Chinese Game Review: 密室逃脫 - 文字獄 | Prison of Word

[Wei-Ming 魏明]

文字獄 is exactly what a text adventure should be. Even if you don't like escape rooms, you should play just to see how Chinese Interactive Fiction is improving on language-based interactivity.

English: You can play Level 1 in English, but you may not recognize the sheer genius of the interface as it works better in Chinese than in English. I do think this concept could work marvelously in English, but an author might need to be a native speaker.

Interface: This is a parser hybrid. Instead of typing commands, the player can obtain action and object cards. Each is stored in a separate inventory. For example, if I "examine flowers" I might consequently obtain the ability to "smell flowers." (This is not a game example or spoiler.) You grab and drag the cards to a place in the sentence.

Game play: It's an escape room. This is not a ground-breaking concept but the author made the right decision here. (S)he's introducing a completely new kind of interface to the Chinese gaming community, after all. There simply were no parser games in Chinese until now. 

[Xiao Kui]

I've downloaded the android version and started, though i haven't gotten out of the first room yet. ? Good for practicing my traditional character reading - thanks for the tip!

[Mandarincave]

Good for learners having some knowledge of Chinese.  Thanks Wei-Ming.