Lost Coastlines - Review

his is a highly original parser game, though it is in many ways similar to a few of the other games by same author.

Until I encountered problems, this game played very well, perhaps like a 5 star game. It plays very much like a detailed fantasy text version of the 1987 game Pirates!: Sail around, solve randomized "quests", manage resources etc.

At first I thought I just got a bad start in my first short playthrough where I gave up when my "score" became quite negative. I then restarted but decided again to be a FIGHTER and become a HERO. I was thinking that even if I get a bad start I should just keep playing because my skills would increase and I could catch up. But when my score reached MINUS 823 and I was stuck in an encounter due to bugs and couldn't leave, I decided to call it a day.

I could have UNDOed my way out of the bug but combined with a not very balanced difficulty level, I lost interest. I acknowledge that it is hard to tweak a game with this much randomness but I regard that as crucial if you want people to keep trying and not be intimidated by the difficulty level.

Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 7/10)

A very special parser but it is working a lot better than in the author's earliest games, e.g. Tingalan.

Atmosphere (Rating: 9/10)

Very well written.

Cruelty (Rating: Merciful)

You can't die and decide when to end the game and see your score.

Puzzles (Rating: 6/10)

There are sort of puzzles, e.g. hints on things you can do if you seek them out. No classical inventory puzzles though.

Overall (Rating: 7/10)

I am glad that I played and had a good time until I ran into a game killing bug and realized the game was too hard for me, at least with the character FIGHTER+HERO which I tried twice.