Newsgroup: it.comp.giochi.avventure.testuali
Titolo: Una recensione di "The Last Hour"

Mi fa piacere condividerla con voi...
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I found The Last Hour quite a strange and disturbing little game. I
honestly couldn't say I liked it but then the subject matter isn't the
sort of thing a lot of people are going to like.
Unusually, the character you play isn't a hero out to save the world
from darkest evil, or someone on a quest for a lost
sword/treasure/whatever, or even a hero in the normal sense of the word.
No, he's a member of the Ku Klux Klan and he starts the game in a prison
cell where he's accused of murdering a black man during a "hunting
trip".
While setting a game from the viewpoint of an evil character might not
be original, if well done it can still carry great emotional impact.
Unfortunately, with The Last Hour the evil character you play seems to
have no remorse whatsoever for what he's done and often refers to the
man he's killed as an "animal", something which I imagine wouldn't go
down particularly well with any coloured people who might play the game.
Worse still is the fact that, despite all the evidence to the contrary,
he insists throughout the game that he was hunting an "animal" and
doesn't even seem to realise that killing black people is against the
law. Now I don't know any member of the KKK but I'd imagine that even
the more extreme ones realise that what they're doing is illegal.
On the plus side, it's atmospheric and there's a genuine sense of
claustrophobia at times as the story unfolds while you're trapped in
your little cell with no apparent way of getting out. On the down side,
the subject matter isn't an easy one to like and there's precious little
gameplay to be found throughout. I played from start to finish several
times and got the same end result each time. I was unable to escape from
the cell or affect the storyline one bit no matter what I did. And my
character being executed at the end, while fitting, nevertheless made
the game seem pretty pointless. I'd have much preferred an option
whereby the main character could either escape from his cell or see the
error of his ways and be redeemed. Or maybe even have the option of
convincing the guards that it has all been a mistake and he really was
innocent.
Spelling and grammar mistakes left The Last Hour with some rough edges
(the author's native language isn't English although his English is
undoubtedly better than my Italian) but, all in all, there's quite an
interesting game here. If you can get over the often strong language
(mostly edited out with asterisks) and questionable subject matter, you
might even enjoy it.
Logic: 10 out of 10 
There was little to find fault with logic-wise. 
Problems: 6 out of 10 (10 = no problems) 
One of the main commands that tells the player what is going on isn't an
obvious one that you'd normally expect to find in a text adventure. As
such, play through the game without trying it and you might well be left
wondering just what it's all about.
Story: 4 out of 10 
Precious little in the way of storyline here: a man in a cell awaiting
execution. A little more depth, and some more back story (perhaps told
in flashbacks) would have set the scene better.
Characters: 4 out of 10 
Several characters show up but they don't have a lot to do and are hard
to interact with beyond the basic commands of the game.
Writing: 5 out of 10 
Occasional grammatical and spelling lapses aside, not bad at all. 
Game: 5 out of 10 
Not bad, not good, this was a difficult game to judge. I finished it for
the first time and sat there wondering if I had missed something. An
effort to turn it into a more regular game - with definable goals for
the player to aim for - would have benefited The Last Hour a lot. In its
current state, it's worth the ten minutes or so that it takes to play,
but it isn't a game that is likely to draw people back to it time and
again.
Overall: 34 out of 60
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Rob
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Rob
max "torredifuoco" bianchi

 pero' cosi' m'incuriosisci... di chi e' la rec?
DavidW, l'organizzatore della "One Room", che non c'e'
stata perche' avrei partecipato solo io.
E' uno dei membri piu' attivi della comunita' di Adrift,
ha partecipato alla IFComp quest'anno arrivando 16°.
