GAME: The Second Guest
AUTHOR: Shadowdance 88 [GoblinBoy]
PLATFORM: TADS 2 http://www.tads.org/
SOUND: no
GRAPHICS: no
REVIEWED: 29th May 2007
WALKTHROUGH: n/a
DOWNLOAD: http://newsletter.aifcommunity.org/minicomp2007.zip

This I was never really sure what to make of. The background story was taken straight from a cheap porno film: author with writer's block heads off a villa to finish his novel and then, out of the blue, along comes this sexy young thing who has a habit of parading around in very little and sunbathing topless. I can't say I really cared for the setting. It seemed a little too, y'know, fake for my liking. And then there was the sexy young thing who appeared every bit as dim, shallow and one dimensional as the worst NPCs in AIF games. I walked in on her while she was changing half a dozen times, I continually asked her about sex and I even snuck into her room one night and snogged her while she was topless - and she *still* hung around and made me breakfast the next day! Later on she wandered into my room and discovered I had been writing something pornographic about her and yet rather than being offended by it in the same way that, say, every other woman in the world would be, she was actually quite flattered. Damn, I wish women in real life were like this.

The writing was weak, the gameplay uninspired. Most of the difficult tasks are highlighted in the text to you, making it kind of pointless having them as tasks in the first place. If a command has to be highlighted to you, why not just carry it out without the player needing to even type it?

I didn't finish it. I lost interest partway through and couldn't seem to find any real enthusiasm to continue. A lot of the game seemed to run on a series of timed events meaning there was precious little to do most of the time aside from sit there and wait for something to happen. Never a favourite idea of mine.

Arousal: flaccid.