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Above and Beyond!

Author:Mike Sousa
Genre:Espionage
Released:2000
Review:

Skullduggery in an office environment. Your first day at a new job yields ceaseless snooping around and breaking rules, partly due to the mundane frustrations of the workplace, but ultimately tying into the mysterious disappearance of several coworkers. Gameplay is organized into three chapters, each of which is pretty much linear - in particular, the last section basically consists of a sequence of locked or guarded doors. Good programming, good sense of place, several very fiddly multi-stage puzzles, lots of characters (although only a few truly distinct ones). Careful attention to the text is necessary; many subtle hints are not repeated. One nice feature is the "winnable" command, which lets you know if you've locked yourself out of victory (although the reply can be rendered inaccurate by time limits in a few places). Features built-in hints that gently guide you onto the right path without revealing solutions.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Carl Muckenhoupt (04 Jul 2000)

Competitions/
Awards:
Finalist, Best Individual Puzzle, Xyzzy Awards 2000
Related Links:SPAG reviews
IFRC Review
Downloads:
above.gam (535.53 KB)
TADS executable (version: 1.22)
above.sol (10.28 KB)
solution


Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive
Copyright © 2010 Carl Muckenhoupt
All reviews included in this site are copyright © the credited author of the review.