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A Day In The Life Of A Super Hero

Author: David Whyld
Language: Adrift
Score: 4

Summary:
A not-so-super superhero faces a series of challenges from his numerous enemies. Unfortunately, the game is marred by an abundance of bugs and other problems.

Writing:
The story could certainly work. A costumed superhero who seems to have no real power besides his determination has to stop a number of devious and talented villains. And it does indeed lend itself to a humorous dissection of the entire superhero genre. Unfortunately, the writing in this game didn't come across to me as quite as amusing and witty as intended. The plot itself felt vague and confusing and at times it was hard to tell if the bizarre happenings were part of the actual story or simply bugs that had disrupted the game flow.

Technical:
I don't know if I was just unlucky, but I ran into an inordinate number of bugs as I played through the game. In one conversation (done through menus... but on occasion, also done through ask/tell) I selected a choice from the menu which turned out to be not quite available to me. My attempt to read newspaper elicited the response "You can't read the newspaper!" The problems with scope and disambiguation were the worst though. For example, when I tried to talk to my pet parrot, the game responded with: "A fusty smell pervades your apartment. It's probably a mixture of you never getting around to cleaning it and that time the Slug Monster was here to kill you." Okay, that's great, but I was trying to talk to my parrot, not smell my living quarters. Likewise, my attempts to talk to Bumble resulted in the game thinking I was addressing the guards, who were not interested in conversation. When I asked an NPC about the Crossing Lady, the game replied with "You can't see the ladies of the night." I still don't know if this kind of disambiguation problem is inherent to Adrift or if the author just didn't realize these problems existed. Either way, this game needed a lot more testing.

Fun:
The bugs, being so constant and so pervasive, quickly sapped my will to play. Between them and the game bouncing me around locations without rhyme or reason, I gave up before really getting anywhere.

Final score: 4

High point:
I couldn't think of any.

Low point:
Same.
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