IFReviewed by
Emily Short on 2006-08-01 08:30
I do like Kathleen's method of presenting conversation possibilities.
Effectively (since one is generally limited to one of two or three choices), it
isn't much different from a menu; but I find it in some ways more comfortable to
work with questions like "do you want to reply or ask about the past?" So the
conversation system does good things for the texture of the piece. On the other
hand, I often found myself wishing it were possible to ask about more things --
the menu-ness of the system was restrictive at some junctures.
I wasn't entirely thrilled with the setting, which seemed to be a sort of
General Medieval. Perhaps I didn't play far enough to find out otherwise; I got
stuck, and only managed to earn a single point from the game despite several
playthroughs. From there, I kept getting the same less-than-happy outcome. I'm
sure there's more possible, but I didn't have time to pursue hints during the
judging period.
I would have liked to have come out of this with a clearer sense of the story.
Kathleen seems to be intrigued by the possibilities of exploring memories and
telling a tale through recollections (as witness "The Cove" and "Inevitable,"
for instance). I think this is a neat idea, but somehow I found this one less
moving and effective than "The Cove." Again, maybe the problem is that I got
stuck and didn't get to the full conclusion. On the other hand, what I was
seeing on the way there didn't compel me as much as it might have. For one
thing, the elements of lost love and betrayal that I was seeing initially seemed
as though they might have been lifted from any of a hundred stories: the impulse
to keep things mysterious was so strong that I was left without enough to whet
my appetite for revelation.
All that said, this is a competently written piece, using an interesting
conversation system, which may well have much more to offer than I was able to
find.
