IFComp08 Review: Opening Night
Like Freedom, it falls into a horrible, unescapable thematic trap that ends up seriously undermining the entire enterprise; it's in part about how the stage and the movie screen are different media requiring different talents. And it's very, very hard to portray either of those in a purely textual medium and have us believe it. So instead we're treated to long descriptions of how incredible people are and how profoundly moved the PC is. There needs to be a whole lot more showing and whole lot less telling going on here.
From a gameplay standpoint, the first puzzle presented (getting into the theater) brickwalled me and I needed the walkthrough very quickly. As the scenes changed, and the scenery changed, I didn't really get the hint that everything was changing and thus that revisiting old locations would be fruitful. There's a purpose to it, narratively, but it still boils down to having hotspots only appear once they're important to the plot. That's a bane of graphic adventures and it's no better when imported into text.
This appears to be a first effort. It's kind of underwhelming, but there's no shame in that. The last time I reacted to a game like this it was James Webb's The Sisters, and his next game was A Fine Day For Reaping, which was a huge triumph.