 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
PTBAD 3Author: Jonathan Berman (Xorax)Language: TADS2 Original score: 3 Revised score: 2
Summary:
If I knew what this game was about, I'd tell you.
Writing:
The first thing a player sees is the intro. I've said this about
introductions before: they have to grab the player and make him/her WANT
to play this game. So an author should really pay attention to that
intro and focus some energy on making sure it's right. Needless to say,
PTBAD3 has a bad one. Actually, it's the starting room, as there's no
seperate introduction when you begin the game. Doesn't change my point
though. The room desc has two obvious spelling errors and, besides
that, makes little sense. Oh, and there's a "tophat" on the ground. A
glowing tophat. I was in the process of looking up "tophat" in the
dictionary when I realized that the author meant it was a top
hat. Once I recovered from the initial dismay, I started to roam
around the gamespace. This involved drawing a somewhat convoluted map
with several one-way exits as I stumbled through the labyrinth of
PTBAD3. Here's an example of one of the rooms I encountered:
liftAfter doing little more than wander around, I gave up and quit. There were no hints, no walkthrough, no readme file. Technical:
I can't tell what's a bug and what's on purpose. Few scenery items
were implemented and one that was (a table) I was able to pick up and
walk around with.
Fun:
Not. Everything in this game screams "weird not because it follows
an underlying connection but just for the sake of being weird."
Final score: 3 (Revised to 2)
High point:
As much as I hate to say it, I didn't find a high point with this
game.
Low point:
Right off the bat, there was no author listed, no credits, no intro,
just a start room with bad spelling. No hints, no walkthrough. No way.
|