A text parser? Enter “Open drawer,” then “Look in drawer,” then “Take sales brochures,” in the year 2024, on a computer system that can produce a 4K 3D design of the Acropolis if I ask it to? Is that truly what The Crimson Diamond asks people?

Yes, it is, and solo developer/writer/producer Julia Minamata is ideal to ask it. If you have text-prompt experiences from the similarity Sierra in your psychological library (like, state, The Colonel’s Bequest)or if you’re prepared to satisfy the parser midway, it will work. The Crimson Diamond‘s parser is relatively nimble, accepting a series of nouns and verbs in a lot of scenarios. You can still utilize arrow secrets and a mouse to move and click a couple of helpful faster ways. And the parser has faster ways, like typing “n” to take a look at your quest-tracking note pad or “o d” or “o c” for the really typical actions of opening a door or cabinet.

There are a great deal of cabinets and drawers in this video game due to the fact that it’s embeded in northern Ontario, Canada, in 1914. You are Nancy Maple, a junior geologist excited for some field work, sent out by your museum to the mining town of Crimson to examine a diamond that fell out of a river fish’s guts. Whatever fails with your journey, and you’re on your own to examine this town, its odd occupants and visitors, and, ultimately, a criminal activity that might or might not pertain to possible diamonds.

A couple of disclosures need to be made. For one, Minamata crafted the EGA-style social avatar for Ars Senior AI Reporter Benj Edwards, who tipped me to this video game’s presence. Another is that this is a video game that costs $15 on Steam or Itch.io (and 10 percent off on Steam in this very first week after release), was made by a solo Canadian designer, with music by especially cool keyboard individual Dan Policar, and it stimulates a few of my earliest, pre-Maniac-Mansion experience video game memories. I likewise have actually not played the video game to conclusion. I will not be taking a vital gem loupe to it; I simply believe more individuals require to learn about it.

Fond memories and underdog-cheering beliefs aside, The Crimson Diamond appearances and sounds terrific. The innovative restraints of an EGA-like color scheme and pixel block size provided some scenes that are simply fantastic to take a look at. The soundtrack loops about in enjoyable and periodically ear-catching style. Alice Bell at Rock Paper Shotgun played much even more into this (about 6 hours and near or at conclusion), and her significant problem is nearly a throwback: a couple of puzzles with odd options, completely too simple to miss out on with text parsing and EGA graphics.

I’m excited to see where Nancy Maple’s journey takes her, even if I need to in some cases wreck my brain for the ideal text to do the apparent thing. The video game up until now has actually seemed like spending quality time inside among those non-violent secrets you see on PBS (or CBC), simply inside a familiar and expressive video game kind.

Noting image by Julia Minamata