Riding the Crocodile (2005)

The two main characters Leila and Jasim are part of a cooperative meta-civilization known as the Amalgam, and after long lives in Amalgam space have done everything they could have want to do. But before they decide to finally let life go, they want to do something grand, something audacious. They decide to penetrate the space of the Afoot, beings that supposedly exist in and around the core of the galaxy and stop every attempt of the Amalgam to explore their space.

I go right out and say that this is not the best Greg Egan has written, but it’s still good, and after such a long writing hiatus gives hope that his next novel might be up to his old stuff. What I liked about RtC was the feeling of exploration, something I would like to see in more SF, the pure joy of finding things out (especially about mysterious alien civilizations). Which is a bit of a cheat, since at the end we don’t know much more about the Afoot than at the begin of the story (Egan probably had already in mind writing a novel in the same universe).

The world-building is top-notch, the whole Amalgam felt like Egan had taken Star Trek’s notion of the Federation, thought hard about the concept, cut away the bad stuff, fused it with his own ideas and gave it a hard push toward the next millennium. The result is just cool.

If there was a part I disliked about the story it was the idea that someone would want to die after a very long life. Sure, I might be wrong, and if you lived thousands of years or even longer, that might be how people would react, but even if a lived a million years you would see me screaming and kicking brought to death, not willfully going toward it.

In Wil McCarthy’s Queendom of Sol trilogy is an interesting alternative for a society with immortality technology, the technological reincarnation of personality templates after long lives. That might be an interesting idea to look at, but just choosing death seems awfully wrong, and after reading Egan’s Border Guards I wonder what his personal opinion on this matter is.

Overall, Riding the Crocodile is a nice bit and I can’t wait until Incandescence comes out.

A Shadow of All Night Falling (1979)

An ages old wizard tries to make a young woman his own, because divinations of the future have foretold him that she will be his bride, but when she falls in love with one of his hirelings (one person called Mocker), problems are afoot. All comes to a head in a castle deep in the mountains, but when some old enemies of the wizard turn up, everything goes from bad to worse.

I liked the first Dread Empire novel, but I wasn’t blown away as much as I expected from reading the praise heaped on the Dread Empire books (for example in the introduction to the new omnibus edition from Night Shade Books). This is just a good story with neat world-building (not really original, but neither completely cliched), and many interesting characters. Sometimes there are too much characters, you’ll wonder the whole time who are the main characters, and even at the end I wasn’t sure there were any. The ending of the first novel gave a satisfying conclusion while some questions remained unanswered and some new popped up.

Alex 2 (2004)

made by Kelven . (Download (complete, despite demo tag, only german))

Alex the generic hero is bored. No evil tries to overtake the world, no monster needs to be slain. When his king asks for his appearance, he overflows with joy, thinking a new threat has appeared. Like part one, this is a game that pokes some fun at common RPG stereotypes, and like most jokes, you either get it or not. One improvement over the first Alex game is the custom battle system that is made to look intentionally amateurish, the special attacks especially are hilarious to look at. Overall it’s a fun diversion.

Rating: 4/5

Alex: Saver of Worlds (2003)

made by Kelven . (Download (only german))

Generic hero Alex is on a quest to save the world from a generic villain called Evil. Together with his girlfriend Tina and another fighter for justice and right, Kohlrabi, they search first for a generic holy sword to defeat Evil, and then for the enemy himself. Humor depends very much on taste, what might bring one to roll on the floor laughing, another might scratch his head in wonderment. To appreciate Alex you should have played some RPGs to find this kind of humor appealing, and even then you have to like Kelvens writing to smile from time to time. While I never broke out into uncontrolled laughter playing this rather short game that makes fun of everything holy about RPGs, I was amused the whole time. This is because it shows some things that can be annoying in RPGs, be it lack of logic in plot structure or lack of realistic reactions of characters in RPG worlds. A tiny, little gem of a game that pokes fun at RPGs and still remains entertaining.

Rating: 4/5

Out and Abound in Düsterburg (2003)

made by Grandy . (Download (only german), Trailer)

One of the most revered german RM2k projects of recent years, OaAiD is a game that shows the tremendously work that has gone into it. Still, while everything is very polished, I didn’t enjoyed it as much as I hoped I would. The one thing I thought was really bad was the writing, which in this case I must admit may just be a case of “I don’t like the style”, not that it’s really bad writing. I’m not sure. The plot seemed okay, not overly original, sure, but competent and well integrated into the game. You wake up with your memories missing, in a location where an evil guy named Wahnfried has terrorized the people for years. Trying to find out what happened to you, you discover the secret of your missing memories and the plans of Wahnfried. Overall, if I hadn’t disliked the writing so much, this could have been an excellent experience. As it is, it’s still a high quality looking game that others might enjoy more than I did.

