Caltrops - Blue Lacuna - I finished this

Forum Overview :: Blue Lacuna

by Bananadine 03/12/2009, 1:05pm PDT

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:

It's a text game bu Aaron Reed that just came out, and it looks to be the largest one, in terms of content, out there.

http://lacunastory.com/

It was pretty good I guess--good enough that I finished it, anyway. But I did not feel like my choices were significantly more meaningful than in any other game, despite what the blurb at the top of the home page claims. Oh well!

-- Complex characters who can converse, remember, form opinions, and follow their own agenda. You'll develop a unique relationship with the game's characters that affects which of them are most important to your own personal story.

My first major interaction with anything in the story came when I needed to figure out how to match up some arbitrary colors to some arbitrary symbols in order to unlock an intricate door mechanism. :(

Also there was a time later when I wanted to know how to read a thing in a strange language and for some reason I could not just go ask the dude who wrote it how his language works. I mean it's totally plausible that in the story he would only have rebuffed me, but what am I, a retard? He likes me, and neither of us has anything better to do. Why wouldn't I at least try? Who put all this story in my puzzle game!

-- A novice-friendly keyword navigation system that simplifies input by using the same syntax for moving, examining, and conversing. Other ease of use features include a built-in tutorial, smarter command parsing, more helpful error messages, and typo correction.

This, in general, was awesome.

-- Ditch the compass and navigate via relative directions, landmarks, following other characters and approaching distant items.

This, though, is a pretty good but painfully incomplete patch over a nasty problem--that of conveying to someone the exact layout of a complex, irregular piece of land--that would be much better solved via a simple picture. Which I guess would be heresy? Anyway I just opened up the compass as soon as I gained that option, and then moving around became much easier.

-- A drama manager that tries to detect when you're getting stuck or bored and introduces new story elements to provide hints.

-- Choose between story mode or puzzle mode to experience Blue Lacuna the way you like best.

I don't know much about this stuff, but I picked puzzle mode and didn't ever get stuck so it must have worked!