IF Comp Reviews Part 4.5
(Continued from Part 4, my micro-reviews of games I’ve played in IF Comp 2022.)
With voting now closed, I did want to quickly give shouts to two games which I did not feel comfortable critiquing in full (because I like the creators and am bad at that kind of thing) but did want to highlight because I very much liked the games and want people to play them.
The Archivist and the Revolution by Autumn Chen
I just sort of unabashedly love Autumn's (@cyberpunklesbian and @twinegardening) stuff. A Paradox Between Worlds was one of the first choice-based games I ever played, and it made such an impact on how I think about interactive fiction.
Specifically, I love that there's always weight and realism to Autumn's games that I find few other people are able to capture with such vividness.
In this game, you play as a woman in the future making money and battling medical-grade fatigue. There are points where it may not feel fun to play, exactly (and I don't know if it's a fair comparison here but I thought of my experience playing Citizen Sleeper), but it feels important to keep playing. And when I push through that difficult emotion, I always find Autumn's games worth it. And while I haven't gotten the chance to finish it yet, I know that I will.
Please go play it, and give Autumn a follow.
The Thick Table Tavern by Manonamora
To begin: @manonamora-if does so much for the IF community, and deserves just all the praise - especially for her work with Interact-IF which was my entry point into making IF games.
I think one of my favorite things about Manon's games - and I've played and beta'd many - is that I never fully know what to expect, I just know I'm going to get a full-hearted and ambitious attempt at whatever is in front of me.
The Thick Table Tavern is just a beast of a game, with so much to chew on. At its core it's a bartender sim, and the mere fact that there are separate story and arcade modes blows my mind. There's so much work and love put into this game, and if you enjoyed things like VA-11 Hall-A or Coffee Talk you'll be right at home here as well.
The characters are a lot of fun, the bartending mechanic is super neat, and you can play this game forever if you want to. As such, I have also not finished this game in full. But I've enjoyed my time with it immensely. It is absolutely one of the most ambitious, eye-popping games I played in IF Comp this year.
Please go play it, and give Manon a follow.
