Blue Lacuna
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Blue Lacuna is one of those rare experiences that turns your set of assumptions about a medium on its head. Like Memento or The Usual Suspects or The Outsider, Aaron Reed's game transcends its medium to become more than the sum of its parts, an artwork that leaves a measurable change in the player. You might finish this game, but it may never leave you alone.
On the surface, Blue Lacuna looks like most other examples of contemporary interactive fiction: a screen full of text, a status bar, and a prompt. You interact with the world by responding to the prompt with a simple declaration: "EXAMINE STATUE", for example. Once you spend any time with it, however, you'll see that this is actually a unique interface. Taking a cue from hypertext authors, Blue Lacuna works on a keyword-based system. Blue words are objects to interact with, green words are places you can go, and bolded words are conversation topics. While the traditional way of playing IF is still viable, it's possible to simply type "statue" instead of the above example.
With that small amount of knowledge and the excellently done tutorial system, you're ready to go. Although I've been playing traditional interactive fiction for years, I almost never needed to use a verb to interact with an object, and when I did it was extremely clear what I needed to do.
If that weren't enough, at the end of the game's prologue it will assess the choices you made and give you the option to play a story-based game or the more traditional puzzle-based adventure. Rest assured, neither side is missing out; the story-weighted version has the same puzzles, but they're vastly streamlined in comparison to the more traditional fare. Personally, after finishing the game I had a peek at the walkthrough, and if you're not the kind of person who enjoys working out alien linguistics from a few clues, I can heartily recommend the story mode.
To those involved with the interactive fiction community, Blue Lacuna's elements have a fairly prestigious heritage: the adaptive hints and keyword-based conversation system evokes Emily Short's Alabaster, the surrealist nature of the story, Andrew Plotkin's Delightful Wallpaper, the deep world and puzzles, Graham Nelson's Curses. More importantly, though, are the things Reed does differently.
Analysis: Emergent or branching narratives have been seen as a red herring in game development for a while. Chris Crawford calls them a failure in First Person, the game theory reader. This is mostly because with every choice you implement that drastically affects the story, you essentially double your workload from that point on. In the world of AAA titles, this means exponentially greater costs: after all, with every new conversation comes new models, textures, voice actors, and animations, all of which have to be created by paid talent. However, with interactive fiction comes the freedom to try such unique approaches to game stories.
This is really where Reed excels. After the prologue, you find yourself on a nearly-abandoned island. Your only companion is a mad hermit, a man who talks in broken sentences and shouts at the ocean. Throughout the game, your interactions with him (or even actions in his presence) shape his opinion of you, his relationship with you, and how the eventual ending plays out. Depending on your actions and conversation with this man, the game could play in vastly different ways. He doesn't affect the puzzles themselves, but so much of the incidental dialogue and description of the game is influenced by his mood and relationship with you that it'll end up with an entirely different feel. More than anything else, Blue Lacuna is a game about emotion and memory, and it excels at manipulating both.
Blue Lacuna is something unique, as close to 'interactive literature' as I've ever seen in gaming. You owe it to yourself to try it out.
Windows:
Download the free full version
Mac OS X:
Download free full version
Linux:
Download free full version
Walkthrough Guide
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Just to make things easier on everyone who's obsessive-compulsive about finding, squeezing and milking EVERY SINGLE SECRET of the game, here's how to get all the paints if Progue is submissive enough to help you prepare for Departure:
Red:
Berries.
Volcano Slopes: LANDMARKS, CLEARING, S, S, GET BERRIES
Sloping Meadow: LANDMARKS, MIDDLE, E, E, OPEN DOOR, E, SE. At the Chasm Floor, if the RED PIPE has steam power, TURN HANDLE. WAIT until it's a staircase. TURN HANDLE. UP. At the Chasm Edge, TURN HANDLE. WAIT until it's a bridge. TURN HANDLE. WEST. GET BERRIES.
Inside the Caldera, At the Cinder Cone: LANDMARKS, COLLAPSE, SE, GET BERRIES.
Yellow:
Windsigh leaves. You have seven trees to choose from, but only need three.
Overgrown Path: LANDMARKS, CLEARING, GET LEAVES.
Inside the Treehouse: LANDMARKS, CLEARING, S, UP, GET LEAVES.
Inside the Caldera, At the Cinder Cone: LANDMARKS, COLLAPSE, SE, GET LEAVES.
Boulder Pile: LANDMARKS, HIVE, S, GET LEAVES.
In the Rainforest: LANDMARKS, HIVE, E, S, E, N, GET LEAVES.
The Egg: LANDMARKS, HIVE, E, SE, SE, GET LEAVES.
On the Saddle: LANDMARKS, HIVE, N, wait until it's low tide. This is usually Midday to early Afternoon, or Evening till most of the Night. From At the Dropoff, DOWN. WEST, WEST. Go UP. You might not find the top yet, that's okay. Just keep trying to go into the WEST tunnel, and going UP, until you reach Top of Cave. From Top of Cave, UP, UP. Get leaves.
Green:
Mussels.
Among the Boulders: LANDMARKS, CLEARING, NW, SW, GET MUSSELS.
Tidepools: LANDMARKS, CLEARING, NW, SW, SW, GET MUSSELS.
Top of Ravine:LANDMARKS, HIVE, N, DOWN when the tide is low, W, GET MUSSELS.
Blue:
Crystals.
Hidden Pool: LANDMARKS, MIDDLE, N, NW, E, GET CRYSTAL.
Ravine Floor: LANDMARKS, HIVE, N, DOWN when it's low tide, GET CRYSTAL.
Viewpoint:LANDMARKS, HIVE, E, N, E, NE, N, GET CRYSTAL.
White:
Snails.
On the Old Lava Flow (aka The Rise): LANDMARKS, MIDDLE, N, NW, WAIT until a SNAIL appears, GET SNAIL.
Among the Stumps: LANDMARKS, MIDDLE, N, NW, N, WAIT until a SNAIL appears, GET SNAIL.
Ropeway Base Station: LANDMARKS, STATION, WAIT until a SNAIL appears, GET SNAIL.
Or: LANDMARKS, MIDDLE, N, NW, N, NW, WAIT until a SNAIL appears, GET SNAIL.
Black.
Rayfish ink.
Progue will get it for you.
Posted by: Zucabr
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June 26, 2010 8:34 AM