Slouching Towards Bedlam
Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster
Platform: Z-code
Rating: 7.8
Total Votes: 63
Std. Dev.: +- 2.0
Average Playtime: Between 1 and 2 hours
Genre: Science Fiction / Mystery / Historical / Horror / Indescribable / Experimental / Religious / Existential / Surreal / Fantasy
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Audience Comments:2/28/07 12:26 PM
A stunning piece of work that plays with IF conventions like a ragdoll. One of the few games that not only rewards replays, but requires it. Expect to run through this game from beginning to end half a dozen times at least. And each play-through will reveal something new.
Rating:10
2/03/07 03:53 PM
Cute idea, nice ambience; but poorly implemented with lots of hunt the verb and annoying bugs (you can unlock a door without leaving the cab, but not open it?). Once you get the gimmick, pretty shallow.
Rating:4
10/17/06 04:36 AM
Rating:6
8/02/06 04:56 PM
The idea behind this story is neat, but it is underdeveloped such that I had to read all the hints to see if I missed anything after finishing the game for the first time.
Rating:5
6/20/06 06:34 PM
Rating:4
6/02/06 02:52 AM
I wish it was longer.Quite polished game,the tense atmosphere hooked me up from the beginning to the end. I like stories that can be interpreted in different ways.Highly recommended!
Rating:9
5/04/06 02:23 AM
Even if many people like this game it doesn't match my taste.
Rating:2
4/30/06 08:00 PM
Rating:8
3/19/06 01:53 PM
I think I played this for about twenty minutes before quitting in a mixture of boredom and frustration. Having to mess around with exotic Heath Robinson-style machinery (some of which seems to have very little utility) without having a clue what you're supposed to be doing wasn't very encouraging and it doesn't really help when some of the info dumps resemble programming errors, either.
Rating:2
3/15/06 12:52 PM
Fog-bound and gloomy like Anchorhead, this masterpiece is remarkably well visualized. Uses the phonograph as Bram Stoker does in dracula, and to similar ends. A memorable steam-punk mystery.
Rating:9
1/29/06 11:42 PM
Well-written and intriguing. But the ending almost requires looking at the hints - not because it's impossible to make the leap of logic but because it's totally unexpected that one should be attempting to end the game right at that moment. It feels like the end comes just as the game is getting interesting. Somehow the game feels like it should be bigger - I wanted to explore the whole facility but couldn't, wanted to visit other London-area sites mentioned in the game but couldn't. It seems more engrossing at first than it actually is, and I wasn't wowed by the ending. Bit of a letdown.
Rating:7
9/04/05 11:26 PM
Slouching Towards Bedlam is a tough game to rate. The game is very solid and engrossing. Its puzzles are relatively simple (I solved all of them without hints).
However, the main puzzle and twist in story remains really badly hinted at and forces the player to make a huge leap in understanding, even after he has solved all the other game puzzles. This is really unfortunate, as the main decision the player needs to make once the mystery is understood is as compelling as it comes and could have made Slouching an instant classic and probably the best IF game ever written. Sadly, I would be very surprised if anyone could really figure out what the mystery is on its own. As such, Slouching Towards Bedlam remains a "close, but no cigar" and, ultimately, a somewhat disappointing game.
Rating:6
7/30/05 07:06 AM
The horror I felt when I realised what I had to do to stop... let's not spoil anything. A very good piece that consists of two parts: first, you discover what's happening; then, you must choose - not figure out, but choose - what you want to do with it.
As far as I have a complaint, it is that these different endings are not really significant, in the sense that they cannot express what I, personally, would do, because one of the outcomes is simply too strange.
Rating:8
7/21/05 08:15 AM
Loved the ambiguities of this game and its atmospheric settings.
