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Shades of Gray

Authors:Mark Baker, Steve Bauman, Belisana, Hercules, Mike Laskey, Judith Pintar, and Cindy Yans
Genres:Surreal
Historical
Released:1992
Review:

WARNING: High Tarot content.

An imaginative psychodrama of self-confrontation and moral dilemma, by way of Haiti, Sherwood Forest, and an American Civil War battlefield. One of the most intriguing storylines I've seen in any game. You wander the city streets, or possibly the castle grounds, with a sense of temporal dislocation and confused memories of vampires, until a friendly fortune-teller helps you put your head back together through a series of visions about your past and what it means to you. Written by seven strangers, the game is divided into self-contained segments of highly variable style, subject matter, and quality. This is at once the game's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Just about everything you hate in games can be found here - mazes, time limits, obscure "guess-the-word" puzzles - but the flawed parts fit into the frame-tale so well, the effect is dazzling. Given a better parser and the removal of some of the more annoying puzzles, this one would easily rate five stars.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (30 Jun 2000)

Competitions/
Awards:
Group Effort, Softworks AGT contest 1992
Related Links:SPAG reviews
Downloads:
soggy.zip (411.35 KB)
AGT executable (bundled with MS-DOS runtime, Original release)
soggy97.zip (414.54 KB)
AGT executable (bundled with MS-DOS runtime, hint menu, Includes UHS hints plus, for some reason, LGOP hints)
sogpop.zip (65.73 KB)
pop-up hints only. MS-DOS only.
soggy.hnt (5.83 KB)
hints


Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive
Copyright © 2012 Carl Muckenhoupt
All reviews included in this site are copyright © the credited author of the review.