Masquerade

Masquerade is an excellent story-based IF set in Civil-War era romance genre-- something not commonly seen since Amy Brigg/Infocom's mildly successful Plundered Hearts.

The game gets high marks for its very detailed gameworld, strong writing, and multifacted characters. You play a female protagonist who is a feminist before her time, the 1800's, trying to decide on her future. Masquerade has many guess-the-verb puzzles, but none too aggravating. Your romantic interest, Jonathan, is very well realized, and each conversation with him reveals a bit more about both his character and your protagonist's.

Although most of the game is linear, there are forks in the later parts of the game that lead to 12 possible endings. The great thing is that it is not clear which ending is "optimal" - they are just different outcomes that could seem either good or bad, depending on your preferences (for example, in one ending, your protagonist decides to strike out on her own without marriage - is that necessarily good or bad?). This serves as proof of the game's achievement as story-based IF - one which you will probably be compelled to replay a few times just to see the possibilities.

If you like romance genre, or story-based IF in general, Masquerade is well worth your time. It may not be nearly as moving as Jon Ingold's My Angel, but it definitely deserves no less attention. Thumbs up!

Review By HOTUD