Review scoopings 3/5 · Mar 22, 2023
Interesting Survival Horror Type Text Adventure With A Reasonable Length, But Be Sure To Save Often!
Play: 7/10 I usually don't like randomized locations of people and enemies and when they actively move/change locations in text adventures. But this somehow did it in a cute, manageable way. It wasn't an overly large area, and even tho enemies did odd things and surprised you, it wasn't unforgiving with random, sudden unavoidable deaths (turns out there are some, …
Play: 7/10 I usually don't like randomized locations of people and enemies and when they actively move/change locations in text adventures. But this somehow did it in a cute, manageable way. It wasn't an overly large area, and even tho enemies did odd things and surprised you, it wasn't unforgiving with random, sudden unavoidable deaths (turns out there are some, argh). Plus, the people's names were so goofily ordinary in this crazy situation (I've never read or seen The Mist). Like with many text adventures, quite petty sometimes. Like you have to Open Notebook before Read Notebook, heh. And the inventory is quite limited, which brings me to the survival horror comparisons I was surprised by.
Welp, on replay, missing shots was really annoying--not sure how I managed not to miss a single shot in my first night's first 5 tries ha. Yet I keep trying... Not sure what it is about this game that gets me to keep trying despite its frustrations. Uff, I just about gave up cuz of missing the Dragonfly, pro-tip if that happens to you, try to leave a couple times or wait till the Dragonfly flies toward you THEN try shooting again. Not sure what RNG or move-count or whatever it takes, but I didn't miss once last night... Odd
Feel: 7/10 I love the survival horror vibe, with even the limited ammo aspect. I love the way the game will tell you what you're carrying regularly, and indeed it often sounded like Silent Hill or Resident Evil "You are holding the pistol, the old clip and the shovel in your hands, and have only your clothes on your back." for instance. Reading the Notebook gave such Resident Evil reading memos vibes ha, even dated like in so many Resident Evil found documents! Oh, it was fun driving the truck too :-p (till I realized I forgot the Shovel back in town >.< )
Attachment: 7/10 So odd that as I finish up 1985 videogames, I'm returning to a love of text adventures, and struggling to fully engage with the action-adventure and platformer genres I was so engaged with for months now. Odd odd odd.
Welp, in the end, I spoke too soon. As much as I wanted to beat it, after my 5th time dying an unavoidable death from Mrs. Carmody, and then that awful Centipede, this proved to be as frustrating as most 80s text adventures have been. The fact I tried so many times, and felt like it was a length I could manage to eventually complete, says a lot. But the frustrating tedium of this era of text adventures wound up prevailing.
On replay, uff, why were there so many more rng-based or unavoidable deaths? Like where did those random bugs come from? Luckily I could save now so I would just add an extra move or wander around then return, then be fine. Frustrating tho... Especially since I was crediting the game with not having petty unavoidable deaths... still confused how I had none of those last night, even with no save function, just carmody and her crew slaughtering me in different situations lol. Yet here I was, trying and trying and trying again..
Finally! At last!! 
It really says something that I kept trying and trying. Frustrating, as text adventures tend to be, but definitely worth trying! A great, early example of survival horror, that's a reasonable length, even if I get frustrated by some of the unavoidable deaths--so make sure to Save often!! (Pro-tip: don't even try this without the ability to save ha)
Completion: 100% (I even had one bullet left! lol) Playtime: ~1.5 hours (including all deaths/tries/etc.)