IF Competition Discussion: Orevore Courier

Another review from IF Comp 2007.

Orevore Courier is a tight, replayable puzzle game in the space opera genre. You’re a security officer aboard a ship, things start to go wrong, and it’s up to you to fend off– but I’ll let you see for yourself.

In terms of game-play, think Möbius, Lock & Key, or Varicella: you’ll need to track what the other characters are doing, then replay until you work out how to play all the various events off one another. It’s pretty well-constructed, though there were one or two of the puzzles that took me a while to get; I think in one or two places it might have been better clued, and the hint system a little more forthcoming. On the other hand, it’s also a sufficiently complex scenario that getting it right is very satisfying.

If you do get stuck, read the HINTs, then (if that doesn’t help) SECRETS, and only look at the WALKTHROUGH as a last resource. The bundled feelies may help you remember what all of your options are at any given moment.

Overall, moderate to strong recommendation, depending on how you feel about puzzles.

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Is it just me, or has the supply of IF zombies gone way up recently?

Most of the negative parts of my experience with this game were due to my not looking carefully enough at things or not realizing all of my options; in particular, for some reason I kept not seeing the part where Puppet whispers his “incautious promise” about the pirate captain, which meant that I didn’t set up that sequence properly until I found it in the walkthrough. But I did get through many of the earlier stages, and enjoyed myself a lot.