Diamondeye

After listening to Seon's praise of a text-based game called Violet, I decided to try it out for myself. Trading in an hour, maybe two, I had an absolutely overwhelmingly good impression of the game (and - no spoilers - the ending is definitely worth it!).

For those of you who don't want to read the wikipedia article because you prefer to hear it from a person instead of an encyclopedia (and because I love to hear myself type): Violet is a text-based game where you're playing the role of a PhD-student who has one afternoon to write his thesis, or his girlfriend will leave him (you can play as a female, but it'll still be a girlfriend). You're stuck in your office cubicle, and all around you are nothing but distractions. How will you be able to concentrate on ever writing anything? It's not easy, but you have to find a way.

I think the game intrigued me because it's, well, funny first of all. The narrative voice (of your girlfriend, as you imagine her reactions) is humorous - and heartbreaking at times! This also strikes a resonance with me because I believe myself to be, at heart, a hopeless romantic. And the game - although rather short - is absolutely flawless. I'm sure it'll make a good impression on everyone from fans of The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour to the never-before-initiated clue-solvers.

I especially think the game will appeal to my fellow Gameroom regulars. Who doesn't love a good story combined with some clue-solving test of your intelligence?

Note: I played the game in an emulator called Frotz - I don't have the link handy, but be careful about what you download if you want to try the game. I can try to find the safe links I used, if anyone is interested.