The Blind House
Amanda Allen (2010)
The Blind House is a dark game where you find yourself staying at an old friend’s house that you called on
in the dead of night. The game hints at a sinister back story. The player is given a chance to explore
the house the next morning, but wondering around looking for clues only opens up more questions that are
never resolved. It’s an interesting story, but with too many loose ends.
The game captures a creepy atmosphere where something has gone wrong, something that has shaken you so
badly you find settling down to sleep hard. And even though the introduction says this isn’t a puzzle
game, you’ll still have to find a few keys, locate small objects, and search for clues to unlock this
story. Looking at everything is really important, and there’s even a THINK ABOUT < object > built in to
help give players a bit of direction. But there’s still the occasional guess-the-verb puzzle, or objects
buried so deep it’s difficult to even find their containers.
The Glulx interface is handled beautifully in this game with the status line pointing players in certain
directions at times, along with an overhead map displayed in the lower right to help orientate them as
they move around. It made playing this easier, but if you do go in the wrong direction the game clearly
states what’s available.
The end of this game threw me. Because of an interpreter problem I saved to look at the outputted text.
When I loaded the game Marissa had come home, deciding to take a shower. With little time left I turned
to the walkthrough to finish it. I got to the point where she walked through the door, coming home again,
and then I had a conversation with her that ended strangely. It was bizarre and it didn’t answer any of
the questions that crept up throughout play. It really left me scratching my head.
The Blind House is a game that still needs work. The interface is solid and the game plays very smoothly,
but there are logical errors, display problems, and a story that needs to resolve everything that it sets
up. Others might have found a better solution, but the author said there’s no wrong ending. So I can
only conclude that’s how she wanted to finish it. But, it was a bit unsatisfying for me.