Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #3477
Hall of Belated Fame Inductee  FailSafe    View all Top Dogs in this genre
Interactive Fiction   Conventional

Rating: 7.62 (8 votes)

FailSafe box cover

FailSafe screenshot
FailSafe is a great sci-fi game from Jon Ingold, author of several modern IF classics like The Mulldoon Legacy and My Angel. FailSafe is set in a pretty standard – I would say cliché – sci-fi setting where you're helping the lone survivor of a tragic space battle through your comm interface. Although the game is linear, there are three different endings (all of which are quite interesting and surprising, I might add) that depend on how you solve the final puzzle.

Although the setting isn’t nearly as interesting as, say, Babel, Delusions, or The Mind Electric, what makes FailSafe interesting is the experimental nature: the commands you type are actually what you say to the panicked survivor at the other end of the line, who does whatever he tells him to do. A lot of effort has been made to maintain this “text parser as a real conversation between you and a guy on a damaged ship” atmosphere, from the broken words you hear the survivor says (and when you type something the game doesn’t understand, the survivor says “sorry .. too much static”), to the complete removal of game verbs like SAVE and RESTORE. This makes it impossible to save, of course, which does feel annoying at first – especially because there is a time constraint, so you will likely be replaying the game several times to “get it right”. However, the game is quite short, and the writing is good enough to hold your interest, although puzzles could have been more challenging.

Overall, I enjoyed FailSafe quite a lot. It’s one of the more successful “experimental IF” titles that don’t let the experiment get in the way of fun. If you enjoy IF, especially short, competition-sized works you can finish in a few hours, FailSafe is well worth your time.

Reviewed by: Underdogs
Designer: Jon Ingold
Developer: Freeware
Publisher: Freeware
Year: 2000
Software Copyright: Jon Ingold
Theme: Science Fiction
Multiplayer:  
None that we know of
System Requirements: Inform
Where to get it:   IF Archive
Related Links:  
Links:    
If you like this game, try: Delusions, LASH, All Roads

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.