Author: Linus Åkesson Year: 2020 Development System: Dialog Cruelty Rating: Merciful Length Of Play: 3-4 hours
My Rating: 8
Awards: 1st Place: 26th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition; Best Puzzles, Best Individual Puzzles, Best Implementation, Best Use of Innovation: 2020 XYZZY Awards
What initially appears to be a charming slice-of-life about a six year-old girl helping her dad get ready for a dinner party turns into a old-school puzzlefest with an extraordinary mechanic that I’m embarrassed to admit I needed the in-game hints to even discover. Discovering the mechanic is part of the fun so I won’t spoil it here. I’ll just say it involves changing things in your environment with some magical thinking.
Author: Robb Sherwin Year: 2004 Development System: Hugo Cruelty Rating: Tough (save frequently and you’re fine) Length Of Play: 2-3 hours
My Rating: 5
Awards: Best Individual NPC — 2004 XYZZY Awards
I fell in love with New Haz and its universe while playing Sherwin’s Fallacy of Dawn. The story in Necrotic Drift occurs mostly in a nearby town with an entirely different cast, though frequent references are made to the events in the first game. And while this entry into the series is more focused, I unfortunately found myself missing New Haz and its citizens.
Author: Andrew Plotkin Year: 1995 Development System: Inform Cruelty Rating: Cruel Length Of Play: 2-4 hours, depending on how quickly you look up a walkthrough
And so sets the mood for A Change in the Weather: dark, dreary, and unforgiving.
I tried this a couple of times in my youth and could not get into it. I think knowing going in that you could lock the game out victory near constantly kept me from immersing myself in the world. I recently gave it another shot and I’m glad I did.
Author: Eric Eve Year: 2006 Development System: TADS3 Cruelty Rating: Polite Length Of Play: 2-3 hours
My Rating: 5
Awards: 3rd Place: 12th Interactive Fiction Competition; Best Game, Best Individual NPC: 2006 XYZZY Awards
The Elysium Enigma is a competently made game that easily drew me into its world of intergalactic politics and subterfuge and I eagerly rushed through it. Unfortunately, the story and plot turns were unsatisfying and I felt like a spy left out in the cold.
Author: Adam Cadre Year: 2002 Development System: Inform 6 Cruelty Rating: N/A Length Of Play: About 5-10 minutes for each run through; took me a few hours to solve the puzzle.
My Rating: 7
Awards: Best Individual Puzzle; Best NPCs; Best Individual NPC — 2002 XYZZY Awards
I was a senior in college when this game was released and played it the moment it dropped. I took copious notes while playing and brought those notes to my classes, occasionally ignoring my professors to hammer out this puzzle. No regrets.
Author: half sick of shadows Year: 2004 Development System: Inform 6 Cruelty Rating: Cruel, but the game has a finite number of moves Length Of Play: 5-15 minutes each playthrough; about 3 hours for me to solve the puzzle
My Rating: 9
Awards: 3rd Place — 10th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition Best Individual Puzzle — 2004 XYZZY Awards
“The encounter could create a time paradox. The results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe!…Granted, that’s the worst-case scenario.” — Doc Brown, Back to the Future 2
And such is the world logic of All Things Devours. The inventor of a time-travel machine, Natalie Williams comes to the same realization about paradoxes and sets out to destroy the machine. However, she soon realizes that her plans have been taken and she must find them so that the machine can never be made again. And soon the player realizes that time travel is necessary to find those papers, and there’s a total span of nine minutes in which to work to avoid the guards, avoid your present self, and avoid creating a paradox for your present self.
Author: Jon Ingold Year: 2001 Development System: Inform Cruelty Rating: Merciful Length of Play: 1-2 Hours
My Rating: 6
Awards: Best Game, Best Story, Best Setting — 2001 XYZZY Awards 1st Place — 7th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
I normally am a sucker for anything involving time travel and paradoxes and I tend to prefer linear gameplay. Jon Ingold is also one of my favorite authors. So All Roads should be right up my alley. I judged the 2001 IF competition and remember giving this one a score of “6” and then being surprised it took first place and won a whole slew of XYZZY awards. I decided to play it again recently to see if time would change my mind, but I left once again feeling underwhelmed.
Author: Jon Ingold Year: 2000 Development System: Inform Cruelty Rating: Cruel (but the game is so short it doesn’t matter) Length of Play: 1-2 Hours
My Rating: 8
I’ve always enjoyed games that take place in space, especially on failing space vessels (e.g. Mission Critical, Seedship). I fell immediately for Fail-Safe’s hook, which entails playing the role of mission control talking to the lone survivor on a failing space vessel.
Author: Mike Sousa & Robb Sherwin Year: 2001 Development System: TADS Cruelty Rating: Polite Length of Play: 2 Hours
My Rating: 4
Mike Sousa and Robb Sherwin as a pairing makes sense, as the former’s strength is coding and the latter’s strength is writing. So I was pretty stoked when I first played this. But instead of combining their strengths, it appears this was developed like a McCartney/Lennon song where they just jam two separate numbers together and hope it works.
Author: Ryan Veeder Year: 2011 Development System: Inform Cruelty Rating: Polite Length of Play: 2 Hours
My Rating: 7
Taco Fiction has one of the more intriguing openers I’ve ever played. You are a petty thief in need of some cash, and the opening prompt gives you specific directions on how you’re going to rob the taco joint next door. If the protagonist were the violent sort this could be off-putting, but the game lets you know he has no interest in hurting anyone.
Death By Troggles 
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