PataNoir

I played PataNoir back in 2016 and reviewed it for Just Adventure. Recently, I decided to revisit it and pick up some missing achievements. Once again, I am so impressed by this game. It is not going to appeal to everyone. For text adventurers who love language, it is quite brilliant. The game makes extensive use of the simile ("It's raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock") and the metaphor ("you are the sunshine of my life"). PataNoir takes its name from the pataphor which extends the metaphor concept to create a new reality. In PataNoir, the previously referenced cow, flat rock, and sunshine become objects that can be interacted with. The game has all the hallmarks of the classic noir style: A detective past his prime, a smoky office filled with case files, a client who knocks on the door, and (of course) a beautiful woman. To solve the case, you must travel through multiple locations and interact with interesting characters, using only typed text commands. Illustrations are provided for each scene and the original sound track is very nice. There is a manual save system with multiple slots that comes in handy if you are an achievement hunter. The game starts with a tuto…

A text adventure about a private eye with the ability to manipulate hard-boiled similes as if they were literal objects. Or maybe he's just nuts. The language wonking gimmick is a genius idea that couldn't have worked in any other medium, and the game has a lot of fun spinning out its implications over the course of the adventure. The plot, on the other hand, is a lightweight excuse to string together puzzles and jokes until the author runs out of ideas, whereupon the game stops like an out-of-control bootlegger slamming into the brooklyn bridge at 2am. Play for the gags and mindbendyness.

I love text adventures that try to push their genre's boundaries to become something special, and PataNoir does so excellently. While, like in many text adventures, some interactions are a little esoteric, the in-game hint system (beautifully flavoured as your servant, who is actually your sidearm, giving you advice) helps either confirm you're moving in the right direction or helps hint at what abstract properties of your figurative items you should be trying to use. There were a couple of times I had to try a few different versions of the command I wanted to execute before it did, but that was a minor hassle. It should be noted that this isn't really a mystery game, in case you wanted a deep compelling story. It's more of a puzzle game with a Noir aesthetic - an aesthetic it executes brilliantly. For future games, having background music and pictures that change as you move location would be excellent (you have to manually change the pictures, and find your own generic Noir music to play in the background). Regardless, I highly recommend PataNoir if you want a quality text adventure with a unique gimmick that results in some fun Noir-flavoured storytelling.

A very creative concept, which I think also uses the format of interactive fiction quite well, as I can't see it easily working as well in any other format. The writing is also pretty good just in general, even outside of the pataphorical elements. Admiteddly, my focus was often much more on the exploration of the similes, to the point where sometimes I'd completely forget about the non-figurative world. I felt the need to use hints/look at a guide quite a few times, though I think most (with some exceptions) "puzzles" had logical solutions. Even with that though, it was a cool experience for just the writing of it.

Two things i noticed in the tutorial: It says the desk and chair are the only furniture in the office and yet I can see a file cabinet and frame in the illustration. Second, after opening the door, how did he get into his chair again? Mysteries are all about the details. And since I didn't have the option to tell the visitor that if he came all the way to my office to NOT be sure if he wants to hire me then I'd be more inclined to question his value to me -- well, I guess that was enough to tell me this game isn't for me.

game is good. short but sweet.