This review contains spoilers
A brutalist creation from the mind of a depressed cynic. Despite the depiction of an ultimate dystopia, depraved of pure hope, the game spends most of its time offering outlets of redemption or healing for its characters. For the alleged 109 years of torture the cast had suffered, they seem quite sane and functional, barely mentioning almost any of it. Despair feels ever-present but not all-encompassing. Humanity is suspended on the brink of extinction, there is no escape, and even the best ending feels bittersweet, but none of that has to matter at this very moment. We sow seeds me may not reap, and we reap seeds we may not sow, but there is always perseverance.
I am not familiar with Ellison's work and have not read the source material. Perhaps much of what fascinates me about this game is rooted in his lack of experience in the medium. I suck at puzzle games and this is basically my first point-and-click but progression frankly is frequently and unfairly obtuse. Just finishing one of the scenarios is strenuous enough; actually "beating" each one and getting to the endgame seems borderline impossible without outside help. No doubt the game could be woven more tightly so that the morality of player actions could be highlighted instead of mundanely scanning and scavenging every area. The game's sense of morality is what really interests me about it, because it almost feels inconsistent. There are times when murder is permissible and others when it locks you out of the best ending, and there's no real understanding of the distinction. However, there is novelty in the way it champions the characteristic of nobility, instead of blanket good-or-bad options most games with a modern morality system offer you.
More fascinating is how the game feels so well-suited to the interactive medium despite being an adaptation. The control system AM feels more ingrained and supreme here because you are playing this on a computer, one that dares you hold fast to your principles and see an end to this abstracted juddering abyss. It's something that could only work to this level of effectiveness in this medium, where you can not only witness nightmarish imagery that defies description but interact with it and participate in its world, all to prove some depraved computation of the devil wrong. There's good and bad but it made for one heck of a game to start the year off with.
I am not familiar with Ellison's work and have not read the source material. Perhaps much of what fascinates me about this game is rooted in his lack of experience in the medium. I suck at puzzle games and this is basically my first point-and-click but progression frankly is frequently and unfairly obtuse. Just finishing one of the scenarios is strenuous enough; actually "beating" each one and getting to the endgame seems borderline impossible without outside help. No doubt the game could be woven more tightly so that the morality of player actions could be highlighted instead of mundanely scanning and scavenging every area. The game's sense of morality is what really interests me about it, because it almost feels inconsistent. There are times when murder is permissible and others when it locks you out of the best ending, and there's no real understanding of the distinction. However, there is novelty in the way it champions the characteristic of nobility, instead of blanket good-or-bad options most games with a modern morality system offer you.
More fascinating is how the game feels so well-suited to the interactive medium despite being an adaptation. The control system AM feels more ingrained and supreme here because you are playing this on a computer, one that dares you hold fast to your principles and see an end to this abstracted juddering abyss. It's something that could only work to this level of effectiveness in this medium, where you can not only witness nightmarish imagery that defies description but interact with it and participate in its world, all to prove some depraved computation of the devil wrong. There's good and bad but it made for one heck of a game to start the year off with.