This may not be the first IF with escape-the-room as a theme (I’m pretty sure of that), but I think it is the first one to be a simulation of an Escape Room. I thought this worked very well as parser IF. The puzzles were of the sort that might be encountered in a real escape room, allowing that the player has to experience them through the medium of text. I thought the level of difficulty was spot on and that cluing was was fair (except maybe for a certain stealth futon).
Evaluation
Story: 5. The frame story is lightweight, but gets the job done and adds a little twist at the end. Similarly, there isn’t much character development, but as a puzzle-centric offering, that would be gravy.
Voice: 5
Play: 8. It took me a while to try some actions, but they were within the realm of “standard” verbs, so I can’t complain.
Polish: 8
Technical: 5
Preliminary Score: 6.2
Transcript: escapeRoomScript postgreen
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