Man this was fun. I didn't have very high expectations for this, as usally as a puzzle game fan, I'm disappointed, but this was so much fun!
Starting off with the story, I think the premise was very interesting but surprisingly did not carry the game at all. It's very plot oriented which I did not really expect, but it was fun nonetheless. The main problems I had with the story(and the game) was the very, very weak writing and voice acting. The writing was MCU level. with expository annoying dialogue and characters. The voice acting is more of a personal gripe as I really hate the video-gamey ass VA in games, yuri lowenthal's character is a great example of this. Plot-wise though, the game is very strong. Despite me knowing that some kind of twist was going to happen every time a twist happened, I had no idea what they were and the twists always made sense and were deserved. The ending is great, and for such a cool premise with lots of potential places to go, it explored it quite well(as well as it could in the 5 hours it took me to beat it). The ending was very satisfying, and I really have 0 complaints about the plot. I mentioned the characters being annoying and that is true for Trevor and Angela, the two main characters of the game, but again, they're just basic video game characters, without too much depth, so while it sucks, it isn't super out of the ordinary. The villain was pretty great, very hate able but also believable. Theme-wise I also did not expect for it to be this strong, exploring themes of personal identity, privacy, corporate greed and others which I can't exactly say for spoiler reasons.
Gameplay wise this wasn't the most amazing thing ever, but it more than did the job. There were a few clever puzzles, and all the other one ranged from "kinda sucks but it's not that long so it's fine" to good puzzles, nothing really stood out but nothing was horrendous. What carries the gameplay is the visual design though: the striking 70s style of everything, the different environments in the city, the character designs, there aren't any games I can point at and say they look like American arcadia. There were a few platforming sections and they were alright despite having some kinda clunky parts. I do feel like the game could do so much more with the puzzles though, the mix of platforming and controlling the environment is so fucking cool and I hate that most of the puzzles resort to "make sure guards don't see you".
In terms of everything else, the game ran ok but with some weird fame drops occasionally. The length I feel was just right, most puzzle games overstay their welcome but this was a perfect length. I would love to see a sequel, and recommend this game. Only reason I have it at 3/5 and not 3.5/5 is the writing and VA, without that, this would be an easy 3.5/5, but with such lazy dialogue at times and the annoying VA I can't quite put it at that. Despite that this is a very fun time and am for sure going to check out whatever this studio does next
Starting off with the story, I think the premise was very interesting but surprisingly did not carry the game at all. It's very plot oriented which I did not really expect, but it was fun nonetheless. The main problems I had with the story(and the game) was the very, very weak writing and voice acting. The writing was MCU level. with expository annoying dialogue and characters. The voice acting is more of a personal gripe as I really hate the video-gamey ass VA in games, yuri lowenthal's character is a great example of this. Plot-wise though, the game is very strong. Despite me knowing that some kind of twist was going to happen every time a twist happened, I had no idea what they were and the twists always made sense and were deserved. The ending is great, and for such a cool premise with lots of potential places to go, it explored it quite well(as well as it could in the 5 hours it took me to beat it). The ending was very satisfying, and I really have 0 complaints about the plot. I mentioned the characters being annoying and that is true for Trevor and Angela, the two main characters of the game, but again, they're just basic video game characters, without too much depth, so while it sucks, it isn't super out of the ordinary. The villain was pretty great, very hate able but also believable. Theme-wise I also did not expect for it to be this strong, exploring themes of personal identity, privacy, corporate greed and others which I can't exactly say for spoiler reasons.
Gameplay wise this wasn't the most amazing thing ever, but it more than did the job. There were a few clever puzzles, and all the other one ranged from "kinda sucks but it's not that long so it's fine" to good puzzles, nothing really stood out but nothing was horrendous. What carries the gameplay is the visual design though: the striking 70s style of everything, the different environments in the city, the character designs, there aren't any games I can point at and say they look like American arcadia. There were a few platforming sections and they were alright despite having some kinda clunky parts. I do feel like the game could do so much more with the puzzles though, the mix of platforming and controlling the environment is so fucking cool and I hate that most of the puzzles resort to "make sure guards don't see you".
In terms of everything else, the game ran ok but with some weird fame drops occasionally. The length I feel was just right, most puzzle games overstay their welcome but this was a perfect length. I would love to see a sequel, and recommend this game. Only reason I have it at 3/5 and not 3.5/5 is the writing and VA, without that, this would be an easy 3.5/5, but with such lazy dialogue at times and the annoying VA I can't quite put it at that. Despite that this is a very fun time and am for sure going to check out whatever this studio does next