# ELIZA by Zachtronics

9 Hacker News commenters recommended ELIZA by Zachtronics and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a dark, atmospheric visual novel with haunting music and a memorable chatbot story. Critics find its chatbot repetitive and say it fails as a real conversational test.

## Why people recommend it

- Excellent visual novel overall (3 comments): "it's excellent and I think it's one of their most under-appreciated games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766299)) "Every part of it is unbelievably strong though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767788)) "it stands alone as an excellent visual novel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48775917))
- Mesmerizing, memorable atmosphere (2 comments): "The in-game phone apps that just show a looping pixel art city scene with haunting ambient music are mesmerizing, even moreso than the beautiful solitaire game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772582)) "I think about this game often" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766440))

## What people warn about

- Poor at passing conversation tests (2 comments): "ELIZA absolutely did not ever pass anything resembling a real Turing test." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47163646)) "ELIZA has never done well in conversational tests." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48387128))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Sid Meier's Pirates!](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sid-meier-s-pirates.md): 61 recommend
- [Grim Fandango](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grim-fandango.md): 41 recommend
- [Myst](https://hackerapproved.com/p/myst.md): 31 recommend
- [Monkey Island](https://hackerapproved.com/p/monkey-island.md): 29 recommend
- [Doki Doki Literature Club](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doki-doki-literature-club.md): 25 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.zachtronics.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ELIZA by Zachtronics", https://hackerapproved.com/p/eliza/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).