You Find Yourself in a Room
YFYIAR starts off like any standard escape-themed, text-based IF experience before things get weird. As expected, you type in one or two words, such as LOOK or OPEN DOOR, to interact with your environment. The computer narrator is somewhat helpful at first, but as you play, the comments begin to get a bit snarky and insulting regarding your perceived human inferiority. This becomes more and more blatant to the point of being darkly comedic. Soon it feels like you're in a text adventure from hell being run by a mix between a profane GlaDOS and a hostile version of Marvin the Paranoid Android. And no matter what you do, you always find yourself in yet another room.
Without ruining the experience, YFYIAR takes you on a strange trip that stretches the confines of most text adventures, leaving you with what can be described as an existentialist IF experience. The drama of your absurd situation is enhanced by intense synthesized background music, which sounds like something out of the Half Life soundtrack. While the game feels a bit too short and isn't very challenging as far as gameplay goes, the point of the experience is to take you on a journey beyond your comfort zone, which YFYIAR does well. So give it a shot, puny human; escape from the room, if you can.
Note: This title is actually a sequel of sorts to Viricide, which references a computer intelligence called ABOMI (Absolutely Omniscient Intelligence) that forces its users to play text adventures. Though not named directly in the game, that intelligence is clearly in full effect here.
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
This isn't a particularly hard game, but I wrote a walkthrough anyway just 'cause I've always wanted to write a walkthrough ^^ and I'm home sick so I've got some time on my hands.
WALKTHROUGH
ROOM 1
Look around
Look at bed
Take key
Use key on padlock
Get in box
ROOM 2
Look around
Read note
1904 (this number is the date of birth of the man referenced in the note)
ROOM 3
Look around
Take parts
Build computer
Hit power button
ROOM 4
Look around (start every room by looking around!)
Look at keypad
Now simply type in random numbers. Don't give up, it takes quite a while but that's part of the experience!
ROOM 5
Look around
Keep looking around. OVER. AND. OVER. This also takes a while.
Guess the number. One digit at a time. also takes a while, but the ending is worth it! (the number changes from play to play)
ROOM 6
Look around
ROOM 7
Look around
Look at blood
Anger
Room 8
Look around
Leave room
Comment with any problems/mistakes!
Posted by: Hallie | December 21, 2010 10:36 AM
YFYIAR Complete Walkthrough
Like most interactive fiction games, there are basic typed commands here that work throughout the game, like LOOK, GET, and INVENTORY. If you need help during the game, just type HELP.
First Room
You find yourself in a room. What's the first thing you're supposed to do in these interactive fiction games?
LOOK.
There's a box against the wall with a padlock. Why not try opening it?
Locked eh? Looks like you'll need a key. Where could it be?
LOOK BED.
GET KEY.
OPEN LOCK.
ENTER BOX.
Second Room
You find yourself in a room. Again.
LOOK.
There's a keypad on the wall, and a note.
READ NOTE.
It says "I turned 85 in 1989, but I will live forever, for I am eternal. Are you eternal? I think not."
Try entering a 4 digit number in the number pad.
If the writer of the note turned 85 in 1989, what year was he born?
1904.
Third Room
You find yourself in a room. Again.
LOOK.
There are computer parts lying around on the floor.
LOOK PARTS.
You could pick them up one by one for a snarky comment from the computer.
Instead, just GET PARTS.
The computer narrator tells you what to do next.
BUILD COMPUTER.
HIT POWER BUTTON.
Fourth Room
You find yourself in a room. Again.
LOOK.
There's another keypad on the wall. No note this time.
Enter a random 4 digit number.
No luck? Try the same number to get insulted.
Keep entering different random 4 digit numbers and endure the computer's cynicism.
After the fifth attempt, you miraculously get it right and can move on.
Fifth Room
You find yourself in a room. Again.
LOOK.
The computer says you are in its control. Just type anything.
Keep typing anything.
After the 10th try (with the words getting bigger) the computer will ask you to guess a number between 1 and 100,000.
The number is random each game. Start with 50000 and try using the method of halving each guess (higher or lower) until you get it right.
Sixth Room
You find yourself in a room. Again.
LOOK.
Yikes, the computer just cut your hands off.
LOOK.
Well, now the room's covered in blood.
LOOK BLOOD.
The computer's amused at your bleeding. It's taunting you to name an emotion you could do without.
HATE.
Heh, you seem to have contradicted the computer. Guess it's not so perfect after all.
LOOK.
You beat the computer and can now leave the room.
LEAVE ROOM.
Posted by: J-Witz | December 21, 2010 12:11 PM