[A spoiler for the ending of Infocom's "Infidel" follows. If you haven't solved it, don't read on.]

I'll start off by saying this: "Inhumane" is not meant to be taken seriously. It's a puzzle-less parody of Infocom's "Infidel", written by the author when he was 15 or so, and translated from the original AppleSoft BASIC version to Inform. But it's actually kind of fun, with a few small laughs, and it brought back some great memories of my own abyssmal (though they seemed great at the time) early attempts at I-F. Perhaps more good-natured sharing of first-try games is in order. I may even translate one of my own, if the interest is there.

What little plot there is begins along the same lines as "Infidel." You've been abandoned on an archaeological dig, and must find and explore a hidden pyramid. Once you get inside (and a couple of notes left behind by your partner tell you how), you're confronted by a malevolent spirit who offers to give you the key to the treasure room in exchange for your getting killed by a series of traps to prove yourself a complete moron. This aspect of the game pokes fun at the fact that your character dies at the end of "Infidel" -- in "Inhumane", you have to get killed nine times to win. Some of the traps are rather imaginative, though it's nearly always painfully obvious when you're going to die.

For the most part, though, "Inhumane" is just an excuse for a bunch of incomprehensible inside jokes about high-school geometry class. Though you'll get a couple of laughs, it sounds a lot funnier than it actually is. Far more entertaining is the "History of Infobom" section of the online help, which describes some of the other Infocom parodies author Andrew Plotkin and his friend worked on at one time.

-- C.E. Forman