Mercy - author Chris Klimas
                     (Part of Disk 1216)
        Review by Dorothy Millard (PC Inform Version)

Mercy is a short interactive story by Chris Klimas.  Apparently
when the socialists had thought that the only smallpox around was
in a very very small box kept securely closed they were wrong.
When you come into the clinic today, seven people have already
died.  A nurse, Simon, is missing.  He's probably gone too.
You're sick and your words keep running together.  Examining your
inventory you find your identification card from which you
discover that you are Dr. Peter Basham.  You also have The Blade,
which is a long knife with a button which automatically sterilises
the thing - one of the last pieces of technology around.

Mercy is well written and contains a twist at the end.  I thought
it was going to be a game about fighting against this dreaded
disease, Smallpox, but instead it turned out to be a love story of
sorts.  I was quite surprised after the introduction when it was
implied that you were sick with smallpox, to find myself wandering
around the countryside, boarding the metro and finishing up at the
market.  I expected to be quarantined in the clinic.  Oh well, the
twist at the end certainly came as a surprise, and I presume you
returned to your distasteful work at the clinic in due course - or
died of smallpox!!

The game commences with you in E-Room 2 where the sick smell of
disinfectant hangs in the stale air.  Overhead is a single light
which has two settings, dim for before and bright afterwards.  On
the steel table, left over from biology dissections at the
community college, in the centre of the room is a naked victim,
whose face is bloated with pustules blooming pink and red.
Disease is written all over his body.  Leaving the E-Room (which
stands for euthanasia by the way) and going up the stairs you find
your office but there is nothing of interest.  You can examine a
few things but find nothing that adds significantly to the story.
So back down the stairs until you come to the clinic on the first
floor where you meet Dr. Hegel, who is the oldest doctor at the
clinic, and Leslie who proves to be somewhat important (although
you won't meet her again) later in the game.  After a short while
a rock is thrown through the glass, the crowd outside is getting
violent and chanting "There is no mercy, only death."

Typing ABOUT gives information on speaking to characters, the
preface, how to get in touch with the author, acknowledgements,
honours Mercy has received, version history, branches (for when
you have completed the story), and a preview of the author's next
game, Shooting Star.  I played version two of Mercy which has had
bug fixes and some characters now respond to the keyword Mercy.
Being an Inform game all the usual abbreviations we have come to
expect are included.  This is certainly a "different" game which
drew me into the storyline very early in the piece.  The puzzles
are relatively easy and the game is played mainly for the story it
tells.  It is a relatively short game with approximately 30
locations.  There are many different ways to get to your
destination, for example your replies to Jason, exiting via the
crowd or the alley, and on the metro where you can either get off
at your station or remain on the train to hear the story the woman
is telling, either way you finish up at the market.  The ending
varies too, depending on your actions.  After all this I wasn't
really sure whether I had finished the game.  Let me clarify that,
I knew I had finish the game - it had obviously ended, but whether
I had completed it correctly, or just been killed off I wasn't
sure.  I was left feeling puzzled.  Mercy is an unusual story
which I thoroughly enjoyed.  There are no mind-boggling puzzles in
there, so play and enjoy it for the writing.













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