The Intruder by Natalie Bookchin told a story through the games that you were playing. The presence of text fluctuated from game to game, but there always seem to be two different ways to understand the story from. Typically, those two ways were through hearing it and the other way was a supplementary picture, text, often times both. To retrieve the story, the viewer needs to advance through the game. Almost, like in game, game, game, and again game, which we saw in a recent class. I found it difficult to pay attention to the story, especially in the game where you had to shoot your rival, because your attention is focused on achieving the goal, rather than comprehending the story.

After going through the game a couple of times, I started to pick up what the storyline was about. Sure, you get the quick blurb in the beginning that says “The intruder- passing the love of women- 2 Samuel 1:26- a story told in ten games…”, but that only tells you so much. The sound of the narrators voice seemed to have a Spanish accent and the original story was in Spanish. The Spanish culture is extremely religious, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see the biblical reference in the title page or game.

I found it interesting when I opened the hypertext at different times because at some points the games were running much more slowly. That tended to influence my tolerance towards the games and the story itself. This is especially true in regards to the game immediately following the title page. Sometimes it was simply too fast and the sound and screen glitch that appeared made me cringe and more so with every miss. I had to eventually mute the sound and manually switch to the next game.

In regards to the theme of the story, the games related to the text or the spoken words of the narrator, I assume. For instance, in the second game, there is an alien game, which relates to the intruder not being familiar to them. In the third game, the narrator speaks of how the intruder or antagonist has relations with women. The game requires you to shoot the opponent without getting yourself hurt. The interesting part is that the woman switches from side to side, which is triggered by whether you shoot. She doesn’t necessarily die, she just changes sides, which may symbolize one side saving her or on the other hand, possibly kidnapping her. This may also symbolize the fact that the narrator of the story possibly feeling like a piece property or a trade item. In this same game there was this intriguing picture of a window with a women standing in it. This represented the possibility of escape through women. Maybe the women in the story were the key to freedom somehow. The story combined with the voice and the games give another layer of insight to the plot it is just a matter or understanding both and comprehending both at the same time.