I love an interesting take on interactive fiction, or text adventures as they were once called. While it’s not quite my style of story, I do love the idea behind Southern Monsters. It’s what I would call a text/graphic hybrid that started to get popular at one time. That essentially means you’re looking at the graphical representation of the room you’re currently in, and I’ve enjoyed plenty of those in my time.
That said, it looks like Southern Monsters is essentially a one-room game. You’re playing as someone called “cripplefoot”, which implies that you’re pretty much bedridden anyway. The game takes place over five days as you scour the Interwebs for information on an elusive “cryptid” that has been spotted in Arkansas. For those who don’t know, a cryptid is essentially an unknown creature with unknown properties.
Unlike most pieces of interactive fiction, there isn’t a text parser. You’ll be choosing your actions via pre-built options. I don’t mind that, but maybe an option to use an old-school parser would be nice. It doesn’t look like it’s needed, though. I really do like the idea behind Southern Monsters, and I currently have it starred for now.
If there is one issue I have with Southern Monsters, it’s that I would love to know more about the game. There’s plenty of room to talk about various aspects, such as the gameplay and an extension of the story. Still, I won’t hold that against the creators. I do really want to know more, though. For that, I have it starred and I look forward to seeing updates expand on this. Until then, I’m just going to keep an eye on the campaign.
