PataNoir
Year: 2011
System: Windows, Android, iOS, Gulx/Inform 7
Developer: Simon Cristiansen
Players: Single
Genres: Interactive Fiction, Text Adventure, Noir, Detective, Mystery
Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/449150/PataNoir/?curator_clanid=40000720 / http://www.sichris.com/Games/PataNoir / https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=si9s1jktywxj5vdk
"The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle."
PataNoir is a homage to the classic stories of hard-boiled private investigators with a knack for describing everything with complex similes and metaphors. In PataNoir, you solve problems by manipulating the hard-boiled metaphors used by the main character to make sense of the world in which he lives.
Whether or not you’re into playing games with a text parser, this one is something special. The game is written like an old noir detective pulp novel full of similes. These similes act as the main game mechanic. As you interact with and change the similes you also change the reality that they describe. The player may even enter strange new worlds through these similes, or combine them to solve puzzles. You can take a simile like an object and drop it somewhere else, so that the dark and brooding atmosphere turns a person dark and brooding instead. The author has released the source code into the public domain, and even provided a torrent for the game on his website. I recommend getting the Steam version though.
