GAME: Hard Core
AUTHOR: Hardcore IF
PLATFORM: Inform http://www.inform-fiction.org/
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 29th May 2007
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/minicomp2007.zip


90% of the commands I typed hit me with TYPE VERBS FOR A LIST OF VERBS. Not very helpful as the game seems to understand a grand total of 12 verbs (2 of which are QUIT and RESTART, 1 is LOOK and if WAIT does anything I never could figure out what). Only the bare basics of IF seem to be covered. Trying to have sex with Pam proved a nightmare (though considering the way she's described in the game it's probably a nightmarish experience anyway…) Pretty much nothing would work and guess the verb puzzles associated with trying to have sex just aren't my cup of tea. I suppose a simple FUCK PAM would have been too much to ask for?

From the technical side of things, the game seemed to throw error messages at me like they were going out of fashion. Aside from the constant advice to type verbs for a list of verbs whenever I tried something the writer hadn't anticipated, which was often, FUCK SAMANTHA produced ERROR: NOUN NOT AVAILABLE*. At other times I saw ERROR: SENTENCE FORM NOT ACCEPTED which was confusing to say the least.

* Admittedly Samantha wasn't present but I'd reached the stage where I was just typing *anything* to try and get a response.

But all that aside, the game's main failing is that it's about trying to have sex with a women that you're repeatedly told (and the feeling is hammered home very frequently) that you don't find sexually attractive. As a game designed to arouse the player, this one has an uphill struggle right from the word go.

After several minutes of pointlessly typing in commands to see if I could hit on the right one by sheer chance, the game ended and I was told I'd failed. Not a moment too soon.

Arousal: very limp.