Pentari:First Light [DEMO]

Author:  Howard A. Sherman, 2003.
Review by Jess.

Game Info:  Inform; the full game (and possibly a more recent demo) is available at www.malinche.net, however the particular Demo that I reviewed is no longer available.

First off, let me say that I played this game at a bad time. I had just come back from an exhaustive three-day conference on the topic of military operations in urban terrain, so that the last thing I wanted to hear about (much less spend my IF time on) was fighting in cities. This fact has influenced my willingness to accept the plot and enjoy fighting in cities. Luckily, the Demo version of Pentari:First Light doesn't actually get to any fighting.

Oh, sure, it seems like you're going to, thanks to the intense opening chase: you and your sword against a fleeing mercenary. Between that and the persuasive hype on the game's website ("truly a fun game from start to finish" and "satisfaction at every turn"), I thought I was in for a good time. Unfortunately, the Demo version does not appear to have been properly beta-tested, and is certainly not fully debugged.

The main action in the demo takes place in the city of Bostwin, where you have tracked your quarry to a warehouse. Leaving aside the unfortunate description of actions in a room description, saying "as you rush into" the warehouse after I spent twenty turns outside, *and* the heavy-handedness of telling me how I feel and what I am thinking, the warehouse has some serious problems. I go east to enter it, but once inside, only south takes me out, and it doesn't take me out to the same "outside warehouse" location I was in before. I can't find any way of getting back to that original spot. Going west takes me to the bar.

Yes, the bar. The warehouse is inexplicably full of people, apparently having some sort of party. Now, I know that the format of interactive fiction makes involving senses other than sight difficult. Trying to evoke the sounds of a party and some kind of heavy metal band makes it especially difficult. Yet somehow, Pentari:First Light-Demo actually makes the warehouse seem quiet. The descriptions of the party and the band leave me feeling eerily alone and isolated, and the silence is oppressive. This would be a neat trick for a horror or suspense game, but when the scene is a bustling party, it is rather unfortunate.

Part of the problem is that so many things in the warehouse are unimplemented. At no point can you examine or interact in any way with "people" or "man" or "woman." In fact, only one person seems to be actually there: the lead singer of the band (whose name I somehow know--perhaps the PC is a telepath?). Near the bathrooms, I cannot see any such thing as a "bathroom," much less talk to the "steady flow of people entering and exiting" said bathrooms. Really, the first thing I want to do as the PC is ask someone if they've seen my guy. Doesn't that make sense? Forcing me away from that makes me feel like I'm in a cave.

Even important people are left out: a roadie who prevents me from getting on stage is completely absent. I can't ask him anything or kill him (by the way, "hit <person> with sword" isn't implemented, which seems like an obvious action given the set-up). Somehow this invisible roadie keeps me from getting onstage to talk to any members of the band, but it turns out I can ask the band leader (referred to as the "leader of the banned," which is amusing) questions from the audience. Keep in mind, the singer is supposed to be "screaming something incoherent" as part of the concert. And yet, when I "ask leader about him" I get the response "He gives you a sympathetic look and shrugs his shoulders." That, right there, is why the scene feels so quiet. How else could I make myself heard over the noise? Unfortunately, the lone NPC gives the same response to every question I could think of except one, apparently the only one the author decided to implement. It's possible that there are lots more conversation topics and better responses in the full game, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

For a game that is apparently trying to demo a commercial venture, Pentari:First Light-Demo is quite shoddy. Spelling mistakes, punctuation problems, subject-verb agreement mistakes, line spacing problems, and a generic and downright unhelpful "help" system. It specifically suggests examining yourself, yet when I do, the response is "As good-looking as ever." Sheesh. Let's be clear that I am holding this demo to slightly higher standards than normal because of the hype and its apparent commercial nature.

Another thing you expect from a commercial game is no bugs. Bugs in the demo version spell disaster for the full game. I ran into some kind of serious bug while playing: at one point the game suddenly spit out 24 "Programming error" messages before giving me an input prompt, and continued to do so after *every* command. I obviously haven't played the full version, and for all I know it could be perfectly tested and debugged, but the demo version really should be cleaner than this.

All right, rather than list out the huge number of objects that aren't implemented, actions that aren't anticipated, and verbs that are missing, let me address some of the positives. The back-story sounds... um, interesting although completely implausible. I'm also having trouble understanding the world: there seems to be magic, technology, and kung-fu fighting, which leads me to wonder why I didn't have a way to contact the rest of my unit when we were sent into combat. Um, sorry. What I meant to say was, it sounds like the world could be an interesting one if it were ever explained. Oh, here's a positive: I really liked the line, "Hell of a place for a party."

Finally, in the "about" text, the author not only refers to himself in the third person and misspells Pennsylvania as "Pennsaylvania," he makes the audacious and somewhat suspicious claim that "Without a doubt, the research devoted to producing this game has never been equalled [sic]." Wow--never? Without a doubt? I don't know if Emily Short would protest, but I feel fairly certain that Peter Nepstad (author of 1893: A World's Fair Mystery) would beg to differ.

A quick checklist for some of the game's claims:

• "Breathtaking writing": Nope.

• "Truly immerses you in your environment": Nope. It almost did, but then stuff wasn't implemented.

• "Beauty and satisfaction at every turn": Nope.

• "Beautiful scenery": See below.

• "Parts of the story will perhaps move you": Good use of the word "perhaps." I admit it wouldn't be fair to judge this one until seeing the whole story.

• "Truly a fun game": Nope.

As for the beautiful scenery, I can see potential. I see so much potential. For instance, you can leave the warehouse and walk to the harbor, which offers "one of the most enthralling views in the entire city." You can see the tall masts of the "freighters and schooners" anchored here. But... the only exit lies west. You can't go down to the harbor, or walk on the pier, or in fact move around in any way except by retreating. You "cannot see anything like" ships, or a ship, or a pier, or masts, or a torch, or a freighter, or a schooner, or, in fact, anything. This gives me no idea whatsoever of what the place actually looks like. It's rather like a backdrop in a play: broad brushstrokes that suggest the sea, and lights, and ships, but you can't *go* there. You can't *interact* with any of it. Folks, scenery is interactive when it is detailed. I know, you don't necessarily want someone walking around every little bit of your city, so some of it is generalized. You don't want someone poking every single aspect of the scenery items, so they are kept off limits. But the staple verb of the IFer is *examine,* and objects mentioned in a location description should be examinable! This is what makes games like "Metamorphoses" and "Out of the Study" feel so rich and so deep: objects and scenery can be examined in detail, and then again in closer detail, and it works. It works to give the player a real sense of what the scene looks like.

I know it's a lot of work. Making big games is hard, and maintaining the desire to do so for so long is also hard. But no matter the size of your game, I expect a certain level of quality, and that's missing from this demo version of Pentari:First Light. Luckily, it's nothing that can't be fixed with a good set of testers and lots and lots of time and effort. I look forward to the day when a fully tested and spell-checked Pentari:First Light graces the community, and if it was really as good as the hype, I'd certainly pay for it, and it would certainly be worth the money.

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