An oldie but a goodie, Meteor is a high quality game with a lot of care put into it, and some fun twists.
STORY
Meteor features branching paths and multiple endings, and due to the game taking place over only a few days replaying the game is actually fun and interesting instead of a chore.
All sexual activity in the game is optional, which is something I like to see. Certain storylines require the player to act somewhat questionably, and others downright monstrously, but given the optional nature of it all that's fine by me.
There's a fair bit of backstory and worldbuilding here, and thankfully there aren't too many infodumps in the middle of the action.
GAMEPLAY
The basic AIF gameplay seen in many titles is here, but there are certain unique mechanics involved in the various storylines that go above and beyond the usual navigating between rooms to find keys into girls panties so you can verb all their nouns. Photography for example is seen in many games, it is a good excuse to see women in various states of undress, but this game features more indepth mechanics related to its photos than most.
The conversational mechanics are more advanced than usual for AIF. Most are content to either use ask/tell or talk exclusively, but Meteor uses both. In addition instead of only having one thing to discuss when you use talk or cycling through options, talk in this game results in you being given options for discussion. Few games use this method with the shear number of available conversation options, much less in conjunction with ask/tell. The way the talk options increase as the story progresses is also nice.
While map design is not as important in AIF games since navigation tends to be fairly quick, I still think Meteor does a good job with it and that a lot of other games in different formats could learn a thing or two. There are few wasted rooms in the game, and you aren't forced to travel though pointless hallways devoid of interesting material.
There's a strange time cycle at play in Meteor. The main character attends college, and the cycle of waking up, leaving the house, going to school, and attending classes is handled in a familiar fashion, but things get weird once you're out of class and the day opens up. Instead of featuring a universal clock using any of the usual methods (each action taking a certain amount of time, big discreet chunks taken by a few important actions, real time tracking) or an energy system Meteor instead only starts tracking time aafter school for any location once the main character enters that location. This means that if you enter a lot of locations in rapid succession you'll see people leave them or go to sleep around the same time. If instead you choose to spend a lot of time in location A, then go to location B, you'll find that it's still early in location B once you get there, even though multiple characters in location A are asleep. It's an interesting way to handle things, and it makes certain situations much easier once you figure that out.
PRESENTATION
The writing is good, with lots of detail where you expect it to be, and the game not wasting your time where you don't want it.
There's no music to speak of, but I don't think people expect that from AIF.
The graphics are a weakpoint for the game. They're completely optional, but what's available are store bought Poser or Daz models. Meteor is quite old now, and even if you like this style of visuals you might not appreciate such out of date models.
If you're looking for AIF you most likely have either heard of or already played Meteor, but if you're just learning about it right now I suggest to check it out.
