Honestly a pretty cute sim of Facebook in the late 2000s. While this is more my sister's age than mine, as I was Class of 2011 rather than Class of 2009, it's close enough to not completely lose me in that feeling. What was, was more the fact that I was the otaku in the making rather than the, well, we like to call you normies (totally epic nostalgic Family Guy reference bro!!!), but digging deep in the game there was still something for me too that I'll get to in a bit.
You play the game by navigating Faceb-Facenook and conversing with your high school friends. One piece of advice I'd give is to turn on the auto-typing "accessibility feature" because if you don't you will have to type random nonsense and then hit enter before sending your message, but with it on you just have to wait for it to type out and then hit enter. I get what it was going for here but it just took away from it since what I was actually typing didn't matter.
As you talk to them, they'll send you some nostalgic links of their own, like Youtube playlists and other websites made specifically for this game, like DEADMOU5 or 3O3. Checking out these playlists is important to your interactions and a creative use of meta, but I am concerned for the lack of futureproofing here as these videos won't always be available and one is already down (since they're just embedded Youtube vids). Exploring can even be fun as you can find hidden gems of nostalgia like the old IGN website (called EGN) or even specific Youtube vids like Llamas with Hats, Bad Apple, and even COOOOOOOOL GUUUUUUUUY It's a nice wave of nostalgia for me to watch these original vids. While the devs are pretty good at keeping with the time period (there are different YouToob sites to account for where you are in the story so you can't see a vid before it should be uploaded in the story, so no Amazing Horse before the final chapter), but it does slip up in spots. Three I caught in my playthrough were references to Jaden Smith's "How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real", Freddy Fazbear, and Daniel Howell, which are from 2013, 2014, and 2009 (but after the final chapter) respectively. These slips in the time space continuum are small but break the immersion a bit.
I'm so focused on immersion and nostalgia since that's absolutely what the game is selling itself on, but there is a story at play here. Emily is Away offers you a romance with one of two girls, Evelyn or the titular Emily. I went with Emily because she plays Mario Kart and had smores at her party and also the better music. But she plays Toad in Mario Kart while not allowing me to choose Toad which is lame. Anyways it's really about change and the final year of high school. You think things are going to be great and stay the same forever but no, people change. You change. Sure some things are the same but everything is going to be different from here on out. It's a sad feeling that you know is true while swept up in the old.
And these sad feelings came about as I was listening to Mat's playlist at the end of the game and all I could hear was ASS
TIDDIES
ASS AND TIDDIES
ASS ASS TIDDIES TIDDIES ASS AND TIDDIES
I mean until you see the gamified aspects of the whole thing because no you only have to suffer that the FIRST TIME AROUND! That's right if you romance the OTHER GIRL you can get the good end of choice with the girl you want the NEXT PLAYTHROUGH! VIDEO GAMES!!!! I don't think this should have existed as it detracts from the core message of the game.
Really, you're better off looking up the 2009 videos yourself and reflecting on your own state in high school, but this game will still suffice.
You play the game by navigating Faceb-Facenook and conversing with your high school friends. One piece of advice I'd give is to turn on the auto-typing "accessibility feature" because if you don't you will have to type random nonsense and then hit enter before sending your message, but with it on you just have to wait for it to type out and then hit enter. I get what it was going for here but it just took away from it since what I was actually typing didn't matter.
As you talk to them, they'll send you some nostalgic links of their own, like Youtube playlists and other websites made specifically for this game, like DEADMOU5 or 3O3. Checking out these playlists is important to your interactions and a creative use of meta, but I am concerned for the lack of futureproofing here as these videos won't always be available and one is already down (since they're just embedded Youtube vids). Exploring can even be fun as you can find hidden gems of nostalgia like the old IGN website (called EGN) or even specific Youtube vids like Llamas with Hats, Bad Apple, and even COOOOOOOOL GUUUUUUUUY It's a nice wave of nostalgia for me to watch these original vids. While the devs are pretty good at keeping with the time period (there are different YouToob sites to account for where you are in the story so you can't see a vid before it should be uploaded in the story, so no Amazing Horse before the final chapter), but it does slip up in spots. Three I caught in my playthrough were references to Jaden Smith's "How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real", Freddy Fazbear, and Daniel Howell, which are from 2013, 2014, and 2009 (but after the final chapter) respectively. These slips in the time space continuum are small but break the immersion a bit.
I'm so focused on immersion and nostalgia since that's absolutely what the game is selling itself on, but there is a story at play here. Emily is Away offers you a romance with one of two girls, Evelyn or the titular Emily. I went with Emily because she plays Mario Kart and had smores at her party and also the better music. But she plays Toad in Mario Kart while not allowing me to choose Toad which is lame. Anyways it's really about change and the final year of high school. You think things are going to be great and stay the same forever but no, people change. You change. Sure some things are the same but everything is going to be different from here on out. It's a sad feeling that you know is true while swept up in the old.
And these sad feelings came about as I was listening to Mat's playlist at the end of the game and all I could hear was ASS
TIDDIES
ASS AND TIDDIES
ASS ASS TIDDIES TIDDIES ASS AND TIDDIES
I mean until you see the gamified aspects of the whole thing because no you only have to suffer that the FIRST TIME AROUND! That's right if you romance the OTHER GIRL you can get the good end of choice with the girl you want the NEXT PLAYTHROUGH! VIDEO GAMES!!!! I don't think this should have existed as it detracts from the core message of the game.
Really, you're better off looking up the 2009 videos yourself and reflecting on your own state in high school, but this game will still suffice.