High Programmer > Alan De Smet > Rants > Reviews > Video Game Reviews > Interactive Fiction Reviews > Lawn of Love

Lawn of Love

Rating: 4/10. Linear and incoherent.
Author: Santoonie Corporation
Released: 2006 (Part of 2006 Interactive Fiction Competition)
Download Lawn of Love for free

In Lawn of Love, A young man spending summer summer vacation at his grandparents is entraced by a young woman. He chases after her.

After finishing Lawn of Love, my first thought is, "Is this some sort of joke, perhaps a parody of bad interactive fiction?" Unfortunately I think it's serious. The game starts by asking you to check out it's moderately long legal disclaimer, not an auspicious start.

The game is written in the first person, which I found very distracting. The game is very straightforward and easy to win. The plotline is onionskin thin and doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense.

The game has a number of bugs, including empty responses to non-functioning directions. That several locations don't list exits, you're forced to scrub for exits with no response. The game doesn't recognize a number of noteworthy nouns, including a scarecrow that has a full paragraph of room description, and the music you chase at the beginning of the game. Your grandmother disappears from descriptions in the kitchen mid-game, but is still present and able to be interacted with. Lawn of Love is overly finicky in its input; for example it only accepts "get out of bed", refusing "up," "out," and "get out." Dialogue between other characters obviously pauses when you leave the room. If you complete an assigned task more quickly than expected, you still get dialogue indicating you haven't done it at all.

The game also has a few strange decisions. Music from a cello is described as sounding like a guitar. A small flagpole is described as a spear, presumably so it's clear that you can throw it like a spear later.

The best I can say for the game is that it's really short.

Contact webmaster - Copyright © 2007 Alan De Smet (2007-04-07)