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DELRON
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The Magic Wishing Fountain Reviews
Author: Erus
Date: 2008
ADRIFT 4.0
What does AIF stand for? Adult Interactive Fiction. If you likely to be offended by games with sexual content, you are advised not to open these files.
Reviewed by Dudemandude (AIF
Games Forum)
First off, let me just say thank you for your work. Over all, I really enjoyed
it and found it a good game. It's biggest strength was the writing, particularly
during the sex scenes. You defiantly have talent in that department. The sex was
hot, detailed, abundant, and varies, just how I like my AIF games
My biggest criticism would be that the game felt a little "bare bones" and empty
in other areas. I often found myself asking people about many number of
different things in the game trying to figure stuff out and found that each
person will only respond to 1 or 2 key words. There weren't a lot of items in
the game outside of those needed to advance the story. You couldn't examine body
parts outside of sex and there doesn't seem to be any clothing in the game.
Really it's just a bunch of little stuff that isn't really needed, but makes the
game word feel a lot more immersive and alive. Just something you might want to
consider if you decide to make another game.
For the most part the game flowed pretty well and the puzzles made sense. Though
I did get stuck at one point and admittedly I did have to "cheat" by opening up
the file with the Adrift generator and looking at the code. It was after I gave
the first ale to the guard and couldn't figure out what to do from there. It
didn't occur to me that you could have a second (or third) sex scene with Sophie
to get another mug. Other then that I thought the puzzles were pretty good and
fit well with the game. I didn't run into any real bugs or anything the
prevented me from enjoying the game.
So ya, over all I have mostly praise for your first foray into AIF and most of
all I enjoyed playing it. I will look forward to playing any future games you
may decide to make. If you really want I can give the game another play through
and give you some more detailed feedback if you do decide to continue making
games. Otherwise, thanks for all your hard work and I hope my feedback was
helpful.
Reviewed by Purple Dragon (AIF
Games Forum)
All in all, I think it was a very nice game. You took a completely unbelievable
stream of situations and made them seem at least plausible, which isn’t at all
easy to do. The sex scenes were very nicely done, well-written and hot (if a bit
out there at times). It’s clear that erotic writing is an area in which you
excel. Each scene was also very unique from the others, which is nice to see.
The idea of the three-part scene with Sophie was interesting. Although it did
seem a bit guided until you figure out what’s going on, it gave enough freedom
of choice to overlook that.
The puzzles in the game were ok, and ranged from ones that made perfect sense
(at least within the game world), to those that seemed like puzzles for puzzles
sake. There were a couple that I happened on by accident and still have no real
idea of how I was suppose to know what to do. I won’t mention them here in
consideration for those who haven’t played the game yet. Coming up with
believable puzzles isn’t something that I’ve typically been very good at, so I’m
probably not the one to advise you here.
My main problem with the game is that there is really no clue as to what you are
supposed to be doing a lot of the time. This is especially true at the
beginning, where the player is just thrown into the village square, with no hint
as to what to do other than the title of the game. The fact that the title
itself is actually a pretty good hint is the only thing that saved you. Still,
some kind of introduction would have been nice to see. Once you figure out how
to get started, it moves along pretty good so even this isn’t a major thing,
just one that might have added a bit of cohesiveness.
Puzzle problems aside, the main thing that most people play these games for is
the sex, and like I say, you did an awesome job in that department. So overall I
give you high marks for the game, and especially since this is your first one. I
only wish that my first game had been half as good as this one. I can’t wait to
see what you come up with for a sequel. Thanks for the very enjoyable game.
Reviewed by A. Bomire (Inside
Erin Volume 5 Number 1 - January 2009)
Overall Thoughts
This is the first game by this author, and as such it plays like many first
games. It has a very straightforward plot which is the standard treasure hunt:
find this and give it to that person, get a reward of this other thing which
then goes to that person, etc.
Puzzles/Game Play
As I mentioned, the game play is very linear and straightforward. You find a
series of objects, each of which is given to you as a reward for performing some
action. You get the objects one-at-a-time and pass them on to the right person
to get another object. This cycle continues until you reach the end of the game.
Each person wants one and only one thing, so when you find something you just go
from person to person and hand it to them. The right person will accept it and
offer you a reward. The downside to this is that sometimes it isn't obvious just
which objects go with each person, and you can sometimes find yourself wandering
from room to room trying to figure out where to get the next object.
