This one is pretty underwhelming, but I played it for over an hour anyway. It’s kind of the opposite of Cana According to Micah. I could tell that one was “good,” but it wasn’t really “fun,” whereas I found this one sort of interesting, but it isn’t actually good.
Luster is a basic treasure hunt. Your goal is pretty clear: to get a bunch of gems scattered around the environment. The environment is sparsely implemented, poorly written, and though the game is supposed to be based around puzzles they really are very beginner-level and not super clever at all. The room descriptions are so sparse and contain so little information in the way of environmental objects, that it will shock you how few of those objects are actually implemented.
Also, a default response for x me (boo).
>x me
As good-looking as ever.>i
You’re carrying Letter.>read letter
You read:
Dear ,Welcome to *Luster* an interactive fiction story. In this story, you will progress through countless traps and challenges. If you feel stuck, remember to try examining everything and think in new perspectives.
-The Author
Dear who? Who AMMM I? Existential dread!
Other quirky stuff: a battle where you have “hit points” all the sudden. A machine that is necessary to mix two fluids, but which is extremely arcane to interact with (“open machine” doesn’t work, “put dye in machine” doesn’t work, etc), and a maze, of the “twisty little passages all alike” variety.
I got three out of the required four gems in the story before I decided no, this really was a waste of time. That’s probably more than I should’ve gotten, but I guess I was genuinely curious about the gems, so a few points in this one’s favor? (Those points are then subtracted by the addition of a maze.)
Basically it fails entertainingly.
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