Link to the game: Dr.Langeskov..
Through it's own limited and single goal of merely existing amusingly aware of itself as a game, the crowscrowscrows formula of the meta-fictional "Stanley-like" walking sim, gets made and breaks by the quality and quantity of jokes the devs hide inside them - by the strength and length of the back and fourth, by just how many different narrator reactions can be triggered by the player's actions or non-actions and by how funny all of those are to the player.
If I wait long enough will something else happen?
No, this is a free game.
And that last line sounded pretty concluding, at least in it's verbiage even if the vocal delivery made it seem like he wasn't quite done talking.
What if I press this thing, or this thing, will each of those inputs by me contain a new line of dialogue by the narrator as a response?
No, most of them will not.
Writing good branching jokes can be hard and hiring Voice actors can be expensive.
Unfolding in the backstage hallways of a fictional heist game of which the player gets tasked to orchestrate the functions for the current "real player" and Dr. Langeskov structuring the gags around this, what turned for me out to be a sadly pretty one-note effort at a meta-narrative, appeard to be the only script he holds for the player.
In my first few minutes of play, the setup still seemed novel enough to lend itself for some creativity. Novel considering at the least when this got released, but like with a bad South Park episode the same joke over and over can get pretty boring if the execution lacks and the joke wasn't even that funny in the first place, turning your twenty minutes with it into an eye rolling exercise.
The most intense the voice actor gets in response to your action also doesn't stem from what you choose to do or didn't do. The game just won't even let you execute a specific interaction the narrator asks from the player. You can't pick up the ringing dial-phones placed in some areas, when you try to your player character lifts it up a bit just to hangs up.
Is this funny? That is completly subjective like all humour and all things probably.
But is it disappointing that the most passionate the game raises its voice at the player happens to be the result of it's own unaddressed limitations? I would argue so. If the game addressed this dissonance beforehand it might have worked better for me, but the narrator acts like I should be able to answer those calls, which in all honesty made me in that moment feel like I should be able to and just pressed the wrong inputs or something, and the "lmao you can't even do that" punchline fell kinda flat as a result.
Idk I think the game could've thematizised that lack of interplay, that Illusion of choice, but it rather wanted to make a gag without adressing any of it, which felt dull.
The first few minutes and rooms turned out to be the highlight, obviously because the joke just started, but also because the narrators need to rush the player combined with the environmental story telling he wants you to skip made the games world appear bigger than it actually is and confident in itself.
Once the Novelty wore completly off I just tried stuff to see if I got a reaction, but getting predominantly disappointed was mine.
I really enjoyed that you never see the "real game" and that all the tasks you take part in to make the other person's experience possible existed also to paint some interesting pictures in my head, but before I could properly draw them out the narrators voice always interrupted my thoughts with the same gag or some new medial task.
It should be obvious from the start that there won't be a heist for you to experience, but even if I saw the ending coming from a mile away I still enjoyed it's execution, at least enough to make the credits hit somewhat.
I am gonna stop doing this product review thing in which I try to boil a game down to the target audience it might appeal to, because it is antithetical to most of the things I usualy wanna achieve while writing and seems reductive. I'll have to learn how write a proper conclusion or some shit idk.
A proper conclusion
Through it's own limited and single goal of merely existing amusingly aware of itself as a game, the crowscrowscrows formula of the meta-fictional "Stanley-like" walking sim, gets made and breaks by the quality and quantity of jokes the devs hide inside them - by the strength and length of the back and fourth, by just how many different narrator reactions can be triggered by the player's actions or non-actions and by how funny all of those are to the player.
If I wait long enough will something else happen?
No, this is a free game.
And that last line sounded pretty concluding, at least in it's verbiage even if the vocal delivery made it seem like he wasn't quite done talking.
What if I press this thing, or this thing, will each of those inputs by me contain a new line of dialogue by the narrator as a response?
No, most of them will not.
Writing good branching jokes can be hard and hiring Voice actors can be expensive.
Unfolding in the backstage hallways of a fictional heist game of which the player gets tasked to orchestrate the functions for the current "real player" and Dr. Langeskov structuring the gags around this, what turned for me out to be a sadly pretty one-note effort at a meta-narrative, appeard to be the only script he holds for the player.
In my first few minutes of play, the setup still seemed novel enough to lend itself for some creativity. Novel considering at the least when this got released, but like with a bad South Park episode the same joke over and over can get pretty boring if the execution lacks and the joke wasn't even that funny in the first place, turning your twenty minutes with it into an eye rolling exercise.
The most intense the voice actor gets in response to your action also doesn't stem from what you choose to do or didn't do. The game just won't even let you execute a specific interaction the narrator asks from the player. You can't pick up the ringing dial-phones placed in some areas, when you try to your player character lifts it up a bit just to hangs up.
Is this funny? That is completly subjective like all humour and all things probably.
But is it disappointing that the most passionate the game raises its voice at the player happens to be the result of it's own unaddressed limitations? I would argue so. If the game addressed this dissonance beforehand it might have worked better for me, but the narrator acts like I should be able to answer those calls, which in all honesty made me in that moment feel like I should be able to and just pressed the wrong inputs or something, and the "lmao you can't even do that" punchline fell kinda flat as a result.
Idk I think the game could've thematizised that lack of interplay, that Illusion of choice, but it rather wanted to make a gag without adressing any of it, which felt dull.
The first few minutes and rooms turned out to be the highlight, obviously because the joke just started, but also because the narrators need to rush the player combined with the environmental story telling he wants you to skip made the games world appear bigger than it actually is and confident in itself.
Once the Novelty wore completly off I just tried stuff to see if I got a reaction, but getting predominantly disappointed was mine.
I really enjoyed that you never see the "real game" and that all the tasks you take part in to make the other person's experience possible existed also to paint some interesting pictures in my head, but before I could properly draw them out the narrators voice always interrupted my thoughts with the same gag or some new medial task.
It should be obvious from the start that there won't be a heist for you to experience, but even if I saw the ending coming from a mile away I still enjoyed it's execution, at least enough to make the credits hit somewhat.
I am gonna stop doing this product review thing in which I try to boil a game down to the target audience it might appeal to, because it is antithetical to most of the things I usualy wanna achieve while writing and seems reductive. I'll have to learn how write a proper conclusion or some shit idk.
A proper conclusion