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xyzzysqrlA short but narratively strong text adventure (with graphics) that's mechanically all about asking questions and guiding a conversation, but storywise wanders between mystery and Asimovian science fiction.
This is a smart one, much like Thomas Was Alone before it. Michael Bithell's strengths lie in plotting, characterizing with personality strokes across a tight canvas, and in a game design that flows in one direction while giving the player an illusion of choice. Yes, in many ways this is a very linear experience that could be done in simple text adventure format, but it feels like a reactive one. Characters acknowledge things you say later on and you never have just one way to react to a situation personality-wise, even if you may be squeezed in tight puzzle-wise.
For people who enjoy engaging with a narrative's themes and allowing themselves to consider alternative viewpoints, this is a very interesting game. For people who do not enjoy this, I suspect it'll be about 45 minutes of clicking followed by an arbitrary choice and a sense of dissatisfaction.
Also, there's a developer's commentary robot that joins you on the second playthrough. I ended up going through most of the game again to hear what it had to say. One thing I had wondered, post-game, was "Can this be expanded on?" and it was nice to have confirmation that yes, the development team put this together in only a few months ("only") and more elaborate interactions were surely possible. I look forward to picking up the next game in this lineage to see how that goes.
This is a smart one, much like Thomas Was Alone before it. Michael Bithell's strengths lie in plotting, characterizing with personality strokes across a tight canvas, and in a game design that flows in one direction while giving the player an illusion of choice. Yes, in many ways this is a very linear experience that could be done in simple text adventure format, but it feels like a reactive one. Characters acknowledge things you say later on and you never have just one way to react to a situation personality-wise, even if you may be squeezed in tight puzzle-wise.
For people who enjoy engaging with a narrative's themes and allowing themselves to consider alternative viewpoints, this is a very interesting game. For people who do not enjoy this, I suspect it'll be about 45 minutes of clicking followed by an arbitrary choice and a sense of dissatisfaction.
Also, there's a developer's commentary robot that joins you on the second playthrough. I ended up going through most of the game again to hear what it had to say. One thing I had wondered, post-game, was "Can this be expanded on?" and it was nice to have confirmation that yes, the development team put this together in only a few months ("only") and more elaborate interactions were surely possible. I look forward to picking up the next game in this lineage to see how that goes.
