Koan
Author: Esa Peuha
Language: z-code
Genre: Puzzle
Score: 2
What do you do if you have a single idea for a game and a competition
deadline coming up? You go back to the drawing board and wait for next
year. Unfortunately, that's not what apparently happened here. Instead,
"Koan" is a game with a single "think outside the box" puzzle and nothing
else. No story, no plot. And actually, calling it a game is being rather
generous. There are nine rooms with items or advice in each, but they
don't represent locations; they are nothing more than a skeletal framework
of the game. "This is the southwest location in this game" is an example
of one of the room descriptions. Mmm, sure gets the imagination going.
The "goal" of the game itself is so vague that it left me flabbergasted
and annoyed the first time I read it. But, it turns out, that it had to
be vague, or risk giving away the "clever" solution to the puzzle. All in
all, a very disappointing game. Even solving the riddle doesn't satisfy
so much as irritate.
(View this game on Baf's Guide to IF or The IF Ratings Site)
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