Of the two English translations available, "Dead Reckoning" is preferable; it has been translated by a native speaker of English, and avoids some of the vague and confusing elements of "Shattered Memory" that may make the game hard to play. With that out of the way, the play experience is somewhat surreal. This is another game that starts with the player's amnesia, though the explanation this time is somewhat different from the usual. Gameplay is mostly not terribly difficult, except for some guess-the-phrasing problems, and one or two places where the action required is not something that one would consider common in IF. Fortunately the hints provided for "Shattered Memory" are general enough to be used with "Dead Reckoning" as well. This is a short game without a lot of puzzles that most reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode. It does have a distinctive flavor that seems to set it apart a bit from most English-language IF, and is worth a try.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Emily Short (26 Sep 2003)

clues.z5 (10.50 KB)

hint menu in Z-code format

readme.txt (3.68 KB)

documentation

shattmem.z5 (83.50 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: 8, "bad English" version)

deadreck.z5 (85.00 KB)

Z-code 5 executable (version: 1, translated by Nick Montfort, "good English" version)

Olvido.zip (53.91 KB)

Z-code 5 executable in Spanish (version: 3)