Posted 17 November 2001 to rec.games.int-fiction

Well, these are more impressions than "real" reviews. But others already have posted summaries, so I can focus on the verdict :-)

#1/10: Best of Three (Bestof3.blb)
The two hours just flew by. It was like talking with an old (although difficult) friend. This game seems to be great, the only thing I disliked was the author's apparent bias against borscht.

#2/8: Heroes (heroes.z5)
A gem. Doing the same kind of labour in five different ways with different skills and different looking scenery and being able to do it quasi-simultaneously.

#3/8: Vicious Cycles (cycles.z5)
It was amazing to go roller coaster through these cycles. A short, single-threaded, but great game.

#4/8: Triune (triune.gam)
Another (I had played Jump immediately before) abused young girl. Freud would have liked to see that game poking around in the darker realms of the old fairy tales. So do I. And I like having the choice between different endings.

#5/8: Carma (carma.blb)
An interactive lesson in punctuation -- and very funny, too. A game I'll have to replay often :-)

#6/7: All Roads (AllRoads.z5)
Venice, intrigue, mysterious darkness. And a very carefully crafted game. But something misses. I can't put the pieces of the story together. I do not feel with the PC.

#7/7: The Beetmonger's Journal (Beet.gam)
A kind of comforting game in this time of zealotry. And the author probably is not biased against borscht! Again: I like games which allow the player a decision between different storylines.

#8/7: Prized Possession (possess/Alys.z5)
Romantic love stories I don't like at all. But if they are so finely coded and written, my resistance just melts away.

(This game could have been submitted anonymously, but I think everybody would have recognized the author by her topic :-)

#9/7: Elements (elements.z5)
Power crystals again! But these are so well hidden that the game is beyond the 2 hours range even with the use of the built-in hints. (badly coded, you get inevitably all of the hints if you want one. I guess they were added in the last minute :-) I can judge only on the first part of the game, but I want to see more, as soon as I have the time.

I _hate_ those symbolistic (or alchemistic?) puzzles, that's why I'm eager \begin{whisper} to find them all and into darkness bind them. \end{whisper}

#10/6: Moments Out of Time (moments.z6)
The author lists AMFV in his/her credits; LASH comes closer. Archeological research in a post-WW3-scenario, by aid of time travel. It is fun to unravel the story in different ways by choosing from different available tools. The story, alas, is not very imaginative.

Disclaimer: Please bear in mind that my knowledge of english language is limited, so I have probably missed a lot of clever thoughts and nearly all the puns.

and one more

4: Begegnung am Fluss (amfluss.tag)
You are Robin Hood with a gang of pursuers on your heels. You must make your way over the river to escape, but the crossing is blocked by a stranger.

This is a mere miniature, with some programming flaws (Gur Vairagbel gryyf lbh gung lbh pneel abguvat, ohg lbh qb unir n fgvpx gb svtug jvgu. Naq Yvggyr Wbua fgvyy onef gur jnl nsgre lbh guerj uvz vagb gur evire.) and a somewhat laborious prose.

(Funny thing: I never played a German game before. So I spent most of the time guessing the verb. Und ich hatte gedacht, das bliebe mir wenigstens einmal erspart ;-)