#mcfreeze

[patrickbrianmooney]

IFComp 2023: Damon L Wakes's "Who Iced Mayor McFreeze?"

This is a review of a game entered into IFComp 2023, the twenty-ninth annual interactive fiction competition. This year, there are 75 games in the Comp, all free to play. There’s some good stuff in there this year! Anyone is welcome to play and vote on the entries during the Comp period, and you need vote on only five games by the middle of November for your votes to count toward the games’ overall scores!

As is my wont when writing IFComp reviews, I shamelessly steal Jacqueline Ashwell’s rubric for scoring, because, well, it’s thoughtful and fair.

This review, like all of my reviews, is potentially spoilery. You may want to avoid reading it until after you’ve played the game. That’s up to you.

This was a fun, polished, well-written little gem, a quick puzzly play that took about an hour even with plenty of exploration and trying not to look at the hints, which I mostly succeeded in not looking at.

The premise is silly—it's a noir detective story set in what is, essentially, Candyland, though not in a close enough clone that Milton Bradley has any grounds for an IP complaint—and it might have been handled badly by a lesser writer, but Wakes takes it, runs with it, and makes it work, partly through a series of jokes that play off of both parts of that idea. The PC is, for instance, named Bubble Gumshoe, and if you examine the shoes she's wearing, you get an exasperated comment about how no, there's no gum on them. It's a nice little touch in a game full of nice little touches. I've got to say, too, that it uses the language and tropes of noir detective fiction better than many other IF pieces that attempt to do so.

The puzzles are fair, not particularly difficult (though the last puzzle is very fiddly in terms of the order in which actions have to be taken to solve it, and could be better clued as to what has to happen first), and mostly based around using machines, of which there are, not surprisingly, quite a few in the factory you're investigating. Some puzzle-solving objects are re-used in later puzzles, and all of them are sensible.

And the setting and characters are a delight. The writing is so good that the few places where it stumbles are jarring, and I think that one more round of polishing would have eliminated a lot of small incongruities that fall into that category.

Take this, from the game's overture:

"I enquired around town for the name of a reliable private detective," she says, sitting and taking a moment to mop her brow. "They mentioned yours."

The last sentence is a bit infelicitous, but it took me a minute to figure out why. It's not because the pronoun "they" doesn't have a referent, as any pronoun grammatically should; that's fine, in context. American English in general, and noir detective fiction in particular, often uses "they" to refer to the group of people being discussed, even if it breaks the pedantic rule that a pronoun should refer to a specific phrase that the reader or listener can recall. But that sits badly, in terms of voicing, with "yours," a faux-pronoun that's (in context) a shortened form of "your name," This is an elision that's common for certain classes of people, but usually those are educated people who are more likely to speak an elevated diction that includes figures of speech like zeugma, which also distributes a middle term to save from having to repeat words and phrases. The beginning of the short sentence uses pronoun reference in a very different way than the end of the sentence.

The other real textual objection I had to the game was the massive text dump at the very end, which I think really would have better played out broken into chunks that the player needed to play through, even if only in three or four turns.

All in all, though, this was an awful lot of fun, and I'm definitely going to be playing some more of Damon Wakes's games.

My rating: 7/10.

(I also drew a map of the game's geography as I played.)

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Who Iced Mayor McFreeze? by Damon L. Wakes

============= Links

Play the game (IFComp) See other reviews of the game

============= Synopsis

The mayor has only been missing for about an hour, but Mrs. McFreeze has good reason for concern: her husband left to attend some business at the old taffy factory with the notorious Don Toblerone, and she fears he's got himself into a sticky situation. Naturally she calls upon Bubble Gumshoe - Sugar City's premiere private eye - to check up on him.

But unfortunately for the mayor, Bubble Gumshoe comes too late. And Unfortunately for Bubble Gumshoe, the killer is there when she arrives. Locked in the abandoned building - with a demolition charge set for 9am the next day - she must use all her cunning to sniff out the building's secrets so she can once again taste freedom, all while chewing over…

…who iced Mayor McFreeze?

============= Other Info

Who Iced Mayor McFreeze? is an Inform 7 game, submitted to the 2023 edition of the IFComp

Status: Completed Genre: Detective

CW: violence, sex, drug use and cannibalism, all involving colourful candy characters.

============= Playthrough

Played: 14-Oct-2023 Playtime: about 30min Rating: - [IFComp vote] Thoughts: Pulp noir but make it candy

============= Review

Who Iced Mayor McFreeze? is the second instalment of the Gumshoe series (or is this a prequel?), which I remember quite fondly, a noir-esque story where everything is candy. In this game, you must solve the disappearance of Mayor McFreeze, and piece out the mystery. I used the hints for the last puzzle.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

Having played Who Shot Gum E. Bear? last year, I was excited to play another instalment of the series, putting my feet in Gumshoe's shoes (which I don't think she has?). WSGEB was full of saccharine fun and pulp-y detective tropes, which I looked forward to find in this new entry. In that regard, WIMMF didn't disappoint.

