Create your own Interactive Fiction

ADRIFT - Interactive Fiction  
Home   |   News ADRIFT News RSS   |   Screenshots   |   Download   |   Games ADRIFT Reviews RSS   |   Forum   |   Help   |   Links
Welcome Guest Register | Login
Popular Games
Skybreak v. 1.4
The Fortress of Fear
The Lost Children
Skybreak v 1.2
The PK Girl
The Euripides Enigma
Lost Coastlines
the virtual human
Magnetic Moon
Starship Quest
 
Latest Forum Posts
The Book of Jax - The Adventures of Alaric Blackmoon # 10
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DazaKiwi
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ralphmerridew
An' anuvver fing....
Why don't my folders stay where I put them?
Results of The 2023 IFDB Awards are in!
Setting nickname / displaying unique text based on character name
Some excellent loot
ADRIFT 5's rendering API?
Getting Adrift 4 to ignore "and"
 
Latest Reviews
Classic Adventure
Private Eye
Roozden's Color Code Module
Wumpus Hunt
Lost Coastlines
The Lost Labyrinth of Lazaitch
October 31st (Post comp.)
The Euripides Enigma
AI
Hint System Library - Release 1

Make a donation

Cursor  Member Reviews - When Beer Isn't Enough v2

1 Ratings
5 star:
 (0)
4 star:
 (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (0)
1 star:
 (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Member Rating
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other members:
 
Most Helpful First | Newest First

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
  Mon 9th Jan 2006
By David Whyld - See all my reviews

I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting to like this game. It had been through two versions previously and the author’s only other work - a pretty dismal effort about a man going on a quest to find more hair - hadn’t exactly impressed me. Indeed the idea behind this game - a kangaroo called Kuel with a broken pouch that he needs to fix - didn’t do a lot for me either, but in all fairness the game was a lot better than I expected.

When Beer Isn’t Enough is a remarkably strange game. It doesn’t have quite the same kind of inspired weirdness that marks Heal Butcher’s games but is generally just one nonsense task after another from start to end. Some of these are quite amusing - drinking beer and winding up in Hell where 7 year old girls with braces are playing recorders - whereas others are downright bizarre. Very little in this game makes any kind of sense and by the time you reach the end, you will have poisoned people, killed the Devil and shot a man the dumped his body in a convenient pool of acid for no apparent reason. Clearly not the sort of game you’ll like if you prefer playing proper hero figures then…

Location descriptions tend to be short but fairly detailed. At various points throughout the game you can wind up in Hell and visit God. A little fleshing out in these places would have helped quite considerably.

But weirdness aside, When Beer Isn’t Enough has a kind of charm that raises it above the level of plain stupidity. The standard of writing isn’t all that remarkable yet it gets the message across clearly enough and there’s nothing disastrously wrong with it. A little more effort on the part of the writer to explain why things need to be done would have a good idea - most of the time you really have no clue as to why you’re doing the things you’re expected to do. More often it’s a case of "well, I tried everything else and it didn’t work so I’m trying this" than anything you might figure out logically.



Logic: 3 out of 10
Perhaps the most illogical ADRIFT game of them all but the lack of logic isn’t really a bad point here because the game plays fairly well all the same.

Problems: 8 out of 10 (10 = no problems)
Very little clue as to what you’re supposed to be doing next and a feeling that the game was pretty much written as fast as possible but I didn’t come across any actual problems.

Story: 4 out of 10
Weird to say the least. You play a kangaroo called Kuel who has broken his pouch and needs to fix it.

Characters: 3 out of 10
God and the Devil pop up but there is precious little conversation or characterisation on offer.

Writing: 5 out of 10
Average for the most part but with a definite flair for comedy from time to time.

Game: 5 out of 10
Better than I expected but hardly a masterpiece. Still, it passed the time and was amusing enough in a few places to make me curious about a sequel.

Overall: 28 out of 60

Most Helpful First | Newest First

© 2013 Campbell Wild. All rights reserved. | Contact the Webmaster