Caught in the Spiderweb

I'm constantly telling people not to recommend me computer games because I have more than enough major time sinks in my life as it is. I should really, really start listening to my own advice, though, because I did not need to spend large chunks of the last two days playing Spider and Web[*]. Now that I've started, of course, it's far too late to turn back.

This is one of those old Infocom text adventure games, and one that, despite being deeply fond of these back when they were state of the art, I'd never even heard of, let alone played. It's basically a spy story: apparently you're a secret agent sent to infiltrate an enemy base where they're developing some kind of ultra-dangerous technology. There's a nifty wrinkle, though. As the game starts out, you're strapped in a chair being interrogated, and the gameplay itself consists mostly of flashbacks in which you (the player) get to figure out just what it was you did to get there as you (the character) reconstruct your actions for the interrogator. It doesn't sound like something that should work, but it does. Brilliantly. In fact, the whole setup makes for what is quite possibly one of the single cleverest plot twists I've ever seen (let alone participated in), and for that alone it commends much respect. But there's also really interesting puzzles to solve, some great character interaction with the interrogator, and some nicely subtle bits of science-fictional world-building. Terrific stuff, and proof positive that you don't need flashy 3D graphics to make for a good computer game.

Unfortunately, I have now become stuck on the damned thing... For the second time, in fact. I had to get somebody to give me a teensy weensy hint the first time and I may have to again, if my poor character keeps getting shot every time he turns around, as does seem to be happening with annoying regularity now. And giving up doesn't seem to be an option, because I want to find out how this story ends, damn it!

Sigh. Sometimes I think I should just turn the computer off and leave it off. It's hooked up to way too much tempting stuff...


[*] If you're interested in checking it out for yourself, you can play it on the web here. There's a major disadvantage to that, though, in that you won't have the capacity to save the game or undo your last action. For a lot of the game that doesn't actually matter very much, since you can't get killed or even screw up in any permanent way in the flashbacks. Eventually, though, you do want that save capacity, believe me! Fortunately, it's also available for download, via this link. You'll need an interpreter for it, also, but you can get those here. I used this one, which claims to be for Windows 95 and NT, but which is working just fine on my XP box. You'll also need a lot of free time, so don't say I didn't warn you...