Absolutely insane game for 1993 - it's no exaggeration that this inspired many well known filmmakers, hell, a sizeable portion of modern sci-fi cinema in general.
It's a game that can be completed in a single afternoon, but this doesn't lessen it's power.
The CG, prerendered 3d spaces, are all just of mind-blowing beauty. This must have absolutely shocked people back then.
The music, while minimal, creates such an atmosphere of impeding dread and doom. The train is like a percussion instrument, setting the beat for a song of death.
It's effortlessly cinematic. I can see how a lot of those late 90's early 2000's, "trippy" sci-fi flicks were inspired by this (a la the Matrix).
It's interesting: the developers, Synergy, are not really what I would consider to be high profile. At least not in the West. They've made waves before, but with only one other game: "Alice: an Interactive Museum".
They've made some incredibly strange games over the years, such as a a series of Wizard of Oz RPGs (not the one for the DS). Those were this developers final games, IIRC.
It surprises me, because this game just feels like a switch went off in the developers mind, and they decided they were going to knock it out of the park. Not that this developers other games are bad in any respect, in fact I'd say they are all hidden diamonds; just that this game feels like such a culmination of energy and themes that they've worked on in other games. Large, art deco institutions. A weird steampunk/cyberpunk mix with themes of: alienation, the viewing of technology as salvation, and the meaning of huge, kaleidoscopic temples of steel. Haruhiko Shono, and his team are genius for this.
It's a game that can be completed in a single afternoon, but this doesn't lessen it's power.
The CG, prerendered 3d spaces, are all just of mind-blowing beauty. This must have absolutely shocked people back then.
The music, while minimal, creates such an atmosphere of impeding dread and doom. The train is like a percussion instrument, setting the beat for a song of death.
It's effortlessly cinematic. I can see how a lot of those late 90's early 2000's, "trippy" sci-fi flicks were inspired by this (a la the Matrix).
It's interesting: the developers, Synergy, are not really what I would consider to be high profile. At least not in the West. They've made waves before, but with only one other game: "Alice: an Interactive Museum".
They've made some incredibly strange games over the years, such as a a series of Wizard of Oz RPGs (not the one for the DS). Those were this developers final games, IIRC.
It surprises me, because this game just feels like a switch went off in the developers mind, and they decided they were going to knock it out of the park. Not that this developers other games are bad in any respect, in fact I'd say they are all hidden diamonds; just that this game feels like such a culmination of energy and themes that they've worked on in other games. Large, art deco institutions. A weird steampunk/cyberpunk mix with themes of: alienation, the viewing of technology as salvation, and the meaning of huge, kaleidoscopic temples of steel. Haruhiko Shono, and his team are genius for this.