Famous archaeologist Dr. Lucius Thayer has gone missing in the Amazon jungle, and the CIA has asked you to find him. Unfortunately, you’re not the only one interested in Dr. Thayer. Enter a world of ancient mysteries and modern dangers, of suspicious cults and nefarious secret agents. Remember, you’re not paranoid if the danger is real.
The Spy and the Labyrinth is a 40,000 word interactive fantasy novel by Lewis Manalo, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
Your choices determine which document you read next in your ongoing search for clues. Through your investigation of the articles, journal entries, and letters in the missing archaeologist’s files, you will discover the game’s rich story and complex characters. Multiple playthroughs will uncover secrets you previously missed in this engrossing tale of supernatural horror.
• A unique narrative experience! • Horror and espionage collide in a captivating adventure! • An expansive world, steeped in centuries of real – and imagined – history. • An intriguing cast of international characters. • Uncover new secrets with each playthrough!
Lewis Manalo developed this game using ChoiceScript, a simple programming language for writing multiple-choice interactive novels like these. Writing games with ChoiceScript is easy and fun, even for authors with no programming experience. Write your own game and Hosted Games will publish it for you, giving you a share of the revenue your game produces.
Very fun! I liked how it used a lot of Lovecraftian tropes - stuff like mixing in real events and artifacts with the fictional ones to create verisimilitude, plus of course the cosmic horror - but was clearly not a Lovecraftian pastiche. The conclusion actually chilled me, which is pretty rare these days.
Uh… could somebody explain HOW to play this game properly? I played it and it was like… going through a bunch of record logs and past messages and then I think the MC agent got infected or something and the game just ended??? Must dig dig dig…?
I don’t dig it?
My review is that it’s more like the game setting itself is the labyrinth and I’m caught in a bug that’s of the shape of a giant spider stretching all over the place… IS there any options where I can choose FREELY without falling the paths of the choice settings? Like an ending where the MC NOT end up being infected?
I can’t speak for Lewis because I don’t know him and wasn’t even aware of his existence before I saw this game came out, but my guess is a game where you just read through logs until you find out that you and your world are doomed is exactly what he intended to make.
I don’t know how familiar you are with the cosmic horror genre, but this lack of protagonist agency is pretty typical. You just can’t defeat cosmic horror: you might sometimes be able to score a temporary victory, but in the end you’re going to die screaming while everything you care about falls apart. I see this game as riffing on the plot of “The Call of Cthulhu” - protagonist “piec[es] together…disassociated knowledge” from second- and third- hand accounts, slowly realizes the existence of a vast supernatural conspiracy centered around an unstoppable horror that’s inevitably going to destroy them and the world as they know it, has no choice but to resign themselves to their terrible fate. Not the most satisfying ending, but hey, that’s tragedy for you.
Yes, and it takes one who appreciates an exchange with the Yith “which is deeply nonconsensual—not a minor difference, and a very personal violation that goes pretty much unexplored. This thing comes in and casually takes your body and your life, without regard for the fact that you have to live in them afterwards” to appreciate that kind of setting. “And yet, Lovecraft seems to see greater horror in the mere existence of the “great race’s” greatness, the fact that they surpass humanity’s own achievements—the “mocking and incredible shadow” of the title,” which links and traps the spy in the labyrinth. A tragedy indeed!
Well, speaking of a tragedy and sense of being trapped in hopeless doom, I prefer this game over the game by Lewis, i believe it to be a piece of writing that is the true heir to Cthulhu. Highlands, Deep Waters by @MahatmaDagon: Released September 28th.
Highlands, Deep Waters by