![]() First Things First and Savoir Faire are good examples of games that really benefited from this kind of play, but I think of Heroine's Mantle is the primary example - largely because I wouldn't have played it very far without that context. It doesn't happen too often the game needs to be fairly long, somewhat difficult and reasonably well made. There's a tone of mild competition, you can get tailored hints fairly easily, and if you want to discuss something about it then it's fresh in everyone's mind. There's been a few games where a significant part of my experience was tied up in community play something fairly long and puzzle-oriented gets released outside the comp, and there's a few weeks during which a good portion of IF people are playing simultaeneously. Lisa has some very potent powers, and you will have to make use of all of them (often in very creative ways) to solve the game. Some of the puzzles are unusual for IF, being more action-oriented than the standard cerebral affairs. I may have been influenced by having played No One Lives Forever and Freedom Force at around the same time, but this game's episodic structure (each chapter featuring a "boss" to kill) reminded me of a more mainstream action-oriented game, and its general sense of good humor and fun reminded me of both of those (wonderful) titles as well. Even the puzzles add to the feeling of the titanic struggle - there I am, 2am, grappling with the game, a few cryptic hints, two megabytes of txd output, and I'm still stuck. Most games have failed because they're too timid Phillips dares to go farther and drags the player along with him, willingly or not. The keycodes to the laptop were inventively hidden, deciphering the Messiah ritual was fun, and the various boss fights are the undisputed highlight of the game - they're fast-paced and exciting, giving the player a real sense of "thereness", and the solutions are rarely too obscure. And though there are a number of onerus ones, there are a lot of imaginative ones, too. This is not a story game, this is a puzzle game. Some of these puzzles are just not going to make sense any other way.īut never mind the plot. ![]() On the whole it comes out worth playing - set aside a few weeks for the task, because it is not a small game - but have the solution handy. In other words, this is a game with higher highs and lower lows than most where it's good, it's great, and where it's bad, it's terrible. Likewise, some puzzles are only solvable by a complex sequence of read-the-author's-mind maneuvers.įinally, some people may have mixed reactions to the game's treatment of gender - the overt feminist propaganda sits a bit oddly next to a sometimes voyeuristic treatment of individual women. Not all of the puzzles turn on these powers, however, and others don't use them in obvious ways there are many, many places where the game requires syntax that might not be obvious and that is non-standard to IF. The superheroine has certain powers, which are rather fun, and which the game allows the player to learn in a fairly effective manner. ![]() Speaking of ludicrous, the puzzle design needs quite a lot of work. There are many, many locations, NPCs, and scenarios action scenes worthy of a John Woo movie and utterly ludicrous challenges to overcome. You are a young woman swept into the role of superheroine, and the game provides enough hair-raising adventures to fill a half-dozen lesser works of IF. Massive, and massively ambitious, this game combines a sweeping and complex plot with some of the most fiendish puzzles in existence. ![]()
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