This is either a review of Search for the Ultimate Weapon or Search for the Ultimate One, by Sharilynn, a SUDS-made Windows executable game entered in the 2008 Interactive Fiction Competition.
Here are some other reviews:
Michael Martin
Skeet (includes other reviews)
ralphmerridew (includes other reviews)
Another Mister Lizard (who is more fair than I)
Carl Muckenhoupt
Dan Shiovitz (includes other reviews)
Jake Wildstrom (includes other reviews)
…
This is a short review because I barely played this game. I got a headache trying to play. There are garish colors all about, morning/afternoon/evening/nighttime transitions seem to occur every few turns, and the help system for the game system doesn’t seem to actually explain what all these icons mean.
And how is it possible that the author doesn’t know what his game is called?
Technical: I’m having a tough time getting the game to recognize anything. There’s specific phrasing for items to interact with, and there’s a pretty strict limit on anything ready to examine. After about 10 minutes of play, I’m still confused about what I can do, and why I can’t do other things. Why did I attack the monks I tried to eavesdrop on? Why are they ALWAYS passing by? Why is the imperial gate right next to the temple and why can’t I do anything there? Why does the day pass so ridiculously quickly?
But I have to say, the map, environment and item lists end up being handy once I figure them out on my own (I love right click lists, Windows gaming 4eva). Maybe not appropriate to all games, but sometimes it’s nice. But autocompletion is annoying when it tries to write the whole sentence rather than the next word I want. At least Adrift got that right.
Writing: Rather awkward. The author appears to like the word ‘pulsate’. I had to reread multiple paragraphs since I wasn’t sure what the author was trying to get across. Conversations are basically cutscenes, so I’m not sure why a separate window is needed.
Fun: Ugh, not much. I was stymied multiple times in what I wanted to do, and without a hint system or a walkthrough (that I could find), I’m not interested in trying more. Maybe that’s unfair, but this was not graceful, at all.
Do I hope that the author writes more IF? I hope I’m not bias in this review, but if it isn’t easy to read a book, it doesn’t matter what it says. This seems like a klunky system, I’m not sure what benefit it has on the rest of the game.