From the dame barging almost suspiciously into your office, to the dreary caramely rain, the goons locking you in a dangerous place and dang the body of the missing person right in front of you... the game happily takes on those tropes again, humorously throwing it back into that world full of anthropomorphic candies. Also... the smell and taste commands are still hilarious!!

Compared to last year (sorry, hard not to compare), the main investigation is less obvious. The main clue is not shoved in your eyes at every turn in the first room (though the game introduction should hint enough at an ending), and you cannot circumvent the game's puzzle to reach the end. You actually have to go around and investigate - so you don't feel cheated when you reach the ending.

Though, while last year was throwing hints at every turn, this entry was much more reserved with it. The descriptions of the environment, items or people are more bare (which is a bit of a shame imo). It was not always clear what should or could be done (lots of trial and errors, the hint/waklthrough were nice).

I was a tad disappointed with the ending. While it felt a bit expected, I would have loved to be able to ask questions or accuse (or call back up) during that part. The conversations bits in WDGEB were very fun, and I think it could have made the final act a bit stronger with it.

Still laughed my butt off :P

[askror]

To Surge– could I have a nickname, please?

Surge balked: "What is WITH you people WANTING nicknames? You realize I do that to get under people’s skin, right? It’s like a combat tactic! It’s me attacking your whole-ass brain!”

“Anyway, I know nothing about you. Except… Uh… You got a weird picture of a penguin beside your name I guess. Penguinator? Chill Penguin? Nah… Wait, Penguins like cold. Stone Cold? No, that sounds way too cool, you’re probably a nerd. Maybe Chilly McFreeze? Yeah. I like that. We’ll go with that.”

“That’s bloody terrible, mate.” Marine, who had watched this entire display with narrowed eyes, shook her head, “Maybe you could ‘member names better if you didn’t go through that circus every time someone introduced themself to you.”

“Keep talking smack and I’ll noogie the hell out of you, Rings.” She put the the raccoon in a demonstrative headlock before letting out a peel of maniacal laughter. “Just like I’m gonna do the next time I see Chilly McFreeze. Hear that out there you nickname-loving dweebus? You’re gonna rue the day you poked your head out of your igloo to send me that. Hope you’re ready…”

[g0om]

bte megtaláltma a következdő megszálott édességemet a mcfreeze után

[napijegkrem]

McFreeze epres öntettel Beszerzés helye: McDonald's Sopron Ár: 780Ft

[shujinacademyvgmclub]

It's another visit from Chilly McFreeze with a collection of chill game music on the latest episode of Shujin Academy VGM Club! Listen now!

[liverpool-enjoyer]

my roommate God bless her heart loves to keep the apartment mcFREEZING so im literally pressing the hot part of my laptop to my skin to keep warm

[maternalcube]

its mcfreezing in this mcfucking mcdonalds

[psychblurred]

Congratulations 🎊🍾🎊

I personally know at least a couple of super successful psychologists. They are changing lives everyday for the better and are living incredibly fulfilling lives ( less burn out than doctors). Also imagine if success only meant becoming a doctor or a specialist in that field.Lol.so if your parents cant think good about anything else its their problem not yours.Celebrate your success and go make it your thing if it feels like. 💥 you made it through the entire med school (i wont really count that one exam) so you being incredibly smart and strong is already obvious. So don’t let anyone make you believe otherwise. The self harm rate of drs is crazy high so you never know what nature saved you from. Today Forget about everything else and do a little something special for yourself , to celebrate your success. You are gona go great things one day and you are gona be very happy and successful.

oh wow. this is such a nice message i might have to frame this. for real.

thank you. to be honest my mom did say later that she’s happy. but it would have been nice to have this kind of immediate reaction. maybe everyone is really happy and proud and it’s just me and my feelings that are problematic.

and yeah, that’s right. i guess i was saved from something i might not have been able to handle too well.

🤍 so yeah, here’s to a new beginning! i actually had a super mcfreeze to celebrate 🎉

[cyberpilate]

Katana Chance is such a "Chilly McFreeze" level cringe name...

[adamsmoments]

[airycloud]

The McFreeze arrived quite some time ago in this country and it seems currently the company’s still promoting various flavours of it. I understand they want to compete in the frozen soda category, but I don’t fancy the result. 

The drink didn’t mix as well as I thought, I already mixed beforehand but it’s tangible where the syrupy sweet area starts and the brain-freezing ice begins (I hope it’s only a localised mishap). 

This is grape flavoured, the other option being cola, I prefer the grape version (Bias probable though since Indonesians like me are usually conditioned to stronger tastes). 

There’s a bit of an aftertaste, but not in a bad way. 

Price is kinda reasonable (under 10k IDR I recall, I tried using promo so free).

Hopefully future flavours fare better.

[nonji]

‪❄️Mcfreeze family☃️‬(boss OCs)

[mannyalvarezdefender]

@loo-nuh-tik @crazytxgradstudent ACK

[shujinacademyvgmclub]

I did a new mixtape video on the Toob of Yoob based on my second Chilly McFreeze episode. And I even gave it a clickbaitesque title to see what the algorithm would do. Check it out if you want chill VGM.

[orrelse21]

Woke up to this text this morning.