Alias 'The Magpie' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author(s): J. J. Guest Genre: Comedy Website: https://j-j-guest.itch.io/alias-the-magpie Language: en First Publication Date: 2018-10-01 License: Freeware Forgiveness Rating: Merciful Rating: 4.5 (based on 69 ratings) ABOUT THE STORY Sir Rodney Playfair, gentleman thief, has a simple plan: impersonate a psychiatrist, infiltrate a country house, steal a priceless Egyptian scarab and make it back to London in time for cocktails. All in a day's work for the illustrious 'Magpie'. EXTERNAL LINKS Play Online Post-competition release, at the author's website. Also includes partial map. Play this game in your Web browser. Story File The latest release, at the author's website. Requires a Glulx interpreter[1] Post-competition release At the IF Archive. Requires a Glulx interpreter[1] Story File Release 1 (Original Competition Version) Requires a Glulx interpreter[1] Partial Map Supplied with the competition version. To view this file, you need an Acrobat Reader for your system.[2] Walkthrough Supplied with the competition version. ClubFloyd transcript Walkthrough and map by David Welbourn, for the post-competition version (Release 5) EDITORIAL REVIEWS McT's Interactive Fiction Reviews > Beautifully, professionally done – superbly implemented. Funny, clever and > delicious. I doubt it can be completed in 2 hours, but this is currently the > standard bearer in the competition for me. 10/10. IF Comprehensive A rich setting, motivated puzzles, and memorable characters > My introduction to interactive fiction was playing the Infocom games as a > kid. They were fun then but a bit dated now, with an emphasis on contrived > inventory and set-piece puzzles and less NPC interaction than modern works. > “Alias ‘The Magpie'” plays like one of the best games from that era, but > with a rich setting, motivated puzzles, and memorable characters. Score: 10 The Breakfast Review Something Fresh > Now, this is Something Fresh. We are an imposter -- that is, we are a > slippery gentleman thief pretending to be a famous psychiatrist -- and our > objective is a scarab, a Cheops of the Fourth Dynasty. What follows is a > Wodehousian romp complete with dotty aristocrats, disguises, and wacky > hijinks. > > I enjoyed this quite a bit. The voice is engaging and the writing knows just > how much to say and how much to leave out. The puzzles were just challenging > enough, and the gating is effective. The characterisations are comedic just > verging on cartoonish, without going into eye-roll territory. It's certainly > not deep or thought-provoking in any way, but this damn-well near exactly > what I come to IF hoping to find. Good Old Days > + Colourful and very detailed background + Wonderfully neurotic characters + > Clever setup for a nifty chain of events + Best use of a cucumber in a video > game ever + Had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes at times - Some > of the puzzles could have used a bit more or better hinting = Just like > playing a Pink Panther movie. Patrick Brian Mooney > This was a fun treasure hunt. The multiple levels of deception involved in > pretending to be multiple people to various NPCs was also a fun mechanic. > The multiple disguises were great, too, and most of the interlocking puzzles > were wonderful. The map was elegantly designed and access control handled > gracefully. In all of these ways, it feels a lot like The Wizard Sniffer > last year, though with a smaller, more restricted field of action and with a > larger verb set. But all in all, it's wonderful in some of the same ways. > Rating 9/10 Retro Adventurer Puzzles a’plenty, and plenty to like about this game > EXAMINE responses are informative and humorous. X CRUMBS reveals, “It looks > as though someone has had their cake and trampled on it.” The DUTCH COW is > “A fine example of vile Victorian tat, which, in spite of its size, manages > to lower the tone of the whole room.” J.J. Guest gets richly creative with > his descriptions. To EXAMINE TABLE, we get, “A George III mahogany inlaid > double-pedestal extension table featuring a reeded top with rounded corners > and matched-swirl mahogany veneers crossbanded with quartered pau ferro and > satinwood stringing. Rather fine.” We also have probably the best response > to EXAMINE WALL that I’ve ever seen. “Staring at the walls will send you > wall-eyed, probably.” These Heterogenous Tasks Writing that works as reward > As far as the environment goes, it does a fine job of cramming in a sense of > lavish Victorian decorative excess without overburdening the text. That’s > true of the writing in general: it’s ornate without being stodgy, and > there’s always something interesting going on with it. It’s not always the > most scintillatingly beautiful prose in the world, but it’s always got > something that it’s excited about and really wants to show you, and it does > have some really good lines. It’s writing that works as reward. > > All this went a long way towards holding my interest in a game that has a > good-sized map and doesn’t channel you very strongly at the beginning. Also > helpful here: the sense of the place being alive. This is very much an > inhabited space, and the people inhabiting it are active – not that there’s > a hugely complex NPC-movement system or anything, but the density of simple > triggered events on your arrival goes a long way. REFERENCES [1] [2]