Rating: 3/5

No Present Like Time (2005)

A new island has been discovered (or since it seems like ages old emperor San already knew about it, rediscovered would be a better word in this case). Jant, Ata the Sailor, Lightning and the new Swordsman, who just recently got the title from his predecessor by defeating him in a challenge, are off to meet the people from Tris and welcome them back into the empire. But when they arrive on Tris, everything goes wrong. The Trisians don’t like the idea of becoming part of the empire, and then even a deadly insect gets lost on the island. Coming back with empty hands, Jant and the others find the empire in disarray and chaos. The old Swordsman has gone mad and started an upheaval. From there things get even worse.

Like with the first novel by Swainston, there were some things I liked and disliked. And they were evenly distributed all over the book. Which means I went from being annoyed to being pleased and back to being annoyed. Mostly the problem is the main character, he goes from being an asshole back to a competent human being, and back again to his assholish self. There’s no real growth, he’s just this static mix of qualities and you never know whether the next moment is one where you want to cheer for him or kick him.

The plot was less grandiose than in the first book, more like little events that added together to form a critical plot inertia. The Tris voyage reminded me that I mostly don’t care for long voyages over water in fiction, not a weakness of the book itself, but I just found these parts of the book a bit boring, and I must admit, the whole Tris plotline was a bit less than interesting to me. Overall, if you liked the first one, you will probably like this, since there’s no change in style or formula. I’m undecided whether to read the next novel in the series or to stop here, since this one was weaker than the previous book, which had already enough problems.

Sunset Over Imdahl (2004)

The city of Imdahl is under siege by the company empire, but they withstand the enemy force until a plague kills its population. Left is a young boy who gets the chance to make everything right using a time travel portal that allows him to enter the city in spring, summer, autumn and winter (and the player to see the same city in four different stages), and find a way to stop the plague before it breaks out.

Teo Mathlein’s Sunset Over Imdahl‘s biggest strength are the graphics, it is one of the most beautiful freeware games I’ve ever seen. The gameplay on the other hand is a bit weaker, mostly it consist of simple fetch quests and some annoying mini-games (I really hated the bat thing, nearly made me stop playing).

But while the gameplay is limited, it’s just fun to explore the city in each season and look at those beautiful screens. Really, really eye-catching, the rain in autumn for example, I just loved those little details. One aspect I found disappointing was the ending. When I found out who carried the plague, I expected a Donnie-Darko-like ending, but the real ending was much weaker and really pointless IMHO.

Ikachan (2000)

made by Pixel . (Download, Download English Version)

An earlier platformer by Cave-Story-maker Pixel, that sports some RPG elements, unlike his more famous successor. You are a little water creature (something squidlike, I think) that can propel itself forward by bubbling out of its underside. You can only move sideways or upward, if you want down, you have to let yourself sink to the bottom. Enemies get beaten by head-butting them, and you get experience for each kill, as for collecting fish items. Your mission is to evacuate all the denizen of a little pocket of the sea, before it caves in. Ikachan isn’t a long game, but for those few hours you probably take to complete the game, it’s great fun.

Rating: 4/5

Cave Story (2004)

made by Pixel . (Download, Trailer, Tribute Site)
fan-translated by Aeon Genesis . (Download Patch)

Probably one of the most famous freeware games of recent years, Cave Story is as good as its reputation says it is. An excellent platformer (with some adventure elements) with an excellent story that makes you care for these little pixel-creatures after some time. You’re a little robot with no memory, awakening on a floating island where evil forces are at work to overtake, first the island, then the world. Your mission: stop them and save the peaceful creatures of the floating island. Cave Story is a very polished game, as good as even the best commercial platformer, and has some of the best pixel-art I’ve ever seen. The difficulty is moderate, only toward the final parts does the game becomes hard, and the secret hell level is in a class of its own.

Rating: 5/5

Knytt (2006)

made by Nifflas . (Download, Secrets)

Knytt seems heavily inspired by Seiklus, mostly because what applies to Seiklus also applies to Knytt. If you like to explore, if you like to walk through nicely made landscapes, each with their own music and graphical style, then Knytt is an excellent experience. If you seek on the other hand a challenging game like his previous WaDF, then you might be a bit bored. You have to collect nine pieces of the spaceship with whom your hero crashed onto this world. These are spread all over the place, but it’s easy to get them, you just have to walk a bit. Knytt is also full of secrets, for example the monster with the BFG (if you played Doom you know what this means) is a nicely addition. Overall, a great game if you like this sort of gameplay.

Rating: 5/5