American Arcadia is a testement to how much I'm willing to tolerate gameplay that's making me utterly miserable for an extremely good story
I've seen some negative reviews that say this would be better as a TV show but I don't agree with that either. There are moments where the dual protagonists you switch between work very well and the story is definitely suited to a video game. But goddamn did I find a lot of it tedious
Trevor's gameplay is platforming, usually while under the pressure of being chased. However, any mistake is often an immediate game over and restart. Sometimes you aren't given much time to react, leading to a lot of monotenous trial and error. Plus, characters are pretty chatty, so enjoy hearing the same voiceline. I'm not gonna beat around the bush - I thought a lot of these sections sucked absolute shit. Angela's first puzzle sections and puzzles are...maybe more interesting, but you can run into the same issues there too.
There are moments where the gameplay is okay - there's a sequence very near the end that I won't spoil, which is fantastic. There's also another bit early on where you're in first person as Angela. On one monitor, you're watching Trevor and have to avoid him being detected with the WASD keys. On another monitor, you must use your mouse to guide Angela's eyes to the correct answers of a quiz while being grilled by a distracting Security member. WHY WAS THIS ONLY UTILIZIED ONCE???? IT WAS SO GOOD COMPARED TO EVERYTHING ELSE??
As for the story, it's basically The Truman Show Made By Walt Disney - and while there's no subtly there, it's a really strong premise with a lot of intrigue that wraps up very nicely, with a particularly strong moment towards the end
Ultimately, I recommend American Arcadia but I also think it could have been a lot better
I've seen some negative reviews that say this would be better as a TV show but I don't agree with that either. There are moments where the dual protagonists you switch between work very well and the story is definitely suited to a video game. But goddamn did I find a lot of it tedious
Trevor's gameplay is platforming, usually while under the pressure of being chased. However, any mistake is often an immediate game over and restart. Sometimes you aren't given much time to react, leading to a lot of monotenous trial and error. Plus, characters are pretty chatty, so enjoy hearing the same voiceline. I'm not gonna beat around the bush - I thought a lot of these sections sucked absolute shit. Angela's first puzzle sections and puzzles are...maybe more interesting, but you can run into the same issues there too.
There are moments where the gameplay is okay - there's a sequence very near the end that I won't spoil, which is fantastic. There's also another bit early on where you're in first person as Angela. On one monitor, you're watching Trevor and have to avoid him being detected with the WASD keys. On another monitor, you must use your mouse to guide Angela's eyes to the correct answers of a quiz while being grilled by a distracting Security member. WHY WAS THIS ONLY UTILIZIED ONCE???? IT WAS SO GOOD COMPARED TO EVERYTHING ELSE??
As for the story, it's basically The Truman Show Made By Walt Disney - and while there's no subtly there, it's a really strong premise with a lot of intrigue that wraps up very nicely, with a particularly strong moment towards the end
Ultimately, I recommend American Arcadia but I also think it could have been a lot better