The King and the Crown

The game opens with us in a throne room. We are the king, and we're preparing for a long, tedious day of listening to the woes of our subjects; we just need to find our crown and sceptre to begin. Once we do, though, it all turns out to be a dream and we're treated to a real-world, modern-day look of us getting up in the morning.

Behaviour in the dream world determines what happens when we wake up. I can see some of it: taking some time to look out the window in the dream means we're the sort of person who remembers to take some time out of his day for himself, and we behave accordingly when we wake up. It's a little bit backwards: actions in the present determine what has happened in the past, kind of like writing up a backstory.

I can't see how all of it connects, though. The business with (cough) the farting, for example. I don't really see how it can have anything to do with our behaviour, our approach to life/romance, or our fate. There's not a lot to be done otherwise, in the dream; not many objects to interact with, and not much that could be called indicative of character. It's as though the author coded up a perfectly good puzzle involving the hunt for the crown and the sceptre, and then padded it out with the first or only thing to pop into mind. It doesn't quite fit.

Also, I don't like fart jokes.

There is a Last Lousy Point, the achievement of which gives us a completely different ending scene. Instead of seeing our real-world morning, we have a scene involving ... two characters who have nothing to do with the story, talking about things that had never appeared in the story.

That said, the writing is pretty good. The hero character has attitude, which shows through and colours the narration. He's an ordinary joe with an ordinary life, completely unglamorous, and he's certainly not perfect; but he doesn't seem like a complete loser either. That's a delicate balancing act.

Breakfast is a bran muffin. It's good for the digestion. Coffee (decaf) is sold separately.