Rating:8
2/23/06 10:34 AM
One of the must-plays of my experience, it starts off with the sense that something has gone quite wrong, and this sense only builds until you figure out what it is; at which point, you do get to make a truly meaningful choice as to what to do about it. In my opinion, it is slightly marred by a self-referential aspect that struck me as quite clever, but nonetheless breaking the mood at the crucial juncture at which it is introduced.
Rating:10
6/12/05 02:07 PM
Rating:9
5/15/05 09:32 AM
whyeveryonefounditsogreat?
Rating:7
4/27/05 01:21 AM
Rating:9
3/31/05 10:20 AM
Very interesting premise and execution. Multiple resolutions. The puzzles are pretty light, but two are implemented confusingly, so it's easy to miss their solution. Contains a number of infodumps; but they tend to only be one or two screens.
Rating:8
3/15/05 03:54 AM
Interesting setting, sensational plot. Took me two runs through the game to fully grasp what was happening, but when it clicked... wow. Definitely in my top ten list.
Rating:9
2/26/05 01:29 PM
This is an imaginative, and dark, piece of Victorian science fiction. The game and its subject matter are fascinating enough to compensate for the surprising number of misspellings it contains and all the non-interactive readings it requires of the player.
Rating:7
2/12/05 07:28 AM
Rating:10
1/29/05 11:37 PM
Take an original steampunk-esque setting, throw in some weird architecture and strange devices, decent writing with some especially nice scenes, and then run the PC through it all with a plot that's built in the context of the world but adds something new on top of it. There are a few problems -- long text dumps, some unnecessary rooms -- but these are quibbles.
Rating:9
1/26/05 06:15 AM
Rating:8
6/04/07 11:24 AM
I found the gameworld unconvincing, the gameplay somehow clunky. Player experimentation of the central moral dilemma is skilfully handled, however; the game is worth looking at for that alone.
Rating:6
11/09/04 03:29 AM
Rating:7
10/26/04 01:12 PM
Rating:8
10/23/04 12:42 AM
Innovative and intriguing story in a steampunk setting. Really well done as prose, puzzle and npcs. Too short...
Rating:8
9/30/04 08:02 PM
Rating:9
9/16/04 08:54 AM
Rating:10
9/12/04 04:11 PM
Fantastic story, but the game was unplayable without a walkthrough. It's a great pity that the authors didn't have enough faith in their concept to lay aside the ridiculously convoluted and non-intuitive machinery you have to fiddle with in order to get anywhere or to do anything. I don't like being called upon to play "Read the Author's Mind" just to read some files that my _character_ ought know perfectly well how to access (a debatable statement itself, this, I know...but questions _are_ begged: if I know what a "desk" is and understand instinctively how to "open a drawer," then why don't I share the same understanding of, say, what a "Panopticon" is and how to "retrieve a file?"). Look. I become _very_ annoyed when I feel that I'm being asked to play with weird machinery for the sheer bloody hell of it. That's profoundly irritating, people. Really. It is. Still, I can't rate this one too poorly, because there is a fantastic story hiding underneath all of the stupid machinery and endless Guess the Verbiage.
Rating:5
6/27/04 07:48 AM
Cleverly conceived steampunk with good layering of revelations and some intriguing moral dilemmas. Difficult to get what's going on at first, but picks up as it goes.
Rating:9
6/06/04 01:51 AM
A very, very disturbing steampunk setting and an ending that certainly requires a lot of thought and understanding. Above all, a brilliantly written game; I prefer the accessibility of Kaged, but this is still in my top ten all-time.
Rating:9
5/02/04 09:21 AM
Rating:8
4/04/04 11:41 AM
Rating:7
3/10/04 09:19 AM
A great IF game. Disturbing. Amazing. Highly recommended.
Rating:8
2/29/04 08:16 PM
I found neither the setting nor the story particularly compelling. Nevertheless, Bedlam is well worth playing, simply for the excellence with which it enables exploration of its central ethical dilemma. I know of no other work of IF which confronts the player philosophically with such power.
