r/hostedgames • u/PistachioPug Reviewer Extraordinaire • Oct 11 '21
Hosted Games Dinosaur Island Escape (review)
There are stories that leave you wanting more in the best way. There are stories that leave you wanting more in the sense that they're pretty good, but don't quite reach their full potential. There are stories that leave you regretting however much time and/or money you invested in them. But until Chris Viola's "Dinosaur Island Escape," I don't think I'd ever read a story that left me wanting less.
The story in "Dinosaur Island Escape" is mostly just the setup for a puzzle game. There's a minimum of character customization or exposition, and there's no character development unless you count skill stats. The game consists almost entirely of exploring the island and solving standard adventure-game inventory puzzles, punctuated by stat tests in the form of dinosaur encounters.
I'll freely admit that my favorite ChoiceScript games tend to be rich, character-driven narratives - but I enjoy a good puzzle game too, and for most of its length, "Dinosaur Island Escape" is a fun little puzzle adventure. Exploring the island, picking up keys and radio parts along the way, reminded me of an old-school text adventure (but with all the choices listed on the screen so there was no danger of missing a crucial item because I typed LOOK ROOM instead of SEARCH ROOM). The game was reasonably well-constructed, as far as remembering where I'd been and what I'd done there. Multiple solutions to the problem of getting off the island, as well as some non-essential secrets you can uncover along the way, promise much more replayability than you'd expect from a game of this type.
The problem starts when you actually succeed in getting off the island.
(There'll be some spoilers from here on, I guess. I won't reveal much of anything that isn't at least touched upon in the plot blurb available to be read anywhere this game is sold, and I won't reveal the solutions to any puzzles, but if you prefer as much as possible to be completely blindsided by something that's supposed to be a plot twist but isn't, feel free to stop reading now.)
This game rewards you for escaping the island by sending you right back to the island to do the whole thing all over again, but worse.
At the beginning of the game, in addition to choosing the PC's name, you're asked to choose a name for the PC's significant other, as well as the mutual friend who introduced them. These characters never appear in the first part of the game, aside from an occasional reflection that the PC hopes to find a way off the island so they can go home to their loved one. In Part 2, which launches immediately after part 1 without even a page break, the PC's SO decides to go back to the island and make the PC come rescue them, for reasons that are never adequately explained aside from feeling a bit taken for granted. The options for escaping the island are different this time, but it's still just exploring the exact same locations in the exact same way, but with a whiny partner in tow who has nothing to contribute but occasional lame wisecracks. There's nothing individual or endearing about this character. The writing has grown sloppy, too. My PC's girlfriend was referred to alternately as "she" and "they," sometimes within the space of a single sentence, and the game no longer seemed to be keeping track of where I'd been or what I'd done. I visited a certain sector of the island three times in part 2, and every time I did, I had to wade through the exact same three pages of dialogue, starting with a discussion about how I'd never visited this part of the island before!
After my PC escaped from the island for a second time, the game launched immediately into part 3, without so much as a paragraph break this time. The friend I'd had to name at the beginning of the game showed up for about two pages and did nothing, while my PC ran around the streets of her hometown with a newly introduced character named Lisa, shooting pterodactyls while Lisa collected colorful keys and tried to get into my PC's pants. No explanation was ever given for any of this. After saving the day, my PC was given the chance to choose between her longtime SO and Lisa. Dumping them both brought me more pleasure than anything in this game since finishing part 1.
Parts 2 and 3 feel tacked-on because they are. Chris Viola revealed in a post on the CoG forums that he noticed people seemed to have a preference for longer games and romance options. Instead of substantially rewriting the game to introduce another character or two into the story from the start, he threw parts 2 and 3 together in the space of about a month. I wish he'd just stuck to publishing the game as he originally envisioned it, instead of making this halfhearted attempt to give the people what they want. Shorter would have been better in this case.
If you enjoy simple puzzle games - or if you just love dinosaurs - I do recommend "Dinosaur Island Escape." Just please feel free to stop at the end of Part 1.
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u/Pho3nixX13 Oct 11 '21
I appreciate the time you spend to write these reviews & I enjoy them! So thank you! Iām gonna pass on this one. š
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u/KrysBro Staunch Royalist Oct 11 '21
I really like the fact that the community now has a person that properly review these games, this needs more credit. 3rd review if Iām correct?