This review contains spoilers
This game resonates with me immensely in a way that's hard to describe.
While growing up in the late 90's, PC games tended to be much easier to screw around with by going into its install folder and experimenting with .ini files and changing some values here and there and see how the game would react to these changes. In a way it made you feel like a god that had total control over this one software you bought and you were able to bend the rules to have things go your way. I distinctively remember having a hard time with Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun and then going into the game files to give some units a boost in power by changing the values in a config file so I could beat a particular mission, then resorting the original values later on so I could at least try to go as far as i can without cheating my way through the entire thing.
Ever since that moment, it has become quite the ritual for me to take a look inside the files of any game and see if I can find anything interesting or exploitable. I'm not necessarily looking for a way to cheat anymore but I find it rather fun to just be able to go outside of what the creator intended you to experience. This is also where i got my first hand experience at finding extra files that I wasn't really supposed to see, like unused content or entire game assets that you missed or couldn't see clearly in the context it was used during gameplay.
OneShot taps into this weird obsession of mine and RUNS with it. From the very moment you start the game you get this uneasy feeling that the game knows too much... like your name, without asking you at any point to create a profile or anything like any other game would typically do. Having the game directly talk to you through alert windows instead of in-game dialog box made me realize that for once the role got reversed and the game was enjoying screwing around with my computer.
From that point forward it felt like a battle between me and whatever entity inside the game was doing that, and I felt bad for Niko being caught in the crossfire. Still, I didn't fully realize the extent until that one pop-up window asked me if "I knew what to do". It's almost as if it knew me personally and was inviting me to not hold back.
I thoroughly enjoyed solving all these meta-puzzles until the end, but something felt wrong. While it felt like I was in a battle with this entity, it sure did a lot to help me out. It felt like it was taunting me, right up until the very end, almost like I was still constricted by its rules and being told to do more than just following its guidance. After the final choice and being locked out of even opening the game, something didn't feel right. There was so many area's that I wanted to explore and never could, and I assumed that I would go back there later or have to start the game over from the beginning. I was definitely NOT done with this, I refuse to be stuck with that bitter choice you have to make. I will save all of them, for I am the god of this world.
I started by digging around the install folder and realized there were so many character portraits in there for people I haven't met, surely the game WANTS me to break the one shot rule. It's telling me to do my thing, and my god was it satisfying to figure it all out.
I absolutely loved the true ending. By the end of it all I grew attached to all the characters, and even if the taunting from the entity initially ticked me off, by the end it felt more like playful rivalry than disdain. They had noble intentions and only wanted Niko to live and go home, just as much as I was.
The game also hits me close to home with it's themes. I'm autistic and most of the time, game characters feels like real people with their own will to me, and I definitely felt this the entire way through OneShot. It truly feels as if Niko is a real person that managed to escape my PC and finally go home, while the rest of the cast are stuck inside my computer. It makes me afraid of uninstalling this game, and I wish there was a way to boot the game just to check in on them from time to time.
I don't know where you are now Niko, but I will never forget you. What an incredible piece of art this game is.
While growing up in the late 90's, PC games tended to be much easier to screw around with by going into its install folder and experimenting with .ini files and changing some values here and there and see how the game would react to these changes. In a way it made you feel like a god that had total control over this one software you bought and you were able to bend the rules to have things go your way. I distinctively remember having a hard time with Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun and then going into the game files to give some units a boost in power by changing the values in a config file so I could beat a particular mission, then resorting the original values later on so I could at least try to go as far as i can without cheating my way through the entire thing.
Ever since that moment, it has become quite the ritual for me to take a look inside the files of any game and see if I can find anything interesting or exploitable. I'm not necessarily looking for a way to cheat anymore but I find it rather fun to just be able to go outside of what the creator intended you to experience. This is also where i got my first hand experience at finding extra files that I wasn't really supposed to see, like unused content or entire game assets that you missed or couldn't see clearly in the context it was used during gameplay.
OneShot taps into this weird obsession of mine and RUNS with it. From the very moment you start the game you get this uneasy feeling that the game knows too much... like your name, without asking you at any point to create a profile or anything like any other game would typically do. Having the game directly talk to you through alert windows instead of in-game dialog box made me realize that for once the role got reversed and the game was enjoying screwing around with my computer.
From that point forward it felt like a battle between me and whatever entity inside the game was doing that, and I felt bad for Niko being caught in the crossfire. Still, I didn't fully realize the extent until that one pop-up window asked me if "I knew what to do". It's almost as if it knew me personally and was inviting me to not hold back.
I thoroughly enjoyed solving all these meta-puzzles until the end, but something felt wrong. While it felt like I was in a battle with this entity, it sure did a lot to help me out. It felt like it was taunting me, right up until the very end, almost like I was still constricted by its rules and being told to do more than just following its guidance. After the final choice and being locked out of even opening the game, something didn't feel right. There was so many area's that I wanted to explore and never could, and I assumed that I would go back there later or have to start the game over from the beginning. I was definitely NOT done with this, I refuse to be stuck with that bitter choice you have to make. I will save all of them, for I am the god of this world.
I started by digging around the install folder and realized there were so many character portraits in there for people I haven't met, surely the game WANTS me to break the one shot rule. It's telling me to do my thing, and my god was it satisfying to figure it all out.
I absolutely loved the true ending. By the end of it all I grew attached to all the characters, and even if the taunting from the entity initially ticked me off, by the end it felt more like playful rivalry than disdain. They had noble intentions and only wanted Niko to live and go home, just as much as I was.
The game also hits me close to home with it's themes. I'm autistic and most of the time, game characters feels like real people with their own will to me, and I definitely felt this the entire way through OneShot. It truly feels as if Niko is a real person that managed to escape my PC and finally go home, while the rest of the cast are stuck inside my computer. It makes me afraid of uninstalling this game, and I wish there was a way to boot the game just to check in on them from time to time.
I don't know where you are now Niko, but I will never forget you. What an incredible piece of art this game is.