Jane - Written by Joseph Grzesiak

                  Reviewed by John Ferris

The annual Interactive Fiction Competition attracts a fairly wide
variety of entries. Traditional adventures tend to do poorly,
literary classics with deep meaningful meanings and subtexts and
even the odd puzzle do well, off the wall games are panned and
puzzle-less IF do okay.

Jane is a linear, puzzle-free story about domestic abuse. I can
already hear most of you turning off already and I don't really
blame you, as domestic abuse is an unpleasant subject that most of
us would like to ignore and turn away from. I can't call Jane a
game, because it isn't, the best I can do is describe it as a
story. But it works better than a simple piece of written prose
because the player chooses what to do from a list of options and
this, along with the writing, is its strength.

All the player does is use "Talk to <character name>" and then
chooses from a list of options. You alternately play Jane and her
abusive husband John. You get to see the situation from both
sides. Jane, abused and believing it's her fault, trying to keep
the secret and caught in the trap. John, caught up in a paranoid
fear of discovery that leads to more abuse. You also get to play a
few other characters as well.

The linear nature of the story makes it more harrowing, you know
what's going to happen and no matter how hard you try, you can't
stop it. Trying to help can make things much worse.  There is some
(from my point of view very) unpleasant language which is in
keeping with the plot. There is violence, but not committed by the
player.

Jane came in 10th overall, reflecting just how well and believable
the situations are portrayed in the story. This is not a jolly,
pleasant read but try and keep with it until the end and make sure
you read the author's notes afterwards.

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