ELIZA by Zachtronics
Shares rank 10 of 24 adventure games by recommenders
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.
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.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 69%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Excellent visual novel overall
“it's excellent and I think it's one of their most under-appreciated games”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Exapunks” “Every part of it is unbelievably strong though.”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Exapunks” “it stands alone as an excellent visual novel”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Exapunks” Mesmerizing, memorable atmosphere
“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.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Exapunks” “I think about this game often”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Exapunks”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor at passing conversation tests
“ELIZA absolutely did not ever pass anything resembling a real Turing test.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “I don't know how you get here from "predict the next word."” “ELIZA has never done well in conversational tests.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “AI Outperforms Law Professors in Stanford Law Study”
Other adventure games people recommend
The four most recommended other adventure games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sid Meier's Pirates! | 61 | 11 | 85% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Grim Fandango | 41 | 8 | 84% | 3 | 20 yrs3 owners | — |
| Myst | 31 | 7 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Monkey Island | 29 | 3 | 91% | 9 | — | Approved |
| ELIZA by ZachtronicsThis page | 9 | 4 | 69% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It got stuck in loops and frequently asked the same questions over and over”
“quickly found it shallow and anodyne”
“shitty 1966 chatbot, a couple hundred lines of code”
“ELIZA was a such a fun chatbot to chat with”
“it stands alone as an excellent visual novel”
“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.”
“not only is it so dark, BUT SO MUCH OF IT CAME TRUE!”
“Every part of it is unbelievably strong though.”
“I think about this game often”
“it's excellent and I think it's one of their most under-appreciated games”
“ELIZA has never done well in conversational tests.”
“ELIZA absolutely did not ever pass anything resembling a real Turing test.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.