*spoilers may be present in the following blog entry*

I really enjoyed Photopia! The writing in this game is superior to any other game I have played, and I was able to get a clear visual image in my head of what the different settings were like. It also helped me identify emotionally with the many different characters involved. I will admit I was really confused when it first started.  The screen would go blank and then a different story would begin, and I would think to myself, “What??!” It took a few rounds of that until I figured out that nothing was wrong with Spatterlight or the game itself. At first I was really ready to give up.  There were absolutely no “help” options like in other IF games, and no clear directions, and of course I was worried about dying and having to start over. But eventually everything went pretty smoothly once I figured out what I could and could not do.

I liked the multi-layered story-within-a-story factor that this game had going for it.  It kept things interesting. It kind of reminded me of LOST where you get only bits of different stories at a time, and even though you really want to find out more about story A, you have no choice and have to sit through story B, but then B becomes really interesting also and you don’t know what to think anymore. I can’t decide if I liked the fact that you couldn’t really lose, or have any other outcome than the one provided.  It played like a story rather than a game, but it was still interactive… which I guess is really what Interactive Fiction would be. At first it was nice that I wasn’t losing or dying, because I didn’t know it was impossible to do so and it made me feel like I was doing a great job.  After a while though, it was apparent I wasn’t going to die.

I did get stuck at a few spots, which was good.  I am glad the game wasn’t a complete breeze although someone of higher intelligence than me might have found it so.  But I did play through to the end.  I sort of wish the ending would have wrapped things up a little more clearly… maybe. Or maybe it is one of those games that you have to play through twice to make complete sense of it. But I just can’t stop wondering what happened after Alley (why did they have to spell her name like that???) apparently got in a horrible car accident. Was that the end, time-wise, of her story or what?