Rating:8
2/06/04 03:28 PM
A paranoid vision of institutional repression, somewhat in the manner of Kaged and A Mind Forever Voyaging. Not sure about the story -- ambiguity is not the same as profundity -- but the game did hold my interest for a while and was generally well done.
Rating:8
1/19/04 09:33 PM
Tricky and moderately unintuitive in some places. I got bogged down a bit when I didn't read a room desctiption properly and missed a a key room. Still, amazingly well written and fairly well paced, even if the rationale for the endings didn't ring true for me.
Rating:8
12/27/03 07:24 PM
Playtime: 2 hours, plus more for experimentation.
Quite good. The twist endings and primary conceit almost feel cliche in IF by now, but that's nothing against this remarkable work.
Rating:8
12/25/03 04:54 PM
Polished steampunk mystery, let down slightly by lack of direction.
Rating:8
12/14/03 06:05 AM
I replayed this several times but was unable to see the appeal.
Rating:5
12/14/03 12:38 AM
Amazing. I cant put it any other way. This is not one to play if your in a mood to understand it. The point is that you don't understand it, and that makes the endings seem even stranger and more symbolic then they might turn out to be. Great Job!
Rating:10
12/12/03 05:16 PM
Rating:10
12/03/03 07:38 AM
This is the first game where the multiple endings actually feel integrated into the storyline--not just "undo" a couple of times and change things, you have to plan ahead to get the ending you want. Richly detailed worldbuilding, even if the baddie is a little abstract.
Rating:9
11/30/03 05:06 PM
Rating:9
11/28/03 11:13 PM
This is an utterly involving game with richly detailed settings and story. You'll be itching to replay this as soon as it ends. Kabbalism, madness, steampunk, and 19th century England are fabulous window-dressing to the moral quandry at the heart of this wonderful game.
Rating:10
11/25/03 04:42 AM
Rating:9
11/24/03 01:00 AM
Rating:10
11/23/03 11:36 AM
Rating:10
11/21/03 08:43 AM
Rating:5
11/20/03 02:36 PM
I love psychological thrillers, and this is a good one. Some great writing and ambience combined with a compelling story with multiple endings and juicy moral quandries makes this one a classic. And The puzzles are good to boot.
Rating:9
11/19/03 08:24 AM
Wow -- great story, great options as to what to do, this game is fantastic. It's just over 2 hours, a little more if you go back to find all the endings.
Rating:10
4/28/04 06:49 AM
Hackneyed setting, cardboard NPCs, a gimmicky story delivered in infodumps and a big moral question based on premises so ridiculous I couldn't really care less about it. Am I the only one who hates this game?
Rating:2
11/18/03 06:04 PM
Rating:9
11/18/03 05:09 PM
Rating:8
11/18/03 04:29 PM
Rating:9
11/18/03 12:30 PM
"Bedlam", like "Photopia" derives one of its primary conceits from the interaction between IF conventions and the real world, and like "Photopia" it succeeds marvelously. "Bedlam" winds around this core concept a great deal of confusing but erudite plotlines, primarily the matter of Kaballah. I found it all nicely creepy and confusing, but I picked up the central concept early -- in something from Cleve's file. I found the different endings, and the moral question, a nice touch, even if I couldn't find one of the endings. Truly, a gem. -DJW
Rating:9
11/18/03 07:08 AM
Engrossing story and setting, professionally packaged. Emotionally demanding.
Rating:10
11/18/03 01:42 AM
There were a handful of implementation frustrations but no bugs persay. The story and writing behind this one is top-notch.
Rating:8
11/17/03 01:11 PM
Rating:10
11/17/03 12:05 PM
Rating:8
11/18/03 06:31 PM
A powerfully-written game which offers the player a real moral choice to make. The creepy mood and the Victorian steampunk setting were also well-done. Some bits of the implementation, especially with the machines at the beginning, could have been smoother, but overall a stunning piece of work.
Rating:9
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