DEADLINE by The Conductor

OK, let’s get this out of the way first: I prefer parser games over choice-based games. I don’t hate choice games, I just prefer the feeling I get with a parser. This is probably more due to issues with game design rather than the subgenre itself, but that’s for another post I’ll never get around to writing. (Oh yeah, – for me it’s “games” except in cases where this clearly doesn’t apply – in which this comp has at least one. So I’m going to write “play the game” not “interacted with this work of fiction” or whatever else goofy phraseology is currently accepted. Sorry.)

DEADLINE, by The Conductor (who may or may not be named Jeff) begins abruptly – with no title screen or directions – but in a way, that contributes to the jarring feelings of a protagonist awakened by a ringing phone. We’re immediately given some choices – all of which are wrong except one. Now this is one of the things about choice games that I ha   don’t prefer, however I didn’t get all huffy and rage-quit, figuring this was just a basic introductory text info-dump, which it turned out to be. This intro also serves as a semi-tutorial for anyone who might be unfamiliar with how these things work, so kudos there.

When the game began in earnest the first thing I noticed was the very professional, cool but unobtrusive, background graphic. The flickering light of the subway – or metro – station is a nice touch. The play is fairly straight-forward and lawnmower-y, but this tends to happen in parser games too; here instead of examining everything, I just clicked on everything. (This is a text game, mind you – you click on text. The graphics are just background.)

Many of the choices seem to be either dead ends or are simply refused, but since this is just an introduction – not a complete game – that didn’t bother me. While I felt a bit railroaded – if you pardon the expression, upon replay I was pleased to find that in some cases, different choices led to different events. You read that right – “replay;” I played the game more than once. I never do that. Almost never. My first ending made it clear that at some point, I had been allowed to make a choice leading to a less-than-optimal ending. (I only died inside.) So just like in the old choose-your-own-adventure days, I started over. Different choice – different ending. (Bear in mind this is just an introduction, so I’m not referring to a “The End” ending, just the end of play. ) In about a half hour of play I was able to explore a hopefully-only-as-yet-sparsely populated map, get to two “endings,” and encounter a mystery character in a scene I was unable to reproduce in subsequent replays. Considering that can’t recall an IFComp game I have played even twice let alone more, that’s saying something.

If there is some way of saving the game, it wasn’t obvious. That would be nice; having to start from the beginning every time is annoyingly repetitive. I don’t know if this is even possible with this particular authoring system. DEADLINE was made with the Elm Narrative Engine, of which I know virtually nothing.

As for DEADLINE, do I think this is a solid entry? Do I want it to be completed? Will I play it if or when it is? Yes. [note: insert lame joke about conductors and trains here.]

– BP