Baf's Guide to the IF Archive

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Common Ground

Author:Stephen Granade
Genre:Slice of life
Released:1999
Review:

A three-chapter game (with an epilogue) in which you're a different character in each chapter. The twist is that each chapter covers roughly the same space of time, and you interact with the other two characters, to varying degrees, when you're in each pair of shoes. The gameplay is a bit restrictive--the game doesn't allow for a lot of variation--but the characters themselves are well developed and the interactions feel reasonably realistic. The game even does a passable job of recording the actions you take when you're one character and playing them back when you're a different character, observing the antics of the first. Very short--20-30 minutes to play through at most--but worth playing; it largely eschews puzzles in favor of character interaction in a way that little IF attempts.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (30 Apr 2001)

Competitions/
Awards:
Finalist, Best Story, Xyzzy Awards 1999
Related Links:SPAG review
IF-Review (Emily Short)
IF-Review (Jonathan Rosebaugh)
IFRC Review
Downloads:
Ground_src.zip (142.52 KB)
TADS source code (version: Release 2)
Ground.gam (256.17 KB)
TADS executable (version: Release 2)


Baf's Guide to the Interactive Fiction Archive
Copyright © 2013 Carl Muckenhoupt
All reviews included in this site are copyright © the credited author of the review.