Jane
Author: Joseph Grzesiak
Language: z-code
Genre: Conversation
Score: 6
Interactive short stories are meant to drawn in the reader, as they make
the player an integral part of the drama. "Jane", though, did not quite
have that effect on me. If you took "Lifetime: Television for Women" and
ran it through some sort of Z-code filter, I think that this game would be
the result. In "Jane", you bounce around various bodies, participating in
the drama of a physically abusive marriage. You play the husband, the
wife, and a friend, all at different times and different locations. The
gist of the game is presented through dialog menus, though the choices
you make have no real impact on the game's path. This is a truly
puzzleless piece of IF. But with the constant shifting of identities and
the inability to relate to any of the characters, I found myself
unable to get into the drama of it all. The author admits that the
purpose of the game was "to sensitize people to the unfortunately
all-too-common issue of abuse." However, I didn't find myself any more
sensitized to it than before I played.
(View this game on Baf's Guide to IF or The IF Ratings Site)
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