You are the protagonist of an unfinished 1st person fantasy game, trapped in development hell. The designers (played by James Urbaniak, Ashly Burch, and Karen Dyer) are god-like, but so indecisive that they've given you no powers whatsoever. With the help of a mysterious disembodied voice (Stephen Russell) you must seize the tools of game development from these unworthy 'gods', uncovering more of the darkly comic story as you go.
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Unfortunately, it's a better idea than a game, and it feels like it's doing little more than lampshading with all of its critiques of the industry and the expectations of the player, especially given its "I know I know you're probably bored, let's try something different" humor that we're all-too-familiar with at this point.
It reminds me of a Netflix production trying to have a smart message without alienating too many people, and its biggest success IS that it's accessible - namely to an audience that isn't really used to this kind of thing and needs an entry point. That's not to say it's bad, accessible art with a message is really important, but the amount of dialogue spelling out the themes makes me think they maybe didn't trust the player as much as they should have, and went for a tell-don't-show approach that really doesn't work for me. All of this "tell" doubles as an excuse to take advantage of their all-star cast, which includes DOCTOR VENTURE HIMSELF, and honestly I can't blame them for wanting more of him, but I do not care about the characters enough to listen to all these audio logs and think they're so smart.
It doesn't help that I'm currently playing Alan Wake II, which goes above and beyond with the very-similar themes on how creators treat their art and audience, and how their art shapes them in return, using the mechanics of the game to try to reshape the story given your restrictions as a piece OF a story.
It reminds me of a Netflix production trying to have a smart message without alienating too many people, and its biggest success IS that it's accessible - namely to an audience that isn't really used to this kind of thing and needs an entry point. That's not to say it's bad, accessible art with a message is really important, but the amount of dialogue spelling out the themes makes me think they maybe didn't trust the player as much as they should have, and went for a tell-don't-show approach that really doesn't work for me. All of this "tell" doubles as an excuse to take advantage of their all-star cast, which includes DOCTOR VENTURE HIMSELF, and honestly I can't blame them for wanting more of him, but I do not care about the characters enough to listen to all these audio logs and think they're so smart.
It doesn't help that I'm currently playing Alan Wake II, which goes above and beyond with the very-similar themes on how creators treat their art and audience, and how their art shapes them in return, using the mechanics of the game to try to reshape the story given your restrictions as a piece OF a story.