This review contains spoilers
Never has a short indie game based on a literal text adventure invoked such an oddly strong opinion in us that we also can't explain without just kinda spoiling the entire experience for you, so uh, sorry! For once, we're straight up spoiling a video game in this. Look it up if you want to play it without us literally telling you the entire video game.
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Okay, you've played it by now, right? Hopefully, yes, because here goes: Like, for the baseline video game, we like it. It sure is a text adventure made in Adobe Flash. It'd be kinda hard to fuck that up. But like... WOW this game feels like a small piece of a larger video game that was simply never made. And we don't just mean that because apparently the narrator in this game cameos in another video game by the developer.
Like, there is something to be said about a text adventure where the narrator hates you and also the narrator hates humans in general. That's a very fun concept! There's just one problem. Due to the whole "being a short text adventure" thing, it's HELLA railroaded, and in a way that, ultimately, makes it very uninteresting to actually look back on, let alone replay. We viscerally recall playing the video game, answering we'd get rid of hate, and being like, "wow, we wonder what happened if we agreed with the robot that hates us and said we'd get rid of emotion or compassion!" ...and then being completely stonewalled as the video game is just like "Wait, that's not your line."
And at that point, uh, the entire premise of the video game imploded on the spot. A lot of the struggle text adventures bring is from having options available to you, but not knowing how to actually go about them; the ol' "get ye flask" conundrum. This game didn't get the memo, because it's very easy to proceed, but there's also literally only one way forward. Try to diverge from the script, and the game just straight up isn't sure how exactly to handle you. The developer quite literally didn't think to program something for you if you DID try and defer from the original vision and try to play misanthrope. And that's a problem when the original vision is one that would, you would think, would encourage you to try and explore! It's a text adventure! Let us fuck up, damn you!
And like, we could say more, but honestly... There's a video game we know basically takes all of our complaints that we could've directed at this game, and then completely avoids them altogether by ACTUALLY being open and multi-choiced. We will not be name-dropping it here, as we don't want to spoil another paid video game entirely in the middle of a review of a free flash game from 2010--we have standards! But uh. Yeah, this game is probably one of the largest victims of other video games trying to do its concept but better, possibly ever.
Trying to recommend this game now is like trying to recommend you play Braid nowadays. You can if you're curious, but if you're looking for a video game that'll actually grip you, this is just so weak in comparison to more contemporary games that it's straight up painful to try and go back to.
...
Okay, you've played it by now, right? Hopefully, yes, because here goes: Like, for the baseline video game, we like it. It sure is a text adventure made in Adobe Flash. It'd be kinda hard to fuck that up. But like... WOW this game feels like a small piece of a larger video game that was simply never made. And we don't just mean that because apparently the narrator in this game cameos in another video game by the developer.
Like, there is something to be said about a text adventure where the narrator hates you and also the narrator hates humans in general. That's a very fun concept! There's just one problem. Due to the whole "being a short text adventure" thing, it's HELLA railroaded, and in a way that, ultimately, makes it very uninteresting to actually look back on, let alone replay. We viscerally recall playing the video game, answering we'd get rid of hate, and being like, "wow, we wonder what happened if we agreed with the robot that hates us and said we'd get rid of emotion or compassion!" ...and then being completely stonewalled as the video game is just like "Wait, that's not your line."
And at that point, uh, the entire premise of the video game imploded on the spot. A lot of the struggle text adventures bring is from having options available to you, but not knowing how to actually go about them; the ol' "get ye flask" conundrum. This game didn't get the memo, because it's very easy to proceed, but there's also literally only one way forward. Try to diverge from the script, and the game just straight up isn't sure how exactly to handle you. The developer quite literally didn't think to program something for you if you DID try and defer from the original vision and try to play misanthrope. And that's a problem when the original vision is one that would, you would think, would encourage you to try and explore! It's a text adventure! Let us fuck up, damn you!
And like, we could say more, but honestly... There's a video game we know basically takes all of our complaints that we could've directed at this game, and then completely avoids them altogether by ACTUALLY being open and multi-choiced. We will not be name-dropping it here, as we don't want to spoil another paid video game entirely in the middle of a review of a free flash game from 2010--we have standards! But uh. Yeah, this game is probably one of the largest victims of other video games trying to do its concept but better, possibly ever.
Trying to recommend this game now is like trying to recommend you play Braid nowadays. You can if you're curious, but if you're looking for a video game that'll actually grip you, this is just so weak in comparison to more contemporary games that it's straight up painful to try and go back to.
i thought i forgot the name of this, but it just wasn't on flashpoint for some reason. it's like the pinnacle of bad "deep" writing from the then-burgeoning flash art movement rolled up into one arduous text adventure. if you know the ending to 2darray's other game that got big at the time, The Company of Myself, then you know exactly how this is written and you know how lame it's going to be. he makes an attempt at symbolism every few tasks and it somehow doesn't work a single time
what a unique concept for a game. it's honestly done really well, i just wish it was a bit longer and had more options.
never has a game pissed me off quite like this.