So as usual I only get around to playing most AGS games when the AGS awards come around.
I'm glad I did, because this was pretty great. With the naivistic graphics and nonsensical puzzles and weird lurches in tone it shouldn't work, but somehow it does. I think that's mainly because the game knows so well what it wants to be, and is exactly that thing (whatever it is) - so you just kind of go with it. This is probably the most distinctive AGS game I've played since my favorite, Linus Bruckman (which it reminds me of in a couple of ways).
Compared to Frantic Franko, I felt like here I understood why things were so surreal, so it was easier to grasp the rules that apply. (Like in Franko, some of the dialog was a little clunky; with a bit of editing of the English translation it would read more naturally.)
It still took me a little while to get on the game's wavelength (about up to the start of the first act), but after that I really enjoyed it. I did get stuck on a few puzzles, but as strange as the actions involved were I always felt like the solutions made sense. Biggest problem for me was that I wasn't always clear on Jack's motivation or what I should be trying to achieve. That always frustrates me, but the game was small enough and the number of possible interactions limited enough that I was OK with just experimenting until something happened.
The storytelling with the unreliable narrator and hallucinatory conflation of past and present was one of the most compelling aspects for me. Childhood dream-flashbacks are always very interesting (though I think the nightmare style in this section was one of the less original parts of the game). Psychonauts absolutely came to mind. And, for me, a less positive association: Shutter Island.
I also like that you didn't clear everything up at the end of the game. The ambiguity and multiple possible interpretations makes it stay longer in our minds. Here are my thoughts:
I was thinking many of the same things Alun wrote, so I'll just add some alternative explanations to that.
When you're told there was only a single survivor of whatever you were responsible of, doesn't that mean you were the only survivor? If so, that would indicate that both your parents are dead. Of course, if Jack was anywhere near as young as he's shown in the dream when it happened, he can't really have been responsible in any meaningful sense. I guess the burnt paper might hint at Little Jack starting a fire, but I think it's more likely one of his parents killed the other and then themselves. Jack's conversation with his dad in the present must then be a hallucination.
My other thought is that Jack is truly crazy, and was not just imagining the murder plot, but subconsciously arranging the murders himself. That would be what the moose is talking about when it warns him he's starting to hurt people again. He placed the poison in the salt shaker, and he was probably involved somehow in his parent's or parents' death(s).
Anyway, I'm not too worried about piecing it all together. Holding the various interpretations in my mind is more fun. (I think a film like Mulholland Dr. suffers from losing most of its intrigue once you know how the pieces fit together.)
Oh, and finally: I love the integration of the main menu as an object in the game world. Very creative and cool!
