Beginning felt like it could have lead to a
good surreal exploration, as in So Far or Blue Chairs.
Getting killed by an NPC who wasn't actually in the room. Twice.
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