4 Seconds / Jason Reigstad (1999)
| The Little Ugly, Evil Guy On My Shoulder's Verdict: |
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| Heil, Sgt. Reigstad! Herr Commandant vants to zee you |
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| The Little Nice, Handsome Guy On My Shoulder's Verdict: |
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Jason, next time you
write a game and all your bugtesters get sick, GET SOME NEW ONES. If you had done that,
this would have been a much better game. |
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| Interesting enough, but the bugs really kill it.
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Game Information
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| Nothing known. (We tried! But could find
nothing.) |
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Now, this is tough. I don't really want to blast this game just because it's buggy as
all heck, but I'm not sure whether Mr. Reigstadt will be releasing a post-comp version or
not. If he doesn't, then this game is basically unplayable. I don't mean that the game
can't be won, for it can. But played and enjoyed? No way. If he does decide to release a
post-comp version, then nothing would please me more than to reanalyze his game and give
it a new rating. It's really an awful shame, because this game has a very nice, novel
storyline, but that storyline gets quickly forgotten when you discover that many objects
mentioned in the room descriptions do not have item descs(indeed, a couple don't even
really exist), while other objects that are not mentioned in the room descs do exist and
are necessary to complete the game. Not to mention that if you "sit in chair" at
a certain point in the game it will for all accounts and purposes end your session right
then and there. And I haven't even gotten into the strange behavior of the NPCs - how you
can't even look at them half the time, and can only interact with them in certain
situations and rooms! And believe me, there's more! It's truly frightening to see what a
game looks like when it hasn't been playtested at all. Yes, the game is short enough that
the experienced player can put two and two together and find what he needs to do to
win(especially without time limits. Yeesh, if this game had time limits then...eck, I
don't want to speculate), but interactive fiction is just not supposed to be this
frustrating. I suspect any newbies starting off with this game would about have a heart
attack. Basically, a lot of design flaws/bugs need badly to be worked out for this to pass
off as an acceptable work of IF. However...
The story is very interesting, though foggy in detail. You and a team of other folks
are investigating the strange happenings at a scientific research laboratory. In order to
find answers, you are required to explore the mind of one of the unconscious, barely alive
survivors. You are sent hurdling into the man's memories, and it's quite the experience.
Supposedly you are to sit back and sort of watch the man's memories play out without
interfering, but the player actually is required to do a great deal while inside Gray's
brain. In short, there are items to be collected and puzzles to be solved. The plot takes
a couple of unexpected turns before ending brilliantly with a suspenseful climax sure to
get the blood a'pumping. The story is basically well done, though lacking a bit in
specific details. The gameplay is pretty limited due to the crappy parser and general
overall bugginess of the game, so this unfortunately makes the puzzles and item gathering
a basically unpleasant experience.
We'll talk later when there's a revised version available.
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Complicated Rating
24.5 / 50 |
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| This could be worked on as well. The ending is excellent, but several
other vital sections are under-described, leaving the player in a bit of a haze wondering
just what is going on. |
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Parser
Responsiveness
3 / 10 |
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| Not very good for a TADS game. Mike Roberts must be
rolling in his grave right about now. Wait a minute, Mike Roberts isn't dead!) |
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