Erus, the author, has helpfully placed the important objects in bold print, and
you should be sure to ask each person about the important objects in their
location as this provides hints about what that person is looking for.
Sex
I was surprised at the sex scenes in this game. Surprised because they are
actually pretty well written, which is not something I usually expect from a
first time author. Each scene is fairly long, with plenty of details and
actions. And there is enough variety to satisfy just about every kink -
male/female, female/female, threesomes (both two girls and two guys), and even
some spanking/BDSM. In most cases, once you perform a sex act, you cannot repeat
it and get a message indicating that it's time to move on to something else. But
there are times when you can repeat your actions, although they typically just
repeat the same description as well.
Technical
This game is fairly technically sound, although there were a couple of minor
bugs. The author has used a technique that I often find in ADRIFT whereby a
girls body parts are associated with a specific room, and you can get some weird
responses in trying to interact with those body parts even when the girl isn't
there. Also, there were a couple of places where to advance the game along you
needed to perform an action that took a little trying to figure out. They aren't
necessarily "guess the verb" situations, because they needed common verbs to
complete. It was more that the action you needed to take didn't seem obvious.
Final Thoughts
As I said, this game is a first for the author, and it has much in common with
other first-time authors. However, it showed a lot of promise (especially with
the sex scenes). I think I would have enjoyed the game a little more if the
puzzles hadn't been so straightforward and linear, with the typical treasure
hunt theme.
Rating: C-
Reviewed by Purple Dragon (Inside
Erin Volume 5 Number 1 - January 2009)
Overall Thoughts
It's not easy to take a series of completely unrealistic situations and make
them seem at least plausible, but somehow this game gave me the tools to do just
that. While there was certainly room for improvement, there were enough good
things here to let me really enjoy myself.
Puzzles/Game Play
The puzzles are of the standard, get item...give item...get sex type that you
tend to see so often. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with that, it
would have been nice to have a bit more variety. Still, even though the type of
puzzle is pretty straightforward, I did appreciate the fact that in a couple of
cases, the item in question had at least some place in the overall story, rather
than just being, "Here's a glass of water." "Thanks, lets have sex."
Sex
The sex scenes are definitely where this games shines, and since it's probably
safe to say that that is a major reason why we play these games, the shine is
nice to see. The scenes are well written, detailed, and hot. There is also a lot
of variety between them and you never get the feeling that you're just going
over the same scene with a different girl. In fact, the sex is so varied, that a
couple of times the game thrust me into situations that I normally wouldn't have
expected to find particularly arousing. It's credit to the author that he held
my attention even here.
If I had to say something bad about the sex scenes, it would be that they really
needed better responses when the player tries a command a second time. Sometimes
it just repeats the same text, which is actually okay in my opinion. What kind
of bugs me is being told something like, "No, try something else." Then again,
it might just be me, and at any rate, it's not a huge deal.
Technical
This game is a bit hard to pin down from a technical standpoint. There are
really no major problems with the game. No game killing bugs, no major spelling
or grammar issues, no glaring errors. Where the game would loose points in my
book is not for the negatives it has, but for the positives it doesn't. Let me
give a couple of examples of what I mean by that.
At times the game feels very undirected. This is especially apparent at the
beginning where the player is just dropped into the village square with no
direction at all. Once you get things going, it's not a very complicated game,
so this isn't as big an issue as it could have been. But still, some kind of
introduction to get the game moving would have been very nice to see.
I also noticed that you can't examine body parts except during sex scenes when
the girl is naked. The game doesn't really have a clothing system, and clothes
are just done away with at the beginning of each scene. I personally believe
that this a perfectly reasonable way to handle it, especially for an author's
first game. However, even if every girl is just going to be either completely
clothed, or buck naked, I really like to see that second description of her and
her bits and pieces. On the subject of body parts, there are also a couple of
times where you get some really odd responses dealing with them when the girl
isn't in the room. This has to do with the way they were programmed, and it's
not too hard to overlook the discrepancies.
Like I said, most of the problem areas I found were minor. There is nothing that
will stop you from playing to the end, and enjoying yourself along the way, just
a lot of little things that really could have kicked things up a notch.
Final Thoughts
All in all, a solid little game by most standards, but adding in that this is
the first game by this author raises the whole in my estimation. A bit more
attention to detail could certainly have made it better, but very enjoyable
nonetheless, and I look forward to his next one.
Rating: C+
Reviews should be considered copyrighted by their respective authors.
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