PataNoir Reviews

game is good. short but sweet.

Text-based adventures probably won't be making a come-back soon but a well-made one will always delight. Unfortunately, this game isn't one of those unless you love similes. Most of the game is spent trying to figure out how to use which similes in the descriptions of the locations and action. "A cigarette burns in an ashtray like an ember in the campfire. Take the ember, give it to the mysterious man to melt his demeanor." I know noir loves similes and metaphors but while it's a novel concept to make them a part of the gameplay, it just isn't well-executed enough to have a game full of them. Now there is a walkthrough that takes you through the game that's accessible from the main menu but I feel that is the developers admitting that the gameplay is confusing at best. In short, this game feels like something schoolkids in the 90's would play in the computer lab to help them understand similes but would turn them off to both PC games and word play.

This is an extremely playable modern day text adventure with an extremely slick UI. The book metaphor works great for the presentation and I've had a lot of fun with the game itself. If you are looking for the successor to games like Zork or The Pawn on Steam, this is one of the best examples there is. Recommended.

I'm a big fan of interactive fiction and there's really nothing else out there like PataNoir. Read closely and you're in for a very rewarding experience.

Two things i noticed in the tutorial: It says the desk and chair are the only furniture in the office and yet I can see a file cabinet and frame in the illustration. Second, after opening the door, how did he get into his chair again? Mysteries are all about the details. And since I didn't have the option to tell the visitor that if he came all the way to my office to NOT be sure if he wants to hire me then I'd be more inclined to question his value to me -- well, I guess that was enough to tell me this game isn't for me.

Really interesting interactive fiction. It does away with a lot of the frustrations of the parser genre-- pretty much no reason to hunt for verbs, the game is in good faith and plays with you instead of against you-- and introduces fun areas and items thanks to the text's reliance on wordplay.

A very creative concept, which I think also uses the format of interactive fiction quite well, as I can't see it easily working as well in any other format. The writing is also pretty good just in general, even outside of the pataphorical elements. Admiteddly, my focus was often much more on the exploration of the similes, to the point where sometimes I'd completely forget about the non-figurative world. I felt the need to use hints/look at a guide quite a few times, though I think most (with some exceptions) "puzzles" had logical solutions. Even with that though, it was a cool experience for just the writing of it.

I love text adventures that try to push their genre's boundaries to become something special, and PataNoir does so excellently. While, like in many text adventures, some interactions are a little esoteric, the in-game hint system (beautifully flavoured as your servant, who is actually your sidearm, giving you advice) helps either confirm you're moving in the right direction or helps hint at what abstract properties of your figurative items you should be trying to use. There were a couple of times I had to try a few different versions of the command I wanted to execute before it did, but that was a minor hassle. It should be noted that this isn't really a mystery game, in case you wanted a deep compelling story. It's more of a puzzle game with a Noir aesthetic - an aesthetic it executes brilliantly. For future games, having background music and pictures that change as you move location would be excellent (you have to manually change the pictures, and find your own generic Noir music to play in the background). Regardless, I highly recommend PataNoir if you want a quality text adventure with a unique gimmick that results in some fun Noir-flavoured storytelling.

A text adventure about a private eye with the ability to manipulate hard-boiled similes as if they were literal objects. Or maybe he's just nuts. The language wonking gimmick is a genius idea that couldn't have worked in any other medium, and the game has a lot of fun spinning out its implications over the course of the adventure. The plot, on the other hand, is a lightweight excuse to string together puzzles and jokes until the author runs out of ideas, whereupon the game stops like an out-of-control bootlegger slamming into the brooklyn bridge at 2am. Play for the gags and mindbendyness.

It's funny, you can pick locks in people's eyes with the wiriness of their hair. You do have to save before the scene where you can die, and remember to grab the (figurative) record before it's too late though.