<img src=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2166/1526579894_85f674a47d_o.jpg align=left hspace=“10” vspace=“5” />The Interactive Fiction Little Falls claims to be an experience rather than just a story. Released earlier this year by Mondi Confinanti in English (originally published in Italian), Little Falls has the widest range of multimedia I’ve ever seen used in an IF. Images and sound add to the story in a way that makes them inseparable from the experience (even though you can play the IF without them).
The main character (aside from being You) is a police officer from the small Minnesota town of Little Falls. The IF starts in the police officer’s past, the root for a myriad of his problems which the game attempts to deal with. In this town a maniac stalks young women, and You are investigating him. A compelling hook in the beginning keeps the story going for a while, even through some frustrating puzzles (as a bit of a non-spoiler tip: the title of this game contains a very helpful verb).
As successful an experience Little Falls is, it still fails on fundamental level of storytelling. I’ll give the game a little credit for being translated from a foreign language—I’m sure some subtleties are lost in translation—but the writing is so heavy handed that there’s no real sense of mystery or fear. The added visuals and audio nearly compensate for this though, allowing the story to unfold in a pleasing manner.
For someone who’s looking to develop a more story based game Little Falls will offer some excellent inspirational fodder, and may give you a new avenue to look into for game development.