| Home | About Me | |
|
|
DELRON
|
Weekend Reviews
Author: Pierre
Date: 2005
TADS
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 A. Bomire
Basic Plot
You and your father spend the weekend at the home of Sir Richard Penbright and
his family. You spend the weekend wandering about the mansion and interacting
with the Penbright family (wife Catherine and daughter Julie) and employees at
the mansion (their maid Annie, and Sir Richard's personal assistant Amanda).
During this time, your father and Sir Richard engage in negotiations over Sir
Richard's upcoming purchase of your father's business.
Anyone familiar with Pierre's previous work, Cruise, will recognize the
Penbright family from that game. The events in this game take place prior to the
events of Cruise.
Overall Thoughts:
I always enjoyed Pierre's original game, Cruise, especially with the multiple
timelines and the way interactions early in the game would alter later events.
This game, while not as ambitious as Pierre's previous work, works in the same
way. You have a limited number of turns, and certain events take place at
specific times. If you aren't in the right place at the right time, you miss the
scene. And, some scenes are simultaneous, presenting you with an option as to
which part of the game to experience. In short, you cannot see all of the game
in one playing, which obviously leads to a replayable game. This game, while
designed around the same concept as Cruise, is unfortunately not quite as well
done, as you'll see from some of my discussions below. However, it is still an
enjoyable game and most players will like it.
Puzzles/Game Play:
I'll admit that timed games are not my favorite, so that may color my review and
please take that into account. Many of the puzzles, and all of the game play,
are based upon needing to be in certain areas at a certain time. For example,
you have to attend meals 3 times a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), as
outlined in the accompanying README. As such, much of the game is spent figuring
out where you need to be, and what times of the day you need to be there. For
me, this meant a lot of saving, clock watching, and waiting around to see if
something would happen. I found myself making notes of what time certain events
happened, and how many turns it would take me to move from room A to room B in
order to be on time. This gave the game a real rushed feeling at times, as you
would be involved in certain scenes all the while watching the clock and
realizing "I need to be there in x turns!", which lessened the enjoyment of some
of the scenes, especially some of the sex scenes.
There was one "puzzle" which I don't think the author ever intended to be a
puzzle, and is quite possibly the first player invented puzzle: the torch. I
bring this up because this simple object launched a huge discussion at Yahoo. To
simplify it for future players, "torch" is a British word for "flashlight", or,
"flashlight" is an American word for "torch" (depending upon which side of the
Atlantic you live). There were some players attempting to light the torch
instead of turning it on, thinking it was the flaming-bit-at-the-end variety.
This lead to many amusing (to me) posts from players claiming this was some
sort-of bug or oddly worded command.
Sex:
The sex scenes are pretty well done, with multiple interactions available with
many of the female non-player characters. There are also plenty of voyeuristic
scenes (whose viewing is one of the major puzzles in the game). As a warning,
there are also light bondage and sado-masochistic scenes, which some players may
find objectionable. They aren't nearly as heavy or prevalent as they were in
Cruise, and they are also done in a tasteful fashion - or as tasteful as such
scenes can be. In other words, all participants are willing. The only problem I
found with the sex scenes is that some of them take place at times in the game
where you have limited time to spend with the character in question. This leads
to a rushed feeling, which lessened the enjoyment of those scenes.
Technical:
As any author who writes a game with a lot of character movement will know,
these types of games are complicated. Getting the timing down right, and making
sure that there are no blocks to movement can be quite tricky. Unfortunately,
there are a few situations in this game that this delicate balance doesn't quite
come off the way the author probably wishes. I ran into a couple of instances
where it was possible to "break" the game timing, or throw it off in a major
manner. There are also some instances where performing certain actions at the
wrong time can really cause problems. And there were some instances where things
just didn't act right. For example, I found at least one instance where I could
steal stuff right in front of members of the Penbright household without anyone
caring, despite being warned that this could lose the game in the README.
However, overall the game works pretty well.
Intangibles:
This game, like Pierre's previous work Cruise, shows up both the good and bad
points of timed games. As I said earlier, I am prejudiced against these types of
games, and so therefore I probably focus more on the bad points that on the good
ones, and you should read this review with that in mind. The good point of the
game is that it presents a style of playing that is more true to life: in
real-life you don't have all day to spend wandering around, and so you shouldn't
in game playing either. Another good point is that certain events happen
simultaneously, just as they do in real life. You have to decide what you are
going to do and when, which gives more flexibility in play. However, the flip
side is that you sometimes feel rushed, and other times you are in a "hurry up
and wait" situation, where you arrive at a scene early and are forced to "z" or
"wait until xxx" to get the next scene to kick off.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, this game was well done. Like I said, I always enjoyed Cruise, and
thought that perhaps it never got quite the recognition it deserved. Writing a
truly interactive game such as that, where there are multiple instances of
actions performed early in game that result in changing scenarios later, is
incredibly difficult - which is why those types of games are so rare. In
Weekend, Pierre attempts to recreate this type of game, in a scaled-down
version. While it is still an admirable effort, some of the technical faults
tend to lessen the overall enjoyment of this otherwise well written game.
Rating: B-
Reviews should be considered copyrighted by their respective authors.
| Any donation would be much appreciated to help keep the site online and growing. | To help make your donation quicker and
easier just click the "Donate" button and you will be taken to the secure Paypal donation page. |
|
| Home | About Me |
