Baf's Guide to the IF Archive

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Turn off tables (requires cookies)

Break-In

Author:Jon Ingold
Genres:Surreal
Humor>Satire
Espionage
Fantasy
Mystery
Released:1999
Review:

A very strange effort that jumps wildly from genre to genre. It starts out as a detective-style mystery--you're an ex-spy asked to steal some plans from a professor--but quickly turns into something between a farce and a satire, and takes various detours into other realms along the way. There are several clever multi-part, multi-object puzzles along the way, and there are plenty of funny bits, but the whole thing ultimately feels a little disjointed; the game isn't so much a send-up of any particular genre as a grab bag of different settings and conventions, and the player is likely to say "Huh?" a lot. There are a few bugs as well, though they're not major, and there's a hint menu.

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Duncan Stevens (21 Jul 2000)

Competitions/
Awards:
Finalist, Best Individual Puzzle, Xyzzy Awards 1999
Related Links:SPAG review
Downloads:
break-in.z5 (204.00 KB)
Z-code 5 executable (version: Release 7), Z-code 5 executable (version: 9